Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I, too, am glad to be able to contribute to the debate. I apologise that I could not get here last Thursday to speak. I lost the keys of my car. If I got locked out of the building, perhaps the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, would have been pleased. I noted, looking in every now and then, that he was accompanying the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, and minding him, as it were. I am not doubting the Minister for Justice and Equality's capabilities in dealing with any legislation or in handling anyone, but I did notice that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport was keeping a very close eye on him.

Tá sé as láthair anocht. Maybe he is off acting as something that starts with the letter B, I will not say what, someplace else. It is my first time commenting on this Bill. However, I would like to ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport - I hope the Ceann Comhairle will allow me to do so - why he chose to have a very menacing outburst against me in the canteen last week in the company of many others. I can understand that. I am used to that. Maybe he was hot under the collar, pardon the pun. However, my 19 year old daughter was present and I thought it was very unsavoury. I would ask him to reflect on that, and maybe to issue an apology to that young woman. It was not nice language for a young lady to hear, nor was it nice language to use in the canteen, with the public, staff, ushers, Members and God knows who else present.

I do not know the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport's whereabouts. He is like something from the Flight of the Earls now. He is going from one Bill to the next. He is like a fellow who was dancing on a stage at a crossroads one night. This man was two-timing. I knew him well in later years. On the same night, he was with Kitty and Kathy. He was dating both of them, but either turned up at the stage. He said that he had neither Kitty nor Kathy that night.

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