Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There 38 people on hospital trolleys in Galway today and I have more time to talk about this than I had to talk about them. I had three minutes to speak about the people on trolleys on Tuesday. That puts this into perspective. I would have thought that the leader of the Fianna Fáil Party would have come into the House, apologised and sat down. Wrong was done, votes were taken in the absence of someone from the Chamber and that is against Article 15 of the Constitution. It should not have happened, end of story.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and the Clerk for doing a good and practical report. I have some reservations regarding some of the recommendations conferring an onerous role on the tellers. We also saw the extent of gender inequality today, which was brought home to us in a most acute way when all of the tellers went up for the vote. Besides that, however, it is just not practical that all of the tellers will go up and check after each vote. I looked this report, thought that it was a good one and that we should get on with the real issues. Then I heard the content of the statements from both sides. The Ceann Comhairle appealed for respect, but I am afraid that I have difficulty giving respect to either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael on this issue, having listened to the content of the speeches. Fine Gael has used this issue as a Star Chamber to score points and Fianna Fáil has been disgraceful. The speech from Deputy Micheál Martin was simply disgraceful. I refer to coming in and referring to general practices, the specific incident last week and the changes. I did nothing wrong, my colleagues did nothing wrong and most of the Deputies in the Dáil have done nothing wrong. Most of the Fianna Fáil Members, indeed, have done nothing wrong and I am sure they have mixed emotions about what has happened. A small number of Deputies did something wrong. They voted when they should not have voted. That should be the end of the matter in the sense of standing up, apologising and taking whatever consequences the committee will decide upon next week.

Instead, we have a report that brings all sorts of things into this situation, including me as a so-called country Deputy. Some of my colleagues, who were interviewed by the Ceann Comhairle or Peter Finnegan said that Deputies were giddy, used their phones and do all sorts of things. None of that is relevant to this debate. A small number of Deputies did something wrong. They should come in, stand up, give an example - we all do things wrong - learn from it and move on. Instead of that, we now have a report. I imagine Miriam Lord and the "Callan's Kicks" show can take a holiday. They do not have to work from imagination from now on, they simply have to quote from this report. We have a Deputy who voted six times and does not know why he stopped. The obvious answer is that his finger got very tired after voting six times for himself and six times, presumably, for the person absent.

I have had many phone calls from journalists and I am tired of them. I am tired of the level of questioning. There is one issue. We should deal with that issue and move on with what we are here for. I see no reason to change the voting system. There is openness and accountability on that issue. It is all up there for everybody to see. I do not see why we need to change that. We are all grown-up people and the best thing we can do now is acknowledge what has happened. It is not okay for people to state they did not think it was a massive issue. When the record is wrong, the record is wrong. That is why we can leave our seats and state that we made a mistake. It is important that we have a record that is accurate.

That is all I have to say on the matter, except that I wish the leader of Fianna Fáil, and particularly the second Fine Gael speaker, would reflect on what they came in here to do today. It certainly was not to bring finality to this matter or to accept responsibility.

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