Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I wish to share my time with Deputy Perry.

I do not ever like to speak with certainty in politics, but having listened to the members of Sinn Féin, I can say with certainty that it was never their intention to assist or engage with the sub-committee when they sought to be represented on it. One of the regrets I have is that we in Fine Gael agreed to their joining the sub-committee because we would have been better off without them. Sinn Féin spent a political generation trying to sabotage the State and judging by the behaviour of its members on the sub-committee, it is no different now. They had no interesting in finding a solution; their only interest was in self-promotion. People bent over backwards for them. Sinn Féin was facilitated on the sub-committee, as it was at the National Forum on Europe, yet it was the only political party which disowned both the report of the National Forum on Europe and the report of the sub-committee. There was another Independent member of the sub-committee who did seek to engage with it but also disagreed with the report. Any fair reading of the report will show that the sub-committee bent over backwards to recognise the views and concerns of the Sinn Féin and Independent members.

The Minister mentioned Deputy Kenny. There may be a misinterpretation of where Fine Gael is coming from with respect to the sub-committee. We saw it as a means to engage with the expert witnesses based on the Millward Brown research. We never saw it as a forum in which to put forward our party view or put our stamp on the findings of the sub-committee. The Chairman, Deputy Creighton and I never had internal discussions in the party on how we might approach the sub-committee and the expert witnesses. That was one of the reasons we could, with a clear conscience, launch our own policy suggestions. I realise it was a sensitive time, and my good friend Deputy Dooley took umbrage, as did Deputy Costello.

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