Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the Deputies who supported me this evening. I admitted at the outset that we do not have the resources to research legislation. We do not like the teams of civil servants that the Government has, nor can we carry out pre-legislative scrutiny. The Government railroaded through the termination of pregnancy legislation without any pre-legislative scrutiny. Therefore, it cannot be critical of me. It forced through an horrendous Bill without legal scrutiny, yet it wants to apportion blame to backbenchers. The Government has the powers of the State, yet it will not even acknowledge this. Pre-legislative scrutiny has been evaluated recently and found to be of great help in getting legislation right and tweaking it properly before it comes into the Houses. On this side of the House, we do not have that support.

This Bill was initiated in 2015. The Minister of State read out a plethora of legislative measures that have been introduced since. Dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi. The Minister of State reminds me of a fellow who was at a dance one time but who is now dead. His two girlfriends are dead as well so I can speak about them. I will not speak ill of the dead. The man was going to the stage in Ballymacarbry, which is in Deputy Butler's constituency. He had one girlfriend called Cathy and another called Katie. This was found out because on the night he turned up, he said, "God damn it, I have neither Kitty nor Cathy tonight." He had nothing. The Minister of State is the same. He has neither this nor that. He could not even bring home the soldiers from the Lebanon two weeks ago after six months.

See this speech in context