Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not forgetting about it, because what has happened in the past week is absolutely despicable and deplorable. It is a degradation of the Seanad. I say to the Leader that the Taoiseach and a Minister of his party has brought the Chamber and the democratic structures of the State into disrepute. A nomination was made up in order to ensure the individual concerned could run in the by-election. Others will say he may have been able to do that anyway. We will never know that because another candidate, Mr. Craughwell, withdrew his complaint to the committee on the basis of the apparent qualification of Mr. McNulty due to his being a board member of the Irish Museum of Modern Art. That is what happened. Now we have a ballot paper that states he is a board member of the Irish Museum of Modern Art. That is who some Members across the Chamber are being asked to vote for, when that is not the case. I put it to the House that he is not qualified on that basis.