There have just been three Leaders' Questions dealing with revelations that go to the core of public confidence in the credibility of An Garda Síochána and the administration of justice. The House should reflect that. More importantly, the political accountability for the administration of justice lies with the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald. The Oireachtas should be able to ask the Tánaiste questions on this debacle and the crisis of confidence in the integrity of An Garda Síochána and the administration of justice. It defies belief that the Tánaiste would not come forward today to answer questions on this issue, be they private notice questions or another formula, from Members of the House.

The Taoiseach spoke earlier about the need for accountability. Everyone is ad idem on the need for accountability. What signal is the House sending if the person with political accountability for the administration of justice does not come forward to show that accountability? Since this crisis has broken, the Tánaiste has run for cover and has not faced up to the-----

We cannot have a debate on the matter.

-----crisis that is engulfing the administration of justice. It has been passed on to the Garda Commissioner. The Garda Commissioner passes it on to an assistant commissioner. The cynicism is breathtaking. It is beyond belief that not addressing a policing authority is just an administrative oversight. The idea that the House can carry on nonchalantly for the next three days while the person with political responsibility and accountability does not see fit to come before the House, issue a statement on this issue and take questions is similarly beyond belief.

On the same issue, everybody in the House is not ad idem on the issue of accountability because the Government, on the one hand, refuses to hold the Commissioner to account in the way it should and, equally, the Tánaiste is not being held to account in this House. That is an intolerable situation. The Taoiseach mentioned that the Tánaiste is to take a Topical Issue matter but that is an inadequate response. The Tánaiste must present herself, make a statement to the Dáil and allow for questions. That is the least we should expect from her. Questions have been put to the Taoiseach on these matters and in response he has been spoofing, but his spoofing is overshadowed by the evasion of the Tánaiste, his Cabinet Minister for Justice and Equality. As has been said, it is outrageous that in light of this series of scandals, we are not to have the opportunity to establish the facts, the Tánaiste's state of knowledge and her proposed course of action.

The Taoiseach informed the House earlier that the Tánaiste gave a detailed briefing - his words - to the Cabinet on these matters but the Tánaiste is constitutionally responsible to this House on these matters. It underscores the complete lack of understanding of the seriousness of this matter for the Taoiseach to think that a Topical Issue debate, where people raise local matters, is the way to deal with this issue.

Yes.

It is not the way to deal with it. I ask that the seriousness of this matter would be recognised with a proper set of statements, and allowing for questions and answers. I ask the Taoiseach to reflect upon that.

The Taoiseach is treating the House in a similar fashion to the way he would have done in the previous Dáil when his Government had a thumping majority in the House. He is not treating the House the way it should be treated, given that his Government is in a minority position and the fact that to satisfy even the basic norms of accountability the Tánaiste should, at the very least, come before the House, give an account of the current situation that pertains in the Garda, and answer questions from Members on that. If Members want to find space today as to when that could be done, I suggest there is an issue on the Order Paper that perhaps could wait for a week, namely, the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (Hague Convention) Bill 2016. I suggest that is not as pressing an issue as the scandal that has taken place in the ranks of the Garda and the silence we have from the Tánaiste. She should be here today with a statement to answer questions.

I point out to Members, solely for their information, that all Deputies who submitted this issue for discussion in the Topical Issue debate have been selected and that-----

They are getting two minutes.

For clarity, 24 minutes will be available for that. A request for a special notice question was submitted and I regret to say that that request does not comply with the terms of the Standing Order so therefore it was not possible to accede to that.

You can change the schedule.

Does the Taoiseach wish to respond?

A Cheann Comhairle, we changed the rules in this House so that business could be conducted in a more open way. The Ceann Comhairle has made a decision here that the Minister should answer two Topical Issue matters today with questions.

That is not fair to the Ceann Comhairle.

That is a decision of the Ceann Comhairle, and the Minister is quite willing to attend.

You are the Government. You can change the schedule.

We cannot.

Can we have order to allow the Taoiseach respond?

Gabh mo leithscéal, I understand there was an attempt to submit a special notice question by the Fianna Fáil Party spokesperson. The Ceann Comhairle made a ruling, and his decision was that the Minister for Justice and Equality should attend in the House, which she will, to answer Topical Issue matters from two Deputies, with questions from each Deputy.

