Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like Senator O'Donovan, I forewent my opportunity to contribute on Second Stage yesterday due to the exigencies of the debate. I do not wish to produce the same speech that I had prepared but there are two points I would like to get across while speaking to the amendment.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, back to the House. Many people have said that he and the senior Minister, Deputy Kelly, have inherited an almighty mess and they are doing the best they can to straighten it out. I sometimes feel I can almost hear and see Commissioner Hogan over in Brussels, as he moves onwards and upwards, chuckling at the dilemma he created for them and the mischievous smile he must have on his face. That is the way things are and the whole thing has been one hell of a hames from start to finish. There was a lot of controversy and hoo-ha, when Fianna Fáil was in government, at the time of the voting machines. It turned out to be a costly error. I remember the Fine Gael speakers at the time being particularly scathing. That is a hill of beans compared to this particular situation we are in now.

There is no doubt about it; the people have spoken. They have spoken in a new way. There is a new type of politics in the country. They are no longer speaking through their Dáil representatives. They are speaking with their feet and with their placards. To a certain extent, democracy in practice is always to be welcomed. However, I have to temper that by saying that I believe that parliamentary democracy is supreme and shall always be supreme.

I seem to have cleared out all my own benches here.

Some of the activities of the protesters - including some of the TDs, who have the unique privilege of being in Dáil Éireann to make their point on behalf of constituents but who seem to prefer to leave the precincts of the House and to go to some place with a megaphone under an oxter-----