Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

-----and I argue that Deputy Tóibín should listen to seasoned politicians like Deputy Ó Caoláin and many others in Sinn Féin who understand that. He was the only one who failed to grasp the issue from our perspective. He even lectured Deputy McCarthy when he suggested to him that he should get a copy of a book which is readily available in Easons called, Constitutional Politics for Idiots. Deputy McCarthy did not over-react but I suggest that Deputy Tóibín should pick up a copy of that book the next time he is in Easons and understand how constitutional politics work.

In conclusion, I recommend that he pick up a few more books in Easons and perhaps he could trace back his own party history before he starts lecturing me or my front bench on where we stand or what we did in the past. I have great respect for the people who have walked a different path in Sinn Féin and are now embracing constitutional politics. There are some very fine people there. It ill behoves Deputy Tóibín to come in here and score cheap political points by firing scuds at us. He would be as well moving away from the firing of scuds now and get down to working on behalf of the people who elected him and elected us. We will bring forward appropriate policies as we see fit to meet the needs of the Irish people and we will not spend our time looking back. I am not suggesting that he or his party should either. They have a mandate just like we have and we have a mandate to work constructively for the Irish people. I also reject this notion that somehow we are being populist. If I wanted to be populist on fuel prices I would have gone for 50 cent or for more but I did not. We brought forward a worked solution, one which is self-financing and will help in a small way at a time when oil prices are in extreme circumstances. The Labour Party has a problem with this because it largely represents urban communities where they have public transport. Deputy Kevin Humphreys referred to the populism of Fianna Fáil. He has a Luas, the DART and a bus garage in his constituency. There are many constituencies that do not have the same access to public transport and I would much prefer if he was prepared to recognise that he has a mandate to represent all the people of Ireland and not just those in his constituency.

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