Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a Dáil Chamber. We have privilege in this Chamber and every one of us should use that privilege judiciously. We have no right to abuse that privilege. Of course Deputy Mattie McGrath was implying wrong doing by the Minister, Deputy Shatter, when in opposition, but takes refuge in the fact that he was only asking questions. Some Members of the House will be familiar with the story of President Lyndon B. Johnson, LBJ, in America in the 1940s when he was in trouble in an election campaign. He suggested to his aide-de-camp that he would use a scurrilous and unmentionable rumour that would be spread about a political opponent. When he was asked by his campaign manager whether it was true, he said, "Of course it's not, but let's hear the son of a gun deny it." This is Deputy Mattie McGrath's cynical game. For the sake of clarity, I am not making any further comparison between Deputy Mattie McGrath and LBJ. Woe betide.

This is a Minister in whom we can have confidence. He is bringing change to our Garda and our law an order. Look at the crime rate in our country. It has gone down. Look at the budgets renegotiated by this Minister with the troika. They are increased. This is a political motion, a political distraction because Fianna Fáil is bereft of ideas and has no vision for the future. It wants to reinvent the past, but should not do so on the back of a man who is a decent, caring and genuine Minister.

See this speech in context