Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Just hold on. I know this is being done for video purposes on the Deputy's part. She should just hold on and get off the stage. We are talking in the Parliament. All I am saying is that it would be very foolish of any Government or any Member of this House not to take on board the learning of the trauma that those families suffered when they lost their precious babies. If that is one of the reasons for the Minister taking his time about establishing a new authority and consulting widely, then I believe he has done a wise thing and the proper thing. The Deputy may differ from me on that because she wants instant shots on everything. He has done the wise thing and it will, of course, be dealt with. The Minister gave an extensive interview this morning. It is coming into force now and he has dealt with it properly and wisely.

The last issue the Deputy raised is a matter for CPP. The Deputy should address her remarks there. I would just say, of the tragedy that befell the Traveller families in the fire in Carrickmines, that again the Deputy is trying to be very divisive by suggesting that other people who differ politically from her do not actually have concerns about what happened in terms of the dreadful loss of life and are not reaching out to provide, as best as possible, for those families in their grief and trauma. Deputy McDonald does not have a monopoly on lecturing the rest of us on how we should respond to human events. I am looking at Deputies here who would be of a different persuasion to Sinn Féin who went to those funerals, who actually talked with the families and met with people from the Traveller community. That is as important and valuable as Deputy McDonald's particular shouty concerns here this morning. Making politics of that, in a crude way, is wrong. Finally-----

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