Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was going to pay tribute to Deputy Quinn but I will not do so now. Unfortunately, I do not have time. We should pay tribute to the former Minister for Education and Skills for the great work he has done. He will now be in a position to interrupt other speakers from that side of the House.

We expect Fine Gael to resist new policies because that seems to be its business in Government but the measures announced by the Tánaiste today as some sort of new departure are all familiar in this House. She spoke about a low pay commission. That is new but we know that commissions are the graveyard of political policies. That is why they are there. They are there to delay it. If the Government was serious about low pay, it would do something about it and not have a low pay commission. That is not going to work and it certainly will not work in the next 18 months. It is not going to happen. She spoke about an independent Garda authority. This was announced many months ago and it was announced again by the Minister for Justice and Equality in this House the other day. The Tánaiste spoke about a judicial appointments system, something that was also announced by Deputy Shatter when he was Minister for Justice and Equality. There is nothing new there. She spoke about a lobbyists Bill. We knew about this long ago as well. This particular change in government has changed nothing.

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