Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I very much welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate and vote confidence in the Government.

Let us be clear why we are here. My party had an extremely bad day recently in the local elections. Neither was it a great day in terms of the European Parliament in that we lost our seat in Dublin. I offer my commiseration to a very good friend, Eoin Ryan, who was a great MEP and I congratulate the others who were elected.

Let us be clear that we have been involved in a local election and in a European election, not in a general election. The leader of Fine Gael on Saturday last, in a rush of blood on looking at good results coming through for his party in the local elections, decided to hold a press conference at half past seven and call for a motion of confidence in the Government.

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