Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 29 March 2018
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (Revised)
Vote 2 - Department of the Taoiseach (Revised)
Vote 3 - Office of the Attorney General (Revised)
Vote 4 - Central Statistics Office (Revised)
Vote 5 - Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Revised)
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Revised)
10:00 am
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I would have to look at that again as I do not remember in my own mind when I started using "republic of opportunity" as a term. I am not sure if it was during the Fine Gael leadership campaign. It may have been subsequently. I may have been using it before it was integrated as a Fine Gael slogan for a period. A lot of ideas are bounced around as part of the deliberative process. The Deputy will know that "republic of opportunity" was first used by the Labour Party, not by Fine Gael. It is not something I have patented and it does not belong to me. It is a metaphor. I am pretty sure it was never used by the SCU in any way. If anything, that indicates we were careful not to do something like that.