Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Technical Group and all who work so diligently in the Whip's office for allowing me some speaking time. I appreciate that at all times.

I am totally opposed to the Bill before the House, because it is lacking in common sense. I have read the Minister of State's contribution and what is being proposed in the Bill. The Government is castigating people by generalising and presuming that the vast majority of the public are engaged in telling lies. I do not believe that. If the Minister of State studied the speech he has read into the Dáil record he would be aware that he is castigating many of his constituents as liars. He is castigating many members of the highly respectable Garda force as inaccurately reporting events. I abhor that type of castigation. In the area I come from we have been castigated. People have tried to put us into a box and castigate us as something we are not. The vast majority of people are respectable, hardworking and genuine. In the past, if a person presented to a member of the Garda Síochána to say that his or her vehicle had been off the road - due to a breakdown, a period of working away from home, or the fact that an old van, as many of us had, had been left in the yard for a while because the engine had failed or the radiator burst - the Garda knew it was genuinely off the road and would sign the form. The Minister of State and the Government are castigating those people for having told untruths. I disagree with that at a time when the Minister for Justice and Equality-----

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