Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Deputies Kehoe and Pat Breen. I note that the senior Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, discarded his script which included a piece on decentralisation. Then the Minister of State, Deputy Parlon, who has responsibility for decentralisation, spoke but did not refer to decentralisation. The word "decentralisation" was great and I remember the Fianna Fáil choir playing the music and clapping former Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, out the door. Little did he know that they were getting rid of him, sending him to Europe.

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