Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader to invite the Taoiseach to come to the House and explain the statement he made last night about my party not being wholehearted in its support for the Government's strategy on Brexit. Admittedly, the Taoiseach was talking to a convention of his Fine Gael Party. His remark was, at least, a very careless remark and, at worst, a remark that could destabilise his own Government. It is extraordinary that we have a Taoiseach who seems to be constantly going out of his way to destabilise his own Government. It is unprecedented. I ask the Leader to invite the Taoiseach here to explain his statement.

The House should be very grateful to Fiach Kelly of The Irish Timesfor lifting the lid on the interesting political pond life that is the extreme left-wing in Ireland. We have always known that there is a communist group in the country. They prefer not to call themselves communists. They do not openly called themselves Trotskyites but they are. Trotsky was responsible for the deaths of countless thousands and millions of people. He exulted in those deaths.His political philosophy has failed everywhere it has been tried. It is up to Sinn Féin to comment on what the paper related about it being a capitalist, petit bourgeoisparty. That is not for me to decide. Most people reading the papers that have been published were probably mostly amused and bewildered that such undergraduate thinking would obtain in Irish politics and be represented in the Lower House. At the same time, perhaps there is a legitimate fear that something untoward and subversive is happening.

The Trotskyite religion has no loyalty to any state or government. It is loyal only to that failure of a philosophy, the Communist International. It is quite chilling to read in the report that reference was made to "Kerensky being used as a gun-rest to shoot Kornilov". This type of thinking is worrying. Will the Leader ask the Minister for Justice and Equality to come to the House and advise us on whether there is a clear and present danger to the State from revolutionary Trotskyite groups? I am sure they are a greater danger to themselves than to anybody else but it would be reassuring to know our security forces are on the job with regard to what has been a revelation to most of us. Mind you, there has been stunning silence from the principal parties so far.