David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yes. I am just commenting generally on the increasing bureaucracy that is around this place. Whatever one thinks of Mick Wallace and Richard Boyd Barrett, they are among the most brilliant contributors to the Lower House. There is a natural self-regulation. People are not going to come in wearing a bikini. If they did, they would be censured by the House and they would be expelled. I remember Cicciolina in the Italian parliament. There is far too much bureaucracy. We should remember that we have the dignity and authority of having been elected.

When I came in here about 30 years ago it was fairly amateur. People drifted in and out. It was very gentlemanly. I got blamed for pushing it in the direction of a full-time professional job. Now we have to fob in, but the Ministers who started this do not have to do so. In an age when work can be done remotely, it is demeaning to be treated like cattle. It is time we stood up against it.