Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Whether it be in the Judiciary or the House, a perception of bias in the adjudication of decisions, no matter how unfounded, is corrosive. We need to change the situation in this country where people rightfully believe we are not all treated equally.

Whether a judge was corrupt, that judges were chosen to make certain decisions in a certain political direction is wrong. I apply the same to this House. It is no slight on anyone in the Chair, but the perception that there is bias in adjudication in this House is also corrosive. This issue was broached by the Leader of the acceptable Opposition, Deputy Micheál Martin, yesterday when he suggested the Ceann Comhairle was not being fair to the Opposition. I will let him make that call; one would not want to get into that argument, but the perception that there is a problem means that it is a problem.

My office in Castlerea has a window which looks out onto the courthouse, in which I have been a few times - I have actually been in prison a couple of times. There is something very noticeable, whether one is in the dock in court or looking through my office window across at the court, and it is that it is the rich guys wearing their fancy clothing who decide the future of the poor guys. This is not perception, it is fact. Deputy Joan Collins came at it from the point of view that certain people did not have opportunities, which is correct. It is from this point that the bias begins and it never goes away. In this country it does not just end at this point. A Roscommon man of the year can be killed and one can come in here and state senior politicians were there when the death occurred and no one even gasps or says, "Stop, Deputy Wallace, do not say that." No one can say that because what he said was true. If one believes a member of the Garda Síochána was involved in a rape or covering up a rape, how can one expect a victim to trust the system when a man of the year, a really well known man, Niall Molloy, was killed in the most dodgy circumstances of all time? How can a citizen have any confidence in the system?

I am an atheist, but I am starting to believe there is a God because it is brilliant timing that Deputy Shane Ross's Bill has come out in the magic lottery. While I agree to an extent - 99% - with the statement of the whistleblower, John Wilson, that people have nowhere to go, in another way this is the time, as there is a chink of light coming through the window which has been opened a fraction. I challenge those people who have come to me, those who have not yet managed to come to me and those who have come to Deputies Clare Daly, Mick Wallace and Joan Collins to take advantage of the fact that there is oxygen and use it to boot open the window, even if there is a smashing of the glass and a ripping of the frame from the wall, and run through the hole to find freedom at last. They should go on their local radio stations and tell their stories. Whether they are members of the Garda Síochána who know what is going on, members of the public who are persecuted because they are single mothers and a target or because they have a relation who was killed and have not got justice, they should go on radio. They should get onto their local politicians and ask them what they will do about it. They should ring my office; in a way I cannot believe I am stating this because my office is already completely snowed under, but they should get in contact with us and we will get their stories out. It is now or never. There is oxygen and they should make use of it.

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