Mary O'Rourke (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

To return to the present matter, Deputy Conlon raised a true point that I wish to reiterate. Have Members any respect for one another? Have they any respect for the fact that they all tread on the same path of knocking on people's doors, asking for approval, seeking their vote and being duly elected as vox populi? Do Members have any regard for one another? Members are in grave danger of going down the path of prurience.ie until it extends to every aspect of their lives and that would not be a pretty sight.

While I acknowledge I am adding to it - at least I admit it - I reject the waste of time the Opposition has brought to this debate. Increasingly in public discourse, I note the waste of time on the part of the Opposition. When I entered this House, my party had been almost five years in opposition and I always thought it was my job to see the good in whatever measures were brought in, to ascertain what I did not regard as being good and to speak on both equally. However, that entire tenor of debate appears to have gone. Welcome to Alice in Wonderland Humpty Dumpty-land.

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