Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will ask a question of the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, as she is present. The Minister was in Thurles last week and in Tipperary but she did not go to Roscrea. The women, mothers, grandmothers and children of Roscrea took a silent vigil outside the Garda station last Monday night. It was just themselves with no outside interference. The Minister insulted them and decried them greatly by saying they were being manipulated. They were fearful because a man had followed a widow woman into a house on the previous Sunday night. I will not say any more. The Garda is investigating that. The Minister went on to say they were being manipulated by outside forces. Nothing is further from the truth. Deputy Nolan and I had submitted a Topical Issues matter for discussion tonight. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is refusing to come in to answer it. When does the Minister propose to take this matter with us? Will the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, apologise to the good women and grandmothers, those good people who are intelligent, educated and decent people, whom the Minister patronised and insulted in the past week by saying they were being manipulated? It was anything but. I ask the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, to go down to Roscrea and meet those good people at their earliest convenience, with Deputy Nolan and me.

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