Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sticking to the Bill. I am sticking to the legislation. It is nearly an omnibus Bill. The Minister made a liquorice allsorts of it. He put in nice bits and bad bits and hoped that the nice bits would prevent us seeing the bad bits. He also brought it in very late, in the last days of the term before Christmas. That is shameful and wrong. The Minister would rail against that if he was in opposition. I often heard him railing against matters such as this and the payment of huge fines over the past seven or eight years. He cannot have it both ways. If one cuts one's cloth, one has to wear it. He is happy to be in government and, as I said earlier, I wish him well, but it cannot be a case of do as I say, not as I do.

We will press this amendment because it is vital that the public is encouraged to participate. Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí. Mol na daoine go léir agus tiocfaidh siad. They will come and they will embrace the process. They will not be one bit happy if they are shut out from a democratic process. Why would they be? I will conclude on that, but as I have said, we will press the amendment, which we feel is reasonable. We can accept virtual meetings during a pandemic or something similar, but we want guarantees that, outside of emergencies, public meetings will take place.

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