Seanad report: The leader of the House, Mrs O'Rourke, apologised for the "insulting way" in which the Cathaoirleach and members had been treated through the absence of a Minister which delayed the start of a debate on an independent member's motion urging the Government to re-double this country's efforts to bring peace to Iraq and Palestine.
The debate eventually began about 20 minutes after the scheduled commencement time.
Mrs O'Rourke told the House that she would be making a formal complaint to the Office of the Taoiseach about the Minister involved. "I do deeply apologise to all of you for the insulting way in which everyone has been treated. It's just simply not good enough for the standards of this House."
Following the delay, the debate got into its stride in the presence of the Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach and Foreign Affairs, Mr Noel Treacy.
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The leader of the House, Mrs O'Rourke, said that she would commend the European parliamentarians who had decided they were not going to go along with the appointment of Mr Rocco Buttiglione as EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner. She was responding to queries from Mr Derek McDowell (Lab) and Mr David Norris (Ind) as to why Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael MEPs were willing to agree to a Commission that included the controversial Italian politician.
Mrs O'Rourke said she imagined such support would be seen as pragmatic. However, she would commend those who decided they would not go along with it. She said that she agreed with Mr Brian Hayes, the Fine Gael leader in the House, that yesterday was a good day for the European Parliament.
She believed the issue had gone beyond the matter concerning to Mr Buttiglione. It had developed into the rights of parliamentarians to prevent themselves from being "done down" because they were prepared to exercise those rights.
"It just shows you the feeling in the higher echelons of Europe towards the parliamentarians. They were ready to say they had no clout, until they exercised their clout."
Of all the things Mr Buttiglione was supposed to have said, she thought his remarks on single parents were the most nefarious. She thought that Mr Barroso also had to bear blame for arriving 15 minutes late for a meeting and for not even giving an apology.
Mr Hayes said that he welcomed the fact that Mr Barroso, rather than the European Parliament had "blinked".
Mr Norris said he thought the EU President Designate had shown himself to be totally incompetent. An attack was not being made on Mr Buttiglione because of his religion or his beliefs. This was a man who had said Aids was a divine punishment on homosexuals and who had voted and lobbied against the introduction of equality legislation.
"They say turkeys don't vote for Christmas. This is a bit like putting a fox in charge of the hen house and asking the chickens to join his re-election campaign. It is a complete farce and has reduced the European Commission to a situation of contempt."
Why had Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael MEPs actively lobbied for someone who would make "a person like me a second class citizen of Europe?"
Mr McDowell said that Mr Barroso had demonstrated that he did not intend to pay the blindest bit of attention to the parliament's views on the make-up of the Commission. It was good the parliament had established he could not get away with that.
He suspected there would be little support in the Oireachtas for the views expressed by Mr Buttiglione, yet almost all the Irish MEPs, including all those in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, had been willing, for whatever reason, to vote for a Commission that included him.