Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I express my full support for the Tánaiste, who is the leader of my party, Fine Gael. He entered politics to do nothing but good, to deliver and to help those he sees around him. He is motivated for all the right reasons to be involved in politics. Unfortunately, far too many politicians on the Opposition benches today entered politics to posture, shout out and exploit situations. They have been exposed completely for what they really are: a group of people who will profess great care for and understanding of an issue, and claim to want to represent the people it affects, but at the drop of a hat use it for their own selfish political interests, as Mary Lou McDonald showed. The leader of Aontú, who is going to shout everybody down, as always, is also doing this for his own selfish political interests. The leader of the Social Democrats rewrote the facts when she made a long speech about why there is a motion of confidence today. She failed to acknowledge that a motion of no confidence could have been tabled at any time. The Opposition did not do so; instead, for its own political ends it cynically chose to exploit people who have a genuine issue which this House cares about and people on all sides care about. That needs to be called out. It contrasts with the daily work of the Tánaiste, who-----

See this speech in context