It is proposed to take No. 17, Companies Bill 2012 - Order for Report, Report and Final Stages. It is proposed, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, that in the event a division is in progress at the time fixed for taking Private Members' business, the Dáil shall sit later than 9 p.m. and Private Members' business shall, if not previously concluded, adjourn after 90 minutes; and that Private Members' business, which shall be No. 47, Restorative Justice (Reparation of Victims) Bill 2013 - Second Stage, shall, if not previously concluded, be brought to a conclusion at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, 26 March 2014. Tomorrow's business after Oral Questions shall be No. 17, Companies Bill 2012 - Report Stage (resumed).
Order of Business
There are two proposals to be put to the House. Is the proposal for dealing with Private Members' business today agreed to? Agreed. Is the proposal for dealing with Private Members' business tomorrow agreed to? Agreed.
A growing scandal is emerging relating to the administration of justice, and a range of issues are evident regarding the penalty points saga, the undermining of whistleblowers and the Garda Inspectorate report contrasting very starkly with the O'Mahoney report on the penalty points issue. The bugging inquiry was established to consider occurrences at the office of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC. There have been attempts by the Minister for Justice and Equality to undermine GSOC and its chairman. He almost had them under the spotlight because of his general adversarial response to issues of this kind. The Minister has had a fundamental inability to respond properly to the issue of the status of whistleblowers. To top this off, for the first time in three decades we have had the resignation of a Garda Commissioner, following a very serious statement from the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar.
It was a very considered and detailed statement in which he said the whistleblowers were distinguished and so on. That was followed by the Tánaiste and almost all the Labour Party Ministers. We tabled a private notice question asking the Minister for Justice and Equality about the resignation of the Garda Commissioner and were told it did not meet the criteria. I believe it is a matter of national importance that the Garda Commissioner has resigned in these circumstances. There have been revelations today-----
Where is the Deputy going?
I am going to ask a question. These are very serious issues.
I appreciate that, but this is the Order of Business.
I have a lot of experience in the House. It beggars belief that there is no statement in the House - that the Minister for Justice and Equality has not come before the House to comment on the resignation of the Garda Commissioner following the statements of a succession of Ministers about the Commissioner's comments to the Committee of Public Accounts, and about the Minister’s position. It is absolutely extraordinary that the Government has not made time available today for the Minister for Justice and Equality to come in and answer questions.
The Taoiseach asked me and the Leader of Sinn Féin to meet him approximately 20 minutes before Leaders' Questions and briefed us on another emerging issue that goes to the heart of the administration of justice. It is incomprehensible that the Taoiseach thinks it is okay to mark all of that with absolute silence in the House today-----
The Deputy will have to sit down.
-----and that no formal mechanism is provided for the Minister for Justice and Equality to come in to answer basic questions about why the Commissioner is resigning now. He left certain things in the air in his briefing with me on the most recent issue. The Taoiseach suggested it would do on Thursday, but the statements on Thursday are on the Garda Inspectorate's report on the fixed charge processing system, which was published on the last day before the week-long recess for St. Patrick’s Day. One could be cynical and say this was deliberate. I understand the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport was not at the Cabinet meeting when that was discussed, even though the Minister had had it since January.
The Deputy will have to sit down.
This is the Order of Business.
There is a lot of cynical stuff going on here. The only way the Taoiseach can cut through that is by making this House relevant to the issues of the day.
There are procedures to be followed to do that.
Deputy Adams is correct. This was all fed to the media. That is fine. The Government does that all the time. We are becoming-----
Would the Deputy also respect the Chair?
That is fine. Surely the Taoiseach agrees that in any other Dáil – I have been here – the Minister would have come in here on the day? Will the Taoiseach make time available today?
Deputy Martin is as hypocritical as ever. I asked him to come to Government Buildings to brief him and Deputy Adams on an issue that is of considerable importance to security and justice in the State and so on. The Garda Press Office issued its statement, as I said to the Deputy-----
About what?
-----at 12.17 p.m.
I am talking about the Garda Commissioner’s resignation.
I will tell the Deputy what the issue was. Deputy Martin never listens.
I do listen.
The first sentence of the statement is “In the best interests of An Garda Síochána and my family I have decided to retire”. The word is "retire".
What is the Taoiseach saying?
Deputy Martin is talking about resignations. The Garda Commissioner-----
That is semantics.
(Interruptions).
Every radio programme in the country is saying the Commissioner resigned.
The Garda Commissioner-----
The Minister for Justice and Equality should come in here.
There is plenty of time now.
The Garda Commissioner made his own decision and issued a statement through the Garda Press Office.
The Taoiseach will make the situation clear and that is it.
I remind Deputy Martin that last week we decided that there would be statements and questions and answers on the Garda Inspectorate report on Thursday. I have responded to Deputy Martin in the House already.
The Taoiseach is being cynical. He has not responded to me.
I said the Minister for Justice and Equality would deal with the issue that Deputy Martin raised.
Deputy Martin should respect the Chair.
Deputy Martin never listens. I already said to him-----
This is appalling.
