John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know that Deputy Troy was a postmaster, so he has some understanding. Two of the post offices that closed were in villages in my own area of Tullogher and the village of Ballyhale in south Kilkenny. Both of these were Phelan post offices as it happens and involved members of my own extended family. They got very little succour from the government at the time over the closures. That decision, more than anything else, signalled a step change in how the government at the time dealt with rural post offices.

Deputy Stephen Donnelly spoke of Brexit as the biggest economic threat to face the country since the foundation of the State. It is an arguable point. I would say that the biggest economic threat to face the country since the foundation of the State occurred around the time that the Deputy started to campaign to be an Independent Deputy against Fianna Fáil, the party that ran the economy of the country off a cliff, before he decided to join Fianna Fáil where he now complains about the biggest economic threat to face the country since the foundation of the State.

3 o’clock

As I entered the Chamber, Deputy Cullinane was speaking and his contribution was the strangest. He said discussions in the Dáil sometimes resembled "Live at the Apollo" and went on to attack both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil for signing up to reports which they have never implemented. I do not know when the first provisional Sinn Féin TD was elected to Dáil Éireann but the one thing we can say about all of them is that they have never implemented anything in Leinster House. In some respects, I do not consider there is much difference between Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin, although in other respects, I acknowledge there is a great deal of difference. However, Fianna Fáil has at least engaged in a process of trying to ensure the State had a Government. There are some issues in the budget which reflect that.

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