Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The programme for Government referred to new thinking and new approaches to politics. A feature of past Governments has been a very centralised, managed approach to matters.

Today the Taoiseach organised a briefing for the leaders of Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin. The Technical Group comprises one third of the Opposition. We have made it easy for the Taoiseach and Ministers to make a telephone call to arrange for someone to attend such briefings. We need to know why we were excluded. Was a decision made to exclude us deliberately? It is not right that we are told to rely on newspapers or Twitter to get information when the rest of the Opposition parties are briefed. What was the thinking behind excluding us?

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