We have again before this House a plethora of days allocated to the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill. I understand that the sponsoring Minister threw his toys out of the cot last week and would not allow the appointment of judges. This is ridiculous. It is an affront to everything going on in this country that we are wasting our time in this Chamber pushing through a Bill that nobody in Fine Gael to whom I have spoken wants. Perhaps the Leader will reply that he is a dyed-in-the-wool confirmed supporter of the Bill.

Why does the Senator not talk about the important issues rather than wasting time on this?

Why does the Leader not stop interrupting?

I am about to move on to the important issues. Last Saturday, on RTÉ radio, the Minister of State at the Department of Defence spoke about the emergency air ambulance service, which will be stood down for one day a week for the next four months.

I heard him say, when pushed by the presenter, that he had become aware of the problem a couple of months ago. Either the Minister of State is not on top of his job or he lied because-----

Come on, a Leas-Chathaoirligh.

Senator Craughwell should withdraw that remark.

The Senator cannot accuse anybody of lies. He should not name people.

I did not accuse him of lying.

He did.

The Senator should sit down. He is a disgrace.

Order, please. I will deal with it. Senator Craughwell did suggest it and I ask him to withdraw that.

I will say that he misled.

The Senator is usually observant of the rules of the House.

Okay. I will withdraw the word "lied" and say he "misled" the people of this country, one or the other.

That amounts to the same thing.

It is a legitimate political charge.

I took away the word "lied".

The Senator can make his point without being disorderly.

My point is very simple. For the joint Defence Forces and Department of Defence annual reports in 2015 and 2016, high-level groups were put together to report on the emergency air ambulance service. The Minister of State and the Department, and everybody and anybody under the sun, were aware of the fact there would be serious shortcomings down the line. The recommendations of those two groups were ignored completely and were totally and utterly rejected. The Minister of State then went on to say a number of pilots had been recommissioned into the Air Corps. The truth is that one is a lieutenant-colonel who will not fly because he has an administrative rank, and the second is a captain who, I am sure, is not going to be given the keys of a helicopter and told, "Good lad, off you go and fly helicopters for us". At the end of the day, I am afraid that is not good enough.

I could go through a plethora of issues. The Leader is smiling away. One of the places we might look is in his own backyard in Cork, where two ships costing millions of euro are tied up with no crew to sail them. The announcement yesterday, which was cynical to say the least, of the tax relief that has been provided for sailors was a 12th-hour announcement. The truth is that most seagoing people have had that allowance for years.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business: "That the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence, if possible, or the Minister of State with responsibility for defence, Deputy Kehoe, be brought to this House today at 6:15 p.m. to deal with the issues raised on the "Saturday with Cormac Ó hEadhra" programme and a plethora of other issues in regard to the Defence Forces."

The amendment cannot be on a plethora of issues. It must be on one issue.

We will call them in on the Air Corps and the emergency air ambulance issue.

That is in order. I call Senator Paul Gavan.