Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. It was inevitable that we would have such a debate very early in the lifetime of the Government. After the false promises of the general election when the people were sold a pup, the parties negotiated the programme for Government. On the first day of new Dáil and the formation of the Government for the first time in the history of the State we got a Government without a Minister for Defence. We have a Minister for Justice and Equality who does the job of Minister for Defence in his spare time.

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