Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I compliment the Minister on being here, on her excellent speech today and on her stewardship of the Department over the past nine months. She has shown courage and bottle and deserves to be supported.

In this debate we are discussing people, many of whom need the State to look after them, and people with disabilities. It ill behoves Members to play politics with sensitive people. I apologise to Deputy Cowen for not being here for his speech but if I had been we would have ended up fighting and I chose to leave before he got into the body of his speech because I did not want to hear the empty rhetoric. This is not personal-----

See this speech in context