Results 5,021-5,040 of 12,637 for speaker:Willie O'Dea

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: Fine Gael's general secretary said that the party had decided not to report the donation to the Moriarty tribunal - and note the word "decided" -----

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: -----because it would have been "politically disastrous", although he attempted afterwards to take back the words "politically disastrous".

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: He said that he feared that if the donation was revealed, a connection might be made between Fine Gael and the granting of a mobile telephone licence to Esat Digifone, about which we will discover an awful lot more shortly.

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: The Fine Gael leader at the time of the donation, Mr. John Bruton, brushed the matter aside with the extraordinary excuse that he probably had not informed himself as fully as he should have about the matter. It is all right for him to make a mistake and at the time and since then Deputy Kenny------

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: It is called free speech. I know the Blueshirts do not have much of a concept of it but it is called free speech.

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: The Fine Gael Leader-----

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: Does the Deputy believe in free speech?

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: He might let me make my statement during the next few minutes. How he can call himself a democrat is beyond me.

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: The then Fine Gael Leader, Mr. John Bruton, brushed the matter aside with the extraordinary excuse-----

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: ------that he probably had not informed himself as fully as he should have. So he is entitled to make a mistake. He is entitled to suppress a document-----

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: -----on the basis that it might be politically disastrous to his party. We accept that was a mistake. However, such omissions and errors are not the sole preserve of Fine Gael. It is not so long ago that Sinn Féin in the person of Deputy Arthur Morgan was denying that suspected paedophile, Liam Adams, was a member of the Sinn Féin Party in Louth-----

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: -----dismissing his involvement as being "peripheral"-----

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: -----and indeed continuing with this line until former members of the party started to produce photos and documentation showing that Liam Adams was anything but peripheral but-----

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: -----when this fact emerged into the public domain, Deputy Morgan's explanation was that he had a lapse of memory.

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: At the beginning of this debate the Taoiseach set out what we have achieved in the Department of Defence in recent years. He also set out the dearth of new ideas and new policies on defence coming from Fine Gael. I have a job to do as Minister for Defence.

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: I am committed to doing that work and will not be dissuaded from doing my job by politically motivated accusations from the parties opposite. I have spent almost 30 years of my adult life as a Deputy and have been proud of the work I have done for the people of Limerick. I am proud to have represented them in Dáil Éireann.

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: I value my good name and reputation.

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: Whatever about our political differences, the people of Limerick respect my good name and reputation as an open and accessible public representative.

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: I do not expect any praise from the benches opposite but I do not think it unreasonable to expect some level of propriety and fairness.

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Willie O'Dea: It seems I am wrong to even expect that.