Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

It strikes me that the Ceann Comhairle is a woman who knows her own mind and took a decision yesterday, unfortunately, to co-operate with what was a very co-ordinated move not to allow Order of Business properly, to jettison Questions on Promised Legislation and so on. However, I want to move the focus back on the Taoiseach because he knew that these proposals were opposed by the Opposition and he took a decision to foist them without debate yesterday. What did he think was going to happen? Does he think any of this would have happened if there had been a debate yesterday?

Do not forget that in January Deputy Martin was very anxious to get himself elected as Taoiseach and his party stood over there and made a promise to the Dáil that there would be consensus. Nothing would happen without consensus. He broke that promise like we have seen him break promises about the housing figures, on disability funding, free HRT and all the things that were promised before the election.

It is important to bring home for the general public what this is actually about. This is the Government removing itself more and more from being challenged in a real way. Journalists are saying the bombs in Gaza are more important than what has happened. Who do you think is going to question the Taoiseach more about the bombs in Gaza?

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