Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I hope that engagement will be there. The Taoiseach also promised us that there would be a sea change in the public and civil servants backing up the Government. That is vital because we have to change and adapt. I look forward to the new committee structures and the new debates. I look forward to the Government's losing votes.

As a Member who introduced five Private Members' Bills in the last Dáil, I saw how such Bills were rejected because of the person who introduced them. I never suggested that the Bills I introduced were perfect or anything like that but I would like to have them considered. I am delighted that two of them are now included in the programme for Government with an aspiration and wish that they be implemented. Some are badly needed, especially the precious and scrap metals Bill, because we are trying to keep people in their homes but they are being pilloried in their homes and are trying to eke out a living for themselves daily.

I look forward to waving this book at the Taoiseach in the mornings and asking him about items in it. He asked me a few times in the last Dáil what book I was talking about, but I know what book I have this time, because I was part of its make-up, so I will be accurate this time at all times. I remember the Taoiseach turning once or twice to ask his officials what book I was talking about. I had got it from the Office of the Chief Whip. We have it all here. I am going to bring it home and frame it and maybe have short segments of it for different topics.

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