Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I am talking to the Deputy through the Chair. I regretted that because he is the Deputy from whom we heard so much during the general election campaign about new politics. He gave all sorts of assurances through all his interlocutors that politics would not and could not go on as it went on before and he would do it differently. He claimed there would be no more Punch and Judy politics. He comes in here a couple of weeks later and is back in the same old routine for those of us in the House long enough to remember what Fianna Fáil was like in opposition. Deputy Martin does not have the troops now to muster that kind of response. He appeared on Pat Kenny's radio programme today and when asked whether his criticisms of Deputy Lowry were not hypocritical given that Fianna Fáil relied on Deputy Lowry for a majority in this House for so many years, he said "Ah, sure we didn't know then what we know now".

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