Stop insulting us.

Even some of your backbenchers do not believe you.

The separation of powers is the reason the Taoiseach has to do it.

This is spiralling. This is going to go on every week. We are going through this every week until the Minister comes in. The Taoiseach seems to be under some misapprehension that this will just float away. This is going nowhere. Everybody now has concerns in regard to what happened here. We need to know what happened here. This will not just disappear. Members will ask parliamentary questions and we will get specific answers because the Government will have no choice but to give them since we will make sure they ar…

I was not part of the Government.

There has been much talk on this issue. I want to make four very clear points here. First, the Tánaiste has mentioned the separation of powers. The very reason we have the separation of powers is why we need the Minister for Justice in here to answer questions, not in Private Members’ time but to take questions back and forward because the appointment of judges is an Executive function. The Executive is accountable to these Houses. To say that the separation of powers is any reason for not doing so, as has been sta…

I ask the Tánaiste again whether the Minister for Justice will come in and answer questions. He knows that this is not going to go away. What the Tánaiste said there gives rise to a great deal of questions. First, we have had contradictory statements from both the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice. When I asked him specifically when he, as Taoiseach, was consulted on this appointment he said, and I quote, that it was "likely" during programme for Government negotiations which took place when he was an ordinary…

Not the Cabinet memo.

No, she did not.

The Tánaiste has refused to answer a very legitimate question on the record of the Dáil.

Hear, hear.

It has already been pointed out that that is bogus.

I wish to be associated with the good wishes to Brian McNamara. I know the Tánaiste is trying to take the heat out of the Supreme Court issue regarding the appointment process, but his refusal to answer questions is unacceptable. He is not doing himself or his party any justice in relation to upholding the Constitution and he needs to reflect on that. I note he deliberately refused to answer specific questions relating to himself. He has denied that there is any other documentation outside of the Cabinet memo share…

Does the Tánaiste know?

June. The memo says there is only one.

I move: “That the Bill be now read a Second Time.” I am sharing time with my colleague, Deputy Ó Ríordáin. Sometimes Governments and all politicians are accused of being out of touch and behind the times. Sometimes the criticism is merited; sometimes it is not. When it comes to this topic, the rights of workers working from home, that criticism is very much merited and accurate. Current Irish law as it relates to working from home is either outdated, unworkable or non-existent. I am thankful that other parties and …

Regarding judicial appointments, I have no interest in the merits or demerits of any candidate. I have no intention of going into that but I have a responsibility to the process and to ensuring the Executive is doing its job. The Government is running scared as regards the Minister for Justice coming in to answer questions. That is quite clear. The Taoiseach said there was no link between this and the appointment of the Attorney General. I accept what he is saying but if that is the case, the alternative is that th…

What date?

Answer the question.

Will the Taoiseach answer the question?