-----in respect of the other issue I raised - and Deputy Martin never listens-----
I listen.
-----as the information comes to us about a new issue there could be statements in the House tomorrow on that issue, if the Deputy wanted that. I offered that to the Leaders of the Opposition.
The Taoiseach did not ask us.
On Thursday the Deputy will have all day – and I hope he sits here – on the Garda Inspectorate report on penalty points. The Minister for Justice and Equality will deal with the matter the Deputy raises. I have already said that, but of course Deputy Martin never accepts anybody’s word.
We have raised a point-----
In times gone by Ministers of the Deputy’s Government rejected all of this-----
-----and the Taoiseach has refused it. The Taoiseach has not said where he stands on this issue. He is the one member of the Cabinet who has not said where he stands on this issue.
I will suspend the sitting if the Deputy does not sit down.
Does the Taoiseach believe the Minister for Justice and Equality is correct? Does he believe the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, is correct?
I will suspend the sitting if the Deputy does not sit down.
The Taoiseach has not responded to any of the questions I asked him in three weeks on this issue. He has ducked and dived on it all the time. He owes it to the country and he owes it to the Dáil and to the State-----
The Deputy is an ex-Minister and a long-serving Deputy. Would he please respect the Chair?
It is because I am long-serving that I know a private notice question would have been accepted in any other Dáil before today. There would have been a private notice question.
There are things called Standing Orders. If the Deputy wishes to come to my office afterwards-----
I have asked a very simple question.
It should have been allowed.
If the Deputy comes to my office afterwards I will explain the situation to him. There are Standing Orders and if the Deputy had learned them he would know about them.
With the greatest respect, I have asked a very simple question.
The Deputy should sit down and stay quiet.
We put in a Standing Order 32 request in order to have a discussion on this matter. I made the point earlier that the Taoiseach should have come into the Dáil to make a statement. I welcome the fact that we were briefed. I was telling the Taoiseach that on my way to see him a journalist told me the gist of what he told me. This has nothing to do with the Garda Commissioner’s-----
We are on the Order of Business. Would the Deputy please adhere to the rules of the House?
My point is that the Dáil has to be treated with respect by everyone, especially the Government, because it is not every day that a Commissioner resigns. We do not even know whether he was aware of this morning’s revelations before his retirement. That is the point the Taoiseach is grandstanding on. Rather than face up to the reality that we are playing catch-up, some other revelation will be fed out and we will play catch-up again.
Would the Deputy please put his question on the Order of Business?
Will the Taoiseach not allow special time on this issue to have proper discussions so that all of the people who respect the Garda Síochána can have confidence that the administration of that service is being conducted properly?
The answer is "No." I already offered on Leaders' Questions the opportunity for statements in the House tomorrow on the emerging situation on which I briefed Deputies Adams and Martin. When I met the Deputy he said he had met a journalist who said there was another issue, but did not point out what it was.
I did.
Actually, the Deputy did not. Whether the journalist knew is no business of mine. If he or she had information to that effect it did not come from Government, because we had only concluded the Cabinet meeting making decisions about this matter very shortly before that. I note the statement from the Garda Press Office was issued at 12.17 p.m.
That is a different statement.
Whether Deputy Adams likes it or not, the senior counsel Mr. Guerin and Mr. Justice Cooke have been appointed to inquire into sensitive issues, the report of the Garda Inspectorate is due for debate and question and answer on Thursday, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality is dealing with the terms of reference, and the status of the whistleblowers has been referred to many times. I have already acknowledged that these changes would not be taking place but for the fact that this information was brought into the public domain by whistleblowers, which provides us with an opportunity----
That is why the Minister for Justice and Equality vilified them. Their characters were assassinated.
-----to follow through on the decision made today by the Government to work towards the setting up of an independent authority suitable for this Republic, with An Garda Síochána, where there is still political accountability to the Oireachtas. That serious body of work is going on and the Minister for Justice and Equality is conducting and overseeing it.
That is the problem.
All the Opposition wants in here - particularly Deputy Martin, who never listens to anything but only follows through with his false anger-----
I only want to know whether the Taoiseach agrees with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar. That is all.
I can remember time and again when Ministers of Deputy Martin’s ilk refused to answer any questions or to have any debate-----
We did not.
The Taoiseach learnt that lesson well.
-----or statements with questions and answers, but went around the country with a condescending arrogance that was breathtaking to behold.
I agree with the Tánaiste and with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, and many other Ministers.
That is a lot of agreement altogether.
The programme for Government referred to new thinking and new approaches to politics. A feature of past governments has been a very centralised, managed approach to matters.
Today the Taoiseach organised a briefing for the leaders of Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin. The Technical Group comprises one third of the Opposition. We have made it easy for the Taoiseach and Ministers to make a telephone call to arrange for someone to attend such briefings. We need to know why we were excluded. Was a decision made to exclude us deliberately? It is not right that we are told to rely on newspapers or Twitter to get information when the rest of the Opposition parties are briefed. What was the thinking behind excluding us?
