I am in possession now and the Deputy can respond later if she wishes. In relation to the conduct of the meeting, I conduct meetings in an impartial and fair manner in accordance with the prerogatives of the chairmen of committees and I have done that in this case. People have said to me that it is not stated in Standing Orders that we have the right to invite commissioners or to do this, that or the other. I will not take that type of dressing down from the Deputy publicly or ever again in this type of situation. She owes me an apology for what she said at the start of this meeting.
In relation to the procedure, I asked the Clerk to contact members' offices and tell them that I wanted this matter put on the agenda. If the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs was in session, I might not have put this matter on the agenda, although there is an overlap because the European Council has been and will be considering this matter. The Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs is not in session and this matter is of concern.
Members approach the Clerk or me, as Chairman, from time to time and ask if they can put an issue on the agenda. If I think it falls within the terms of reference and is reasonable, I follow the same approach. I would put it on the agenda and inform members of it. The alternative is to state that we will put it on the agenda in two weeks' time and deal with it two weeks after that, a month from now, by which time a person such as this young woman could be dead.
The Deputy's outburst, and I have to describe as that, is not acceptable and will not be accepted by me at any time while I am chairing this meeting. I want to make that clear to every member. I will try to be fair and as businesslike as I can. We are trying to get this committee up and running without the necessary staff. The staff are coming onstream in dribs and drabs, which is something we need to address under the heading of "any other business", and the Clerk to the Committee is doing his best. We will try to get matters running more smoothly to ensure that members are given briefs and so on.
It was appropriate to have the ambassador here today and to pass on our strong views to him to ensure he communicated them to his government. The alternative was to do nothing about this matter and to wait until Foreign Affairs questions are taken in the Dáil in October. That would not serve the interests of the lady concerned or public opinion. It was perfectly right and proper to have the ambassador here today. If anyone had an objection to the ambassador coming here today, the time to raise that was when the offices were contacted.