Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate, although it is difficult to follow the previous speaker. I have never varied my tradition on these occasions. I compliment Deputy Ciarán Lynch on his work in this regard. I was out and about in Tallaght this morning and I broke off from what I was doing in order to sit in my car to listen to the Deputy being interviewed. He tells a fine story; I mean that genuinely. Sometimes it is difficult for those on the Government benches to listen to some of the comments on these issues, but the Government and the Minister have made strong points on the legal situation. I will allow Deputy Lynch to deal with the politics of that.

I agree that we need to be innovative and accommodating as far as job creation is concerned. All Members know I live in Tallaght which has lost almost 7,000 jobs over the past year. I am standing on the Government side saying that. This is a day when Tallaght has been in the news for all sorts of different reasons. I was reminded today that a secretary said------

See this speech in context