Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As a constituency colleague, I am deeply shocked and upset by the former Minister's resignation. I visited his office a few moments ago. He and his staff are quite distraught. We are of different politics in Roscommon-Galway but I worked with the former Minister for the betterment of our county and constituency.

The reality is we have lost our senior Minister. There is one person I blame for that and it is the Taoiseach because he obviously expressed no confidence in Deputy Naughten. He may have thrown Deputy Naughten under the bus but I remind the Taoiseach that the bus is still rolling down the road and he is wandering all over the road. This could be the rock on which he perishes. We have still made no progress on broadband, the constituency of Roscommon-Galway needs its national roll-out more than any other constituency in the country. It is causing small businesses to leave our constituency.

I regret what has happened. We had a good working relationship. I have known Deputy Naughten and his family for many years and it is a very sad time for them but there are many more questions to be asked about this scenario. Of course, it is all built around calling a general election and the Taoiseach is behind that.

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