Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

6 o’clock

This Government has pushed a policy of might is right at every level. It has seriously undermined years of Dáil reform. That reform was brought in to make democracy stronger in order that all voices within the Dáil would be heard. The Government is being disingenuous and dangerous. I take particular note of the speeches of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and one of the Ministers in which language was turned absolutely on its head. The Government rammed through changes. It placed the Ceann Comhairle in an invidious position because that ramming through was announced in various interviews on RTÉ, etc. The Government made no attempt to change the language because it was always going to ram through the changes. All of this has added to the growing distrust among people as regards the political process. They simply do not trust the Government because it has turned language on its head. When it rams through changes that it says will ostensibly give more speaking time to backbenchers, which is far from true, it is also telling lies and being disingenuous.

See this speech in context