Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will not get sucked into anything. I did not do that. I did not write a chapter of a book suggesting these were the people, the Judiciary, who had wrecked this State, and that they were a group of cronies selected by their crony friends and they had wrecked this State. I never did that. Let it be remembered on the floor of the House that he did do that. One might state in this Chamber that when he came to the negotiating table - where he got himself a position at Cabinet and threw all his friends under the political bus to get there - he forgot the chapter he wrote in his book stating our Judiciary was part of the problem with this country and had wrecked it due to cronyism. If one were then to ask in those circumstances whether it is a reasonable point of view to suggest his determination to have this particular Bill put into law in its particular form is simply based on a reformist view on his part, as are all his fatwas that he would bring down the Government if it were not done - we are to ignore the ridiculous Bill he put before the Dáil when in opposition to have the Opposition choose the Judiciary - I would reply it is not. I am entitled to point these things out because I am entitled to point out no matter how embarrassing it may be for a certain party in the House that the tail is wagging the dog. Everybody in Ireland knows it. We can pretend this is not the case but that is what has happened here