The House has agreed that, for the duration of the Covid-19 emergency only, the rapporteur's report of the Order of Business shall not be read out but shall be taken as read. There are, therefore, three proposals to put to the House today. Is the proposal for dealing with Tuesday's business agreed to?

It is not agreed. The Taoiseach knew that the statement the Minister, Deputy Cowen, made to the Dáil was incomplete. Astonishingly, he has attempted to justify the Minister's lack of candour before the House. It is now very clear that the Minister, Deputy Cowen, needs to come before the Dáil to make a statement and to take questions. A senior Cabinet Minister challenging the accuracy or truthfulness of the PULSE records of the Garda is a very serious matter. A senior Cabinet Minister attempting to evade a Garda checkpoint while behind the wheel of a car and having consumed alcohol is a very serious matter. These are matters of public concern. It is now imperative that the Minister come before the Dáil to make a full statement and to take questions.

Last week, the Minister, Deputy Cowen, was shielded from having to face questions by a vote in this House. That was a mistake. The consequence of this was a drip feed of information, which is precisely what the Minister said would be damaging. The information which emerged over the weekend is very serious for the two reasons. The first is that the record itself describes a supposed attempt to evade a checkpoint and the second is that the Minister has made the very serious assertion that this record is incorrect. Earlier, the Taoiseach seemed to imply that he was not aware of that record at the time of the Minister's statement last week. He was aware. He may not have seen the record but he had been informed of its existence.

I had not.

I really do not think that is accurate. The Taoiseach was aware at the time of the statement by the Minister, Deputy Cowen. I hope that those who have made statements outside the House as to the need for the Minister to answer questions will vote in favour of him doing so now, in order that we can have questions and answers, rather than a continuing drip feed.

Time should be provided for the Minister to come to the House to deal with some of the outstanding issues including the issue of the driving licence, which is still outstanding. He had given a commitment to some groups that he would deal with that issue. It is in the public interest, and in his own interest, to do so.

The Minister has indicated that he wishes to proceed with the two inquiries or investigations by the Data Protection Commission and GSOC. He is of the view that those inquiries should be completed before he would publicly engage with the Dáil.

That is the worst type of evasion. As Head of Government, I appeal to the Taoiseach to do the right thing for the sake of the integrity of the Dáil. There is no conceivable reason that the Minister could not present himself to make a full and complete statement and to take questions from Deputies. It is entirely unacceptable to dance on the head of a pin in the way in which the Taoiseach is doing.

I would love to see the Minister, Deputy Cowen, come before the Dáil but, in fairness, he has served his punishment and there is an investigation going on at the moment. He should be given an opportunity to clear his name outside here and then he should come before the House. I would appreciate it if the Minister were to give a commitment to the Taoiseach that he will come before the House to answer questions after the investigation is over.

This is a transparent attempt to kick this off the agenda for a year. That is how long we are talking about. It is a question of accountability to the Dáil. The Minister, Deputy Cowen, has made very serious statements about the veracity of what is contained in the Garda record. He is currently a Minister and he has to be accountable to the Dáil. If he does not want to be accountable to the Dáil until these processes have concluded, then he cannot continue as a Minister until they have concluded and then he can come in, but the idea that he does not have to answer any questions for a year is clearly ridiculous.

The issue was debated last week and this now is grandstanding. The Minister admitted what he did was wrong and he paid the price. There is a very serious matter at issue that needs to be investigated regarding the information that is on the PULSE system and the leaking of same. It would be wrong of us to have a debate and questions and answers until such time as a thorough investigation is carried out by GSOC, the Garda Commissioner or whomever else and the record cleared.

Sinn Féin is very anxious to damage the Minister but is there any talk about their own colleague who sits in this House who was also arrested for drink-driving, and many other issues? It is funny how members of Sinn Féin are so interested in justice all of a sudden.

Let us not go there, please.

Today's business is agreed. Regarding No. 2, is the proposal for dealing with Wednesday's business agreed to?