Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The people of this country are angry. They want change. The public wants us to run our business in a different way. Every day, the media sends out the message that we are closed for business, which is often the case. No matter how hard we work in our offices and constituencies, there is a perception that this House does not sit often enough. Every time we leave this House, we damage the body politic, we damage ourselves and we damage the country. We should remember that people died in this country so we could have our own parliament, have the vote and be able to run our own country. What has been going on for the last ten years has been a disgrace. Every time the former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, ran into difficulty in his own party, he solved it by appointing another Minister of State. The Green Party and Independent Deputies agree that this a reasonable motion. I hope they will do the right thing by supporting the Fine Gael motion when the House divides. It would be the right thing to do. I hope the Ceann Comhairle can take on board some of the points made by Deputy Stanton, who has been talking about Dáil reform for a long time. In a recent case, it was not right that a Deputy who came here at 9.30 p.m. or 9.45 p.m. had to listen to the Minister of State, Deputy Sargent, reading from a script that had been prepared for him by a civil servant.

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