Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I can picture the scene at Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meetings as party members spend hour after hour dealing with blank page after blank page trying to find issues they can, with any sense of integrity, bring before the House. The Fianna Fáil Party is responsible for all of our current woes. While the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, referred to a number of these, he could have included the 40% increase in Government expenditure the party presided over between 2000 and 2007. Further, monthly job losses were running at 10,000 per month when the party left power. More than 1,000 jobs are being created each month under this Government. The Fianna Fáil Party almost single-handedly destroyed our reputation abroad.

Tonight, the Fianna Fáil Party has decided to give up discussing real politics. As a party handcuffed by its history, it is resorting to playing the man. In the Minister for Justice and Equality, however, they have chosen the one Minister who embodies everything that Fianna Fáil is not. He is a person of integrity, conviction and no small amount of bottle, a reforming Minister and, in my experience of only two and a half years in the House, a person of great compassion and warmth. He has done more than any other Minister to show the country can once again have faith in politics.

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