That is an absolute joke.

Statements were requested last Saturday.

At the invitation of Deputy Ó Caoláin, the justice committee will meet at 9 a.m. on Thursday morning with the Garda Commissioner to answer a range of questions.

Obviously, she did not have the answers today.

We have the Garda Commissioner meeting with the Policing Authority. I have said the Government made a decision to have an independent analysis of all these figures and to examine a broader issue about the structure and the future of the Garda Síochána. We all need to get more information, and in some cases that information is not available to the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality.

She gave a full briefing to the Cabinet.

I say to Deputy Howlin that she will be very happy to give the same briefing to the House that she gave to the Cabinet this morning.

When?

This afternoon in the Topical Issue debate.

On a point of order, during Leaders' Questions, I invited the Taoiseach to volunteer the Minister for Justice and Equality to come to the House, do the honourable thing, make a statement on what is probably one of the worst crises to hit An Garda Síochána and take questions on it. That was the way for many years in this House when crises happened. Private notice questions were the order of the day when a crisis happened in any Department. The Taoiseach knows in his heart that the raising of issues during Topical Issue debate is not a question and answer format. Let us not try to mislead or cod the public on that. That is not an accountability exercise. The Order of Business was obviously organised in advance of the revelations of these issues, so therefore there is an opportunity for the House to reorder business, as we did some weeks ago about the crisis relating to the Charleton inquiry.

The Taoiseach may not be aware but we requested last Saturday that the Minister would come to the House and make statements. The Taoiseach knows that if he makes a request to the Ceann Comhairle to set aside time today for the Minister to come to the House and make statements, the Ceann Comhairle will contact all of the Whips who will meet and agree to that. It is very unfair for the Taoiseach to say that this is the Ceann Comhairle's decision. The Taoiseach can make a request to the Ceann Comhairle to set aside time and I ask him to do so.

This will come to a vote so we need the Ceann Comhairle's guidance. He needs to tell us how we can get this matter on the agenda for today. This cannot be beyond his wit or ingenuity. As Deputy O'Brien said, we made the request on Saturday that there be a statement and an opportunity for questions. That is clearly what needs to happen. The Ceann Comhairle should advise us on how that will come to pass.

I certainly would not have thought that the Government would have the effrontery to think that the Topical Issue debate was an appropriate place to deal with the biggest scandal that has emerged in recent days. The public is outraged. We are talking about a million breathalyser tests being lied about and people paying the price in terms of extra penalty points, wage deductions, etc. The Minister must answer today. It will go to a vote and I can guarantee that we will make an issue out of this because we had to make an issue to get the Taoiseach to answer questions before. There are two solutions. We either take Government Business during those two hours later in the evening or the Taoiseach can scrap questions to the Taoiseach. I have two questions to the Taoiseach which I am happy to allow to be scrapped in favour of the Minister coming to the Dáil, but she should answer today. Only two people can get in during the Topical Issue debate. It must involve all parties and all groups.

Perhaps the Deputy should let the Minister answer. She has already been invited by the Ceann Comhairle to answer questions in the Dáil and give a briefing to the House. She is prepared to do that and that is in accordance with the rules for which Deputy Coppinger voted and which apply here. The Deputy wants to change them when it suits her. The Minister for Justice and Equality is attending here and will deal with this and give the same briefing she gave the Cabinet. She will take questions from the Deputies who raised the Topical Issue matter. The members of the Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality will deal for hours on Thursday with issues relating to this and I welcome that because it will provide an opportunity for information that we do not know to be made available directly to the Oireachtas by the Garda Commissioner. I understand the Garda Commissioner is meeting with the chairperson of the independent Policing Authority, which has independent oversight responsibility for An Garda Síochána.

Vótáil.

We can vote but I point out to Deputies that if we vote, we are not voting on anything that has anything to do with the Garda Commissioner because that is what is before us. If Members see fit, we can convene a meeting of the Business Committee at 3.30 p.m to come up with a proposal about how to move forward. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked a question about my refusal of a private notice question. I want to be very clear that in considering a private notice question, one must consider first and foremost whether it is a matter of urgent public importance, which it is, but one must also take into account whether there are other avenues available to Members to address the particular issue.

