Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I was asked to speak about this by my party and, to be honest, I do not fully understand much of the Bill. As someone who has only been in this House for five years, I admit that I have not developed the intellectual scope to articulate the democratic concerns in the same eloquent way as Deputy Quinn. However, I think that what we are witnessing is a debasement of our democracy. It is a reflection of the way we have treated Dáil Éireann for a number of years. We have treated it as a substandard Parliament and we do not agree on how to invest time and energy into what we actually do in this Parliament. This Bill is an accumulation of what we have allowed happen to Dáil Éireann in the past few years. This is not a criticism of the EU or of the civil servants in Ireland, it is a criticism of the way we allow things to happen.

Fianna Fáil describes itself as the republican party. What do people like the Minister of State mean when they say that? What is Fianna Fáil's definition of republicanism? At least the French people clearly understand democracy and republicanism. The French people talk about fraternity, equality and freedom. We have a weird form of what Fianna Fáil describes as republicanism. It is not the type of——

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