Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I will make a comment before we move on to the next Commencement matter. The Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, is a great colleague whom I very much value as a parliamentarian. However, there is trend of responses being given by Ministers who are not from the Departments to which the Commencement matters are addressed. With due respect, the Minister of State was given a speech to read out in the House, most of which I could have taken from a website. It is disrespectful to the Seanad and the constitutional positions of Senators that we have this growing trend that it is somehow acceptable to send people in with an answer. The whole purpose of a Commencement matter is that it is a bespoke engagement of a Senator with a particular Minister about an issue to do with his or her Department, which needs to be explored in the course of the Commencement debate. It is wholly unacceptable that we have this trend.

I tabled a number of Commencements recently and, similarly, a Minister of State who is not even in the relevant Department came to the House to answer them. I will raise the issue again on the Order of Business later, as all Senators should. The manner in which Commencement matters are being handled treats Senators and the Seanad with contempt. We need to raise an objection to that. That is not a reflection on the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, who is, as I said, a very fine colleague. I call Senator Boylan.