I am used to dealing with the Minister for justice and I am used to dealing with convoluted ways of dealing with matters. There is clearly a habit of limiting democratic oversight and scrutiny of this House in announcing and bringing forward proposals at short notice; minimising the period of time for debate; guillotining important legislation; and moving things from committees to this Chamber rather than allowing the detailed scrutiny of legislation. However, this is probably the most bizarre stroke pulled yet, where we have a Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill that is dealing with a myriad of issues. There was already quite an amount of criticism from many stakeholders that a number of very distinct issues were in a single piece of legislation, and then we find out on a Monday that Government is actually bringing forward an additional change in the law that has nothing to do with criminal law, nothing to do with civil law and nothing to do with Jim O'Callaghan's Department at all, but is actually a defence amendment. I hear what the Minister is saying. We are blaming the need to move this in at short notice on Russia apparently. There would be openness from all sides of this House to ensure our Defence Forces had the powers necessary for the safeguarding, protection and defence of the State, particularly in respect of maritime security, if it was done in the right way, but I suspect the reason this Bill is being brought forward in this manner at this time is not just for that. To get to the crux of this, people might be interested in part of the motion that is being brought before the House. It states that the Minister may, subject to conditions, give general approval for the deployment of a member of the Defence Forces in aid of the civil power for such classes or class of assistance as may be agreed with the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration. Does that sound familiar to anyone? It sounds familiar to me. I think people will automatically remember that, during the fuel protest, rather than de-escalate tensions, the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, inflamed what was a volatile situation with his comments threatening to deploy the Defence Forces. It was the first time in the history of the State that the Army had been used as a threat against the Irish people by a Government. The Government have refused point blank to acknowledge just how insulting and angering that was and how those comments inflamed a situation and brought people to protests. When I attended protests to do what Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael refused to do and actually listen to people, I heard time and again that it was those comments more than anything else that had spurred people to action. When I was at the Galway protest, for example, with Mark Lohan and Mairéad Farrell, several people told me they were spurred to action because people who were protesting against the costs they were enduring and the pressures they were under were being threatened in that way. It now appears clear to me that, having learned nothing from the mess that the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, made of this situation, the Government is now changing the law to retrospectively make legal what he said during the protests. It is crazy stuff. Why bring this in now in this manner and in this type of legislation? Any reasonable person will look at what is being proposed here and will say that the Government is trying to get measures to expand the deployment of the Defence Forces through the Dáil, again without proper scrutiny, by putting them into a piece of criminal law and civil law, a miscellaneous Bill that already deals with a range of unrelated matters. What the Minister, Deputy McEntee, is trying to do is rushed, unfair, undemocratic and underhanded. Jim O'Callaghan made a mess. The Minister was dragged into the original mess. It seems she is going all in now. This is a product of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael putting up in bright lights that they still have not listened. Sinn Féin will not be supporting this motion because the Government is treating this House with utter contempt.
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When did the Minister bring that memo to the Cabinet?
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Will we get our questions answered?
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When was it brought to the Cabinet?
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