Senator Gerard Craughwell- speech from 6 Jul 2022

Minister, you're dead right, if I saw something going wrong I would hold the department in question to account and have been trying to do that for the last two years with another department and getting nowhere. In fact I think the worst thing ever happened to this country was the Ministers and Secondaries Act of 1924 where you take the fall and somebody else does the deed and that's just the way I feel about it. With respect to your comment about we representing pressure groups or groups with specific interests I have not been contacted by either IFOOT or the TUI it's it's in my DNA to question that right I have had two amendments provided to me by the Irish Universities Association who thought they had to deal with you on those two amendments and one of them relates to the CEO's powers the other amendments and contacts that I've had have been from the citizens some of who are sitting down here in the gallery and I'm talking about Joe Citizen here the people you're talking about who expect you will not write that check without proper governance in place so at the end of the day even pressure groups who contact us are citizens and they're citizens with a specific interest and I'll accept that and I will put on the record today that I attended the TUI conference where you were hailed as a hero by many down there you really impressed them all I hope they'll still be as impressed when this bill passes through and finally my final point is that it is within your gift today Minister to say do you know what I don't like the pace at which this bill is going through I wonder could the leader come to the house and amend the order of business and lift the guillotine we have to stick to the amendments we have to stick to the amendments we don't you know yeah we do Gerard and you know very well we do it