Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

He is tweeting there as part of the leadership election campaign. He is seeing how many votes have changed or switched for his master. I can see him on the phone. He is not listening to me anyway. They do not listen. That is the problem. They paid the price for not listening to the people during their five-year term before the formation of this Government.

I have referred to the Minister's suggestion that "the AIIB will seek to address the significant demand for infrastructure in Asia". I am concerned about the infrastructure in this country, which I represent. I cannot say I am in favour of this. There are too many ifs and buts. It is like buying a pet lamb, as I have often done. One might fatten the lamb up to get it ready for the market or to do a show, only for it to keel over with its four legs up in the air. It is gone. That is the way it happens. This is the same. It is a case of "live, horse, and you'll get grass". It looks good on paper.

Deputy Michael McGrath has said that Fianna Fail is supporting this Bill. Maybe it is. I am not in Fianna Fáil, thankfully. I have the freedom to do what I want to do. I am not supporting this because it is too risky. There are too many ifs, buts and ands associated with it. It is very unclear. Why was it not put out there for debate or publicised? Where has it been since we applied to join the bank? How come there has been no debate or discourse on it? Certainly the Rural Independent Group knew nothing about it anyway. Where was it headlined? Where were the economists to tease it out and examine it? Where are the financial gurus? They were not very adept at looking after the economy here when we crashed. We have seen all the carry-on since with the banks - the trials that collapsed and everything else.

We have a lot of dirty washing to do. We need to put it out and leave the wind blow through it. We should clean it off before we jump into something like this. We do not want to end up with another heap of dirty washing that we cannot handle until we get Ajax or Daz or whatever we need. We will not have chemicals that will clean it. We need to mind our own business, stick to our country, grow our economy and look after our people who have always wanted to house themselves, pay for their houses and have small businesses. I supported the legislation we discussed earlier, including the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2017, but I do not support this Bill. It is a step too far in a troubled economy that is not as good as the Minister of State and his colleagues think it is. Just because Dublin has gone mad now, the cranes are dazzling them and they are getting carried away.

The Minister of State and his colleagues will be waving flags on Friday night after the vote but they should make haste slowly. I urge caution. I am not in favour of this Bill. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for his forbearance.

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