Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I have a number of comments thereon. Before I refer to the notes I have prepared on the Bill, I want to comment on specific aspects of what the Minister said. In his first sentence, he referred to the creation of a revitalised and customer-focused public service. He stated twice more in the first page of his speech that he wanted a customer-focused public service. He insulted all the public servants in the country three times in the first page of his first speech by telling them they are not focusing on their customers.

We all know someone can improve but for the Minister to come into this House and use that phrase three times is as much as to say public servants have not been concerned about the people they are serving, whether it is a local authority or the Department of Social Protection.

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