Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Reference has been made to the plebiscite and parliament democracy. Let us consider what is democratic and what constitutes democracy. I believe protests, including street protests, are part of our democracy. No one has any right to criticise people's absolute entitlement to demonstrate on the streets. However, to suggest we are attempting to demonise people when we criticise the effective false imprisonment of a politician - it could be any citizen - in her car for a period of hours, or intimidating behaviour is outlandish. Deputy Murphy stands condemned in respect of that incident. His has failed to give any reasonable account of himself on that occasion. He has been given every opportunity on the public airwaves and in this House to do so but he has failed to do it. He cannot get himself back into the reasonableness tent, although he tried to do so in the course of his speech earlier, because he simply has no concept of what democratic engagement entails.

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