Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is an unhappy debate. It is a sad day for the Oireachtas and, in particular, for the Fine Gael Party. My colleagues in the party know that because I have been watching their expressions over recent days. I regret that because, even though I am in Fianna Fáil, I always have respect for members of other parties and Fine Gael has always prided itself on being the party that founded the State and being the party we could depend on to support and protect the institutions of the State. That was a claim Fine Gael could make with some justification. However, there are occasions in its history when the party has behaved in an unusual and arrogant manner. It has a rogue gene and the best example of this was in the days of O'Duffy and the Blueshirts when a serious effort was made by a man who became party leader to subvert the Government of the day, and had it not been for the resoluteness of de Valera's Government in tackling the Blueshirt threat and the threat of the IRA at the same time, we might not be debating the merits of either House today. In the main, Fine Gael is responsible but that strange gene has come back in the form of the Taoiseach's unilateral decision to abolish the Seanad.