Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not doing that. The issue here is the people we all represent who want to be in employment. I spent 16 years as a director of adult education. One of the best things a society can do is offer people a second chance at education and a chance to upskill and improve themselves, in whatever shape that takes. That is the philosophy I come from and uphold. I do not stand here as a member of the elite, a conservative or a Tory, but as a republican who wants all our citizens to have an equal opportunity to be the best they can be so they can contribute to society. I make no apologies for that. I wear no flag or emblem of anything. I am a citizen of this State and I want all of us to be equal.

My record as a public representative and a citizen is open to scrutiny. Members of the House know what I stand for and about the work we do in Cork on behalf of the Fine Gael Party and the Government. I would go to the ends of the earth to defend us as a Government. The Minister is speaking about ensuring that people are successful in finding work. It is about ensuring that men and women, be they in Dublin, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Roscommon or elsewhere and be they 60 or 18 years of age, are in employment and that they can get up in the morning and look forward, or if they are not able to work that the State can support and care for them. That is the party to which I belong. It is called a just society. Last weekend, we published, Building a Republic of Opportunity. I challenge the Members who disagree with me to read it, just as I read the commentary on their weekend Ard-Fheis and the manifesto brought forward from it. However, do not come to this House and say that the Fine Gael Party is a Tory party, because it is not. I will defend our party all the time.