Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

It has almost become normal practice for the Minister to start his contribution in a negative and provocative manner. Perhaps he wants to get the debate going. I suggest that a person of such undoubted ability as the Minister should either use the speech he has been given or abandon it altogether. In my opinion he should abandon it because it is obvious it was prepared by somebody else and the Minister tried to adapt it to the debate taking place. The first few lines of his speech were obviously written in anticipation of what the Green Party, which proposed the motion, would say.

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