Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

With the permission of the House I will share my time with the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Brendan Smith.

This is a very important debate, if only to reassure people that everyone in this House is genuinely interested and concerned. It does not serve the debate well for people to fire phrases such as "Punch and Judy" across the floor or to advocate protests and anger on the streets, as was done on "Prime Time" this week. The best thing that can help the debate is for people to share ideas, listen to each other and develop those idea so that we can help to lift the country.

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