Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There will be an avalanche in the new year when the moratorium relating to the banks is lifted. We can see Fine Gael's friends in the banking industry, the poachers who have become gamekeepers. Former Ministers of State have been given powerful jobs in that industry. We know this; we have seen it. In addition, unregulated thugs are going around the country. Some have been brought before the courts and fined for carrying on like the heavy gang. Some of these are mercenaries from other countries who have murky pasts. The regulation agency is in Tipperary. I have made complaints to it and have met members of its staff. Indeed, the chairman came up to the Dáil to meet Deputy Michael Collins, Deputy Nolan and me to discuss the situation but it still goes on. We are supposed to represent the people. We have a constitutional right to defend the people, not to persecute them and to drive them into oblivion. The British did that to us for generations and over centuries.

We commemorated Bloody Sunday last week.

We were proud in Tipperary to get out on that field, albeit in Cork, and win. That is the spirit of that jersey and the people who fought for this country. I am talking about Ó Treasaigh, Breen and Michael Hogan. Those people spilled their blood, as did countless others. What kind of a democracy did we get? We looked for it and fought for it. What have we got? It is as twisted as some of the juntas in Africa and other places that we talk about. It is shocking and sad.

I have the privilege of being a representative of the people of Tipperary for the moment. I respect that greatly. I will abide by their wishes in future elections, but it is sad that this continues to go on.

Those in Fine Gael think they can do what they like. They think it is their preserve. They were so long out of power since Paddy Donegan, Paddy Cooney and that gang were in place. God rest some of them now - I do not know whether they are all dead.

The heavy gang operated from 1973 to 1977. The House has heard me refer to how this has crept back into the Business Committee. Some of the enforcers were shouting a minute ago, before I got up, for the Ceann Comhairle to ensure that I would be censored and controlled. I will not be censored or controlled by Fine Gael.

The sad part about it is that we have a Taoiseach who was so behoven and craven to get that job. He got his prize. It is like he has got his first communion or leaving certificate or whatever. Whatever happens, it will not get in the way of him losing his job. He knows, with fear and terror, that the Tánaiste, Deputy Leo Varadkar, is riding high in the polls. If the Taoiseach trips up, they will dump him over. We will have an election and he will be gone and that prize will be taken away from him. It was much sought after. He had been looking for it for 25 years and he got it. He kicked out his own Ministers, Deputies Barry Cowen and Dara Calleary, and saved the Fine Gael skins. We saw it two weeks ago with the former Taoiseach, and now Tánaiste, answering questions. We will see it here again today. Yet, the Fianna Fáil people can be sacrificed. It is a proud party. My father was a founding member. They are being sacrificed to the wolves for the sake of naked greed, power and luxury.

We see it every day here the disdain when we ask questions about what is going on. We cannot get information or the figures and data on Covid counts. We cannot get the science. The Taoiseach will be protected no matter what happens. God, if a tsunami came, one he could swim over, he would stay and keep his head above it and to hell with the Croppies - they could lie down. They forget the country and the people who fought for Ireland. They forget the families struggling today. They forget the workers trying to carry on and eke out a living. Then there is big business and the banks, insurance companies and the bands of vultures who are carrying on the murky, dirty, messy work of sucking the lifeblood out of the fighting spirit of the Irish.

I put a call out for the fighting spirit of the Irish to rise up and not take this disgraceful behaviour. It is pathetic. In the spirit of C.J. Kickham from Mullinahone, I will not take it or accept it. That is the spirit of the McInerney family from Cashel and many others. T.J. McInerney was fighting there. The ballot box will change all this soon. We thought we got it the last time but we did not. They have control. The fingers are on the handlebars of power. Anyone would need a chisel and hammer to get them off.

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