Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to make a brief contribution to this important debate. I will not reply to many of the red herrings. This is a typical case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't", because when this measure was first introduced, as I understand it, there was opposition from other side of the House. I do not want to be too political on a damp December day, but the Government was criticised for introducing this measure, and now it is being criticised again. There has been much talk about what backbenchers did, which ones were heroes and who did what. It is a bit like 1916 — everybody seems to have been there.

See this speech in context