Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

-----it is the choice of the Opposition that we should put aside more constructive business to repeat those speeches in Dáil Éireann. There is no effort to provide anything other than a rhetorical alternative, with cynical politics and ever more aggressive attacks and shallow empathy. There has been much talk from the Opposition about mandates and the will of the people. There is not even the softest constitutional principle backing up the ridiculous idea that local authority elections can confer or remove a mandate to govern. There is only a short leap from this to government by opinion poll, something that Fine Gael has believed in at least since the accession of Frank Flannery to the leadership of the party.

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