Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am very shocked at the reports of statements allegedly made by our former colleague in the Seanad and current Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills, Deputy Ciarán Cannon. He appears to be referring to senior Fianna Fáil people. I was in my first term in the Seanad when he was a Member of this House, so obviously he is not referring to me, but it is a slur on every Fianna Fáil Member of the House at that time. I believe there was a total of 30. The Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, must come to this Chamber and explain himself. Anybody can throw mud like that, especially when we are at the door of a referendum. It is another example of the shameful campaign the Fine Gael Party has put to the people in this referendum.

I am pleased that Senators Noone and Brennan dissociated themselves so publicly from a slur on our two illustrious Seanad colleagues. It is unprecedented for any Government to behave in such a guttersnipe way. It lowers democracy to the lowest level it has ever been in the eyes of the people. The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, is clearly not prepared to accept the truth about the infamous figure he has on his infamous posters, despite the fact that the chairman of the Referendum Commission leaned over as far as she could under the constraints of her office to make it clear she could not countenance or support it. Even the office in the Houses of the Oireachtas has been obliged to write letters to the media, although in a very limited way because of the constraints upon it. The Minister, Deputy Bruton, still says it is €20 million, but everybody knows he cannot add. We learned that when he got the numbers wrong when he tried to take out Deputy Enda Kenny three or four years ago. He has got them wrong on this issue as well.