I assure Deputies Richard Boyd Barrett, John Halligan, Thomas Pringle, Joan Collins and Catherine Murphy that I am prepared to brief any one of them, but I need to know from the Technical Group who its spokesperson is.
The Taoiseach knows.
Who is its spokesperson?
The Taoiseach has done it before.
Should we call the Deputy?
The people outside got the information quicker than those who had gone in.
Please, Deputy.
I must object because we notified all Departments and have been briefed in the past by the Department of the Taoiseach. They know that one telephone call needs to be made to my office which will co-ordinate the rest of the Technical Group.
The Deputy has made her point.
We deliberately made it that easy.
I take the Deputy's point and thank her for reaffirming it. Briefings that take place in the future will include the Technical Group and the telephone call will be made to the Deputy's office. She will decide whether Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan or whoever else will turn up.
There is no need for the dig.
The Taoiseach referred to the security of the State. I put it to him that what is at stake with the resignation of the Garda Commissioner is not the security of the State but democracy and the accountability of the State to its citizens.
I am sorry, Deputy, but we have been through that issue.
It is unacceptable in the aftermath of the Commissioner's resignation and on foot of a litany of scandals-----
Will the Deputy please resume his seat?
-----that the Taoiseach excluded one third of the Opposition from the briefing and refused to facilitate the making of statements in the House. The statements that will be taken later this week pertain solely to the penalty points issue. We need a statement from the Taoiseach on the resignation of the Garda Commissioner-----
I ask the Deputy to please resume his seat.
-----and an end to discrimination against one third of the Opposition.
Is the Deputy part of the Technical Group? If so, his spokesperson has just made that point. Is Deputy Joan Collins raising a separate issue? We are not going to go through this issue again.
It is very important.
I know it is.
The Technical Group was excluded from the briefing today.
Deputy Catherine Murphy made that point on behalf of the Technical Group. We are not going to have another discussion on it.
Had we attended the briefing, we would have pointed out that the statements arranged for this week pertained to the penalty points issue rather than resignations, or retirements as the Taoiseach put it.
Please arrange the debate with the Whips. I call Deputy Joe Higgins on a different issue - I hope.
I want to ask a question about legislation. However, the Taoiseach should stop digging.
Just ask the question.
He must be the only person in the country who has the neck to say the Garda Commissioner retired as opposed to resigning, as if the events of the last three or six months never happened.
Please ask a question.
The Taoiseach should stop digging; he is still in denial.
The Deputy can speak to the Taoiseach outside the Chamber.
Can I ask about legislation?
Yes, of course.
When will the Taoiseach bring forward the workplace relations Bill and the industrial relations (No. 2) Bill? Is it Government policy to use the courts to break the democratic right of workers to engage in industrial action, as Aer Lingus, in which the Government has a major shareholding, is doing? That company is pursuing an individual representative in order to bankrupt him. Is that Government policy, with the Labour Party on board?
The Deputy has made his point.
The courts struck down the legislation. The two Bills to which Deputy Joe Higgins referred, the workplace relations Bill and the industrial relations (No. 2) Bill, are due for publication this session.
On promised legislation, what is the status of the climate action and low carbon development Bill which may become more important as fuel concerns increase? The international tax agreements Bill may be similarly important, given that the issues arising caused some discussion in recent times. To what extent have these Bills been agreed to by the Cabinet and made ready for publication?
The low carbon development Bill and the international tax agreement Bill are due for publication later this year.
In the light of media reports on the number of people out on bail, when is the Bill to consolidate and amend the bail laws due to be published?
A lot of work has been done on the Bill in the Department, but I do not have a date for its publication. Deputy Durkan has raised the issue on around 20 occasions already.
Is that why it is not being done?
Given that the Minister for Health is in the House, I acknowledge the progress made for the people who suffered in the Magdalen laundries and from symphysiotomies. There are only 32 survivors of thalidomide, who are represented by two organisations. The programme for Government made a firm commitment in this regard. Has the Minister met the two organisations and are we advancing towards a solution to the problem for the 32 individuals in question?
The Minister has not met them recently, but I understand the matter is before the courts.
On the Central Bank (consolidation) Bill, when will we have something on the banks? Obviously, they are not adhering to the code of conduct. ACC Bank, which is owned by Rabobank, is trying to evict a family from a house in Kildare. When will we see action taken? All we have had are empty promises.
When will the Government hold a debate on the Children First Bill and the money misappropriated during the referendum proposed by our wonderful Minister for Justice and Equality?
We will check it out.
The Children First Bill is due this session. I do not have a date of publication for the Central Bank (consolidation) Bill. It is a serious piece of work.
The housing (miscellaneous provisions) Bill aims to expand and strengthen the regulatory framework for social housing and provide a new system for housing assistance payments. Every day in my clinic I encounter husbands or wives whose marriages have broken down. One ex-partner will remain in the house with the family, while the other has to leave but is not entitled to social housing or housing payments. When is the aforementioned Bill due to be brought before the House?
The heads of the Bill were cleared last December and the Bill is due for publication this session, prior to the summer.