Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

We hold him in great respect. He has been a long-standing Member of the House and will not be opposed in a partisan way by the Labour Party for the position of Ceann Comhairle. I wish him well in the Office of Ceann Comhairle.

I want to take the opportunity to acknowledge the fairness with which Deputy O'Donoghue carried out his functions as Ceann Comhairle, something I have done previously. I also want to take the opportunity to refer to some of the matters he raised in his valedictory address, lest they go unchallenged.

In the course of that address, he effectively accused me of denying him fairness and of denying him a constitutional right of reply. I did neither. Since the beginning of the controversy over Deputy O'Donoghue's expenses, both in his capacity as a Minister and Ceann Comhairle, I refrained from making public comment about the issue out of the respect for which I hold for the Office of Ceann Comhairle. I accepted the apology he gave to the House for the expenditures he incurred while a Minister.

When I did intervene in the controversy, last Sunday week, I acknowledged, first, Deputy O'Donoghue's fairness in the conduct of his duties as Ceann Comhairle and, second, that there are legitimate expenditures associated with the conduct of that and of any other office. I also sought to have the issue dealt with on an all-party basis. I did not deny him the right to address and make his case to the House. What I did not agree with was that the appropriate forum for dealing with this matter was an in-house committee of this House which meets in private.

The issue surrounding the controversy was a public matter that was being debated on the airwaves and discussed in public. When we speak here about our constitutional roles, constitutional fairness and constitutional offices, we should remember one other constitutional function, namely, our primary constitutional function to represent the people who sent us here and to express, on the floor of our national Parliament, their opinions, their sentiments and their concerns. We should remember that if the floor of this House is not to be the forum where we articulate the public's views, concerns and, at times, anger, then we will be failing in that primary constitutional duty, undermining the position of this House and the role of parliamentary democracy.

I regret what I had to do last Tuesday.

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