Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I wish to share my time with Deputies Pat Breen and Keogh.

The motion has been put forward in the names of the Sinn Féin Deputies. This motion is on a matter of grave importance to many children, families and schools throughout the country. I wish to speak on the motion in my capacity as education spokesperson for the Fine Gael Party.

However, I cannot speak to a Sinn Féin motion without first expressing Fine Gael's deep concern and disgust at the revelations of criminality which have come to the fore in recent weeks regarding members of the republican movement. I and my parliamentary colleagues have listened to the recent verbal gymnastics of representatives of Sinn Féin with a growing sense of outrage and disbelief. It is difficult to swallow the expressions of sympathy by Sinn Féin for children with special educational needs, given its links to an organisation that has made orphans of children on this island. I remind Sinn Féin that those children are real people too.

In speaking to this important motion, I will not forget that the Sinn Féin Deputies in this House do not regard the murder of a young mother as a crime, battle on behalf of the killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe and do not recognise the legitimacy of the Garda Síochána. This evening I will not forget that Sinn Féin election material turns up in peculiar places, surrounded by most peculiar electioneering tools, and that a man convicted of membership of an illegal organisation——

See this speech in context