Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am speaking to the amendment. I am speaking to the fact that the Minister has rejected each and every amendment. With the Acting Chairman's permission, I am making the point, which I will not labour, that I am truly saddened to think that a Green Party Minister would act in this way. I do not see many of his colleagues around him or behind him. There are not many who have come in to speak in support of him or to provide him with moral support because they know this is wrong no matter what way one looks at it. The main wrong has been perpetrated again on the survivors and on their families and support groups. These people met with the former Minister, Katherine Zappone, and told her clearly that they did not want anonymity and that they wanted their names out there. This is all codswallop. It is a game of hide-and-go-seek. It is a case of ducking and dodging. It is the worst type of politics. I expected better from Deputy Eamon Ryan, whom I respect, and from the Green Party. It is very sad to see the price of power.

In the two debates we are having today, including the one this morning about extending ministerial powers, the people have been forgotten. People are only used as cannon fodder for the ballot box. They are abandoned when Ministers get their legs into a State car - whether electric or diesel, that does not matter anymore - and when they get their perks, ministerial advisers and everything else. Power corrupts and total power corrupts completely.

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