I took into account that I received the request for a private notice question after I had made a decision to call people for a Topical Issue. I am conscious of the fact that the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality will answer questions in the House on Thursday. I am further conscious of the fact that the Garda Commissioner is to go before the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality during the week. In my view, as far as the private notice question is concerned, there were quite a number of other avenues through which that particular matter could be considered.

On a point of order, it might not necessarily have been out of order.

It was not in order because there were-----

Would it not have been done through ultra vires Standing Orders?

No. I do not think it would, but I made a judgment based on the opportunities, in accordance with long, long established precedent.

On that point also-----

If it was in order-----

The Whip's office did not receive a request from Sinn Féin for time. Sinn Féin may have gone to the Business Committee, but it did not come to the-----

Are people in agreement that we will meet at 3.30 p.m.?

No, hang on. The Ceann Comhairle will tell me if this is in order because if we are going to agree that we will meet at 3.30 p.m., then that means we would have agreed the Order of Business as has been proposed. Can I propose that we adjourn for 30 minutes for the Business Committee to meet and bring forward a revised Order of Business? I would feel very uncomfortable voting on the current Order of Business without an agreement that the Minister would come before the House later today. I propose an adjournment for 30 minutes until the Business Committee can meet.

Could we not just agree the Order of Business while we are here?

The business as set out before the House is not controversial. There is nothing to be gained by anybody-----

The problem is that it does not include the controversial issue.

I am giving the Deputy an undertaking that we will convene a meeting at 3.30 p.m. and if that requires a further proposal to be put to the House, we will come back with that further proposal.

That is fine.

We can come back at 4 p.m. or 4.30 p.m. with a further proposal if that is agreed.

The next item on the agenda is Taoiseach's Questions which is about 45 minutes so at the end of that session it should be clear whether a resolution has been found.

Yes.

If there is no resolution we could get back to the floor of the House.

Yes. Can I take it that the proposal for dealing with Tuesday's Order of Business is agreed to?

Subject to further amendments.

No. It is either agreed to or not agreed to.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality has been invited to attend and she is attending.

The Order of Business is not agreed.

It is not agreed.

It is not agreed. Okay.

If I may make a suggestion; I do not know why we cannot agree. If we are agreeing the Order of Business to be discussed today, and we have the agenda in front of us, we have made a proposal that Government business would become the space in which the Minister would answer questions. I do not see any other way it could be done.

We have no-----

With respect, the Business Committee decides what goes on during Government Business. We have that committee in order that we might discuss ordering our business around a table as opposed to across the Chamber.

Matters have moved on since the Business Committee met and the Minister of State, Deputy Regina Doherty, has not taken that fact into account. That is the point.

It has and that is why we need another meeting.

Let me be clear. It is not a matter for the House to decide what happens in Government Business time.

Deputy Jonathan O'Brien made a very valid suggestion to the effect that we should adjourn at this point. There are ten minutes left for the Order of Business. If we adjourn now to let the Business Committee decide and if the latter comes up with a solution, then that can be included in a new Order of Business and Members can decide if they want to support it.

I will take that.

Can I make a suggestion?

Yes.

I do not know why we would need to adjourn or why Taoiseach's Questions could not proceed. We could have the Business Committee meeting-----

Because we do not trust that.

Because we might have to scrap them, that is why.

Could I make a suggestion for a compromise?

We cannot scrap Taoiseach's Questions, we are governed by Standing Orders.

Is it possible to adjourn the taking of the Order of Business until after Taoiseach's Questions, for the latter to proceed and for the Business Committee to meet in the interim? We could then take the Order of Business.

That would make more sense. We could go straight into Taoiseach's Questions now and while they are being taken, we will convene a meeting of the Business Committee.

I want to know about the debate on promised legislation and where it will fit in.

It is not going to fit in now. We will convene a meeting of the Business Committee in Room 2 immediately and the House will proceed with Taoiseach's Questions.

Will we be coming back to Bills to be introduced?

Yes, we will be coming back to them.