Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gardaí have to make operational decisions. Those operational decisions are made in the unarmed police force in this country that has stood us well and served the country very well throughout the years. That reference should be withdrawn, irrespective of to whom it applies, given the appalling atrocities that Nazis committed and that Hitler committed. We are a far different country from that. It is not good enough that remarks like that would just slip off the tongue in condemning operational decisions that have been taken. It is not good enough for this Parliament and it should not be tolerated.

It should not be tolerated because we are the one country that has been a beacon against fascism since the foundation of the State. We are the one country that brought in a Constitution that was radical in its time, with judicial interpretation, in the middle of the fascist era in the 1930s. We were one of the few countries that did it. A bit of self-awareness and a bit of acknowledgement of where this country has come from is due. The Deputy should withdraw those remarks. They are not good enough.

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