Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

However, this Chamber is also a bubble, a silo detached from the lives of citizens. Sometimes politics takes the form of cheap shots, slander, demonisation and playing to the lowest common denominator. The first term of this Government saw lots of that. The political discourse was cheapened and coarsened as a result.

I hope the new Taoiseach does not repeat that mistake. I think he is a decent man. I wish him well. I do not know him well though he and I once attended the same pilates class.

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