Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join with others who have mentioned the damage to the sculpture in St. Stephen's Green this morning. When I joined the British Army and arrived in the depot of the Royal Irish Rangers, one of the things one had to learn was the battle honours of the regiment. The battle honours of the regiment included the battle honours of the Connaught Rangers. It included the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and the Royal Munster Fusiliers and all the great southern Irish regiments. I have never been any less an Irish man that anyone in this room. Like thousands of other Irish men, I served under the Crown. The damage last night was carried out by thugs who see themselves as more Irish than me and more Irish than the thousands like me who served in the British Army. I was delighted to hear a member of Sinn Féin condemn the behaviour this morning.

The Acting Leader will be aware of the work being done by Vice President Timmermans in the European Union with respect to subsidiarity and proportionality. It strikes me as rather odd that Europe is trying to drive decision-making to the lowest possible level and in Ireland we are trying to centralise it. It is something we should explore in the House given the majority of our electorate are members of local authorities throughout the country. I wonder why we feel the need to take away from local authorities the powers they have and strip them of powers. It has been ongoing for some period of time. The Timmermans report has been published and everybody in this House should get their hands on a copy of it and read it. It would be in order to have a debate in the House to discuss it. I ask the Acting Leader to bring it to the attention of the Leader to see if we can organise it with the appropriate Minister.