Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I remind the Deputy they did a lot of other funny things. The Government decided to ban people from congregating outside polling stations, the reason being that modern voters did not want unclean and unwashed groups of rednecks outside the polling stations interfering with their natural process. The result was that people did not turn out to vote. One of the main reasons people went to vote at polling stations was because the occasion was like a football match. It was part of our tradition and part of the system. A Fianna Fáil guy and a Fine Gael guy could have a great time in a pub together one night and then have a go at each other at the polling station in front of everybody else, to the general jollification of the multitudes there assembled. One cannot tell that story to some of the bright-thinking individuals who now represent big brother——

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