Jim Glennon (Dublin North, Fianna Fail)

Listening to Deputy Timmins during the past five minutes, I had to pinch myself to see whether I had suddenly been co-opted onto Wicklow County Council. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. Listening to the tenor of the debate earlier, someone stated it was a nice idea on behalf of the Government to have this discussion so we could get involved in an exercise of self-congratulation. We should be given credit for the fact that we are far too knowledgeable about the quality of the Opposition in this House to know we would never get away with that.

I have pleasure in informing the Opposition that the real idea of this discussion was to show how bankrupt of ideas the Opposition is. In that regard I have no hesitation in indulging in an exercise of self-congratulation. If one listened to the last hour of input to this discussion, it is patently evident how devoid the Opposition is of any constructive ideas. I heard somebody state recently that there is much less to the Opposition in the House than meets the eye and it is a good description. I would never claim a monopoly on wisdom on this issue or any other issue, and I speak on behalf of everyone in the Government parties.

See this speech in context