Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No side, either on the Opposition or the Government, has a monopoly on virtue. I never speak about the other House but I was absolutely shocked, as was the nation as a whole, by the shenanigans we witnessed on television last night. There is no gagging of democracy in these Houses and anybody who argues as much is only fooling himself or herself. A system was put in place and it does not suit a minority but as far as I can see those Members still have approximately 65% to 70% of speaking time. As they did not get their way, they chose to behave like a pack of rowdy undergraduates. There was a travesty last night as a person appointed as a teller for a vote refused to sign the result because it did not suit him. Is that democracy?

Some of those people on the extreme left are doing this nation a disservice by hyping the talk of gagging democracy. They have tried street politics and we listen to them every week outside practising megaphone diplomacy. They are now trying it in the Lower House. I am thankful nobody has tried it here yet. They have nothing to say about abuses in Trotskyite regimes like Russia, China or North Korea but if anything happens in any of the European democracies, they give out yards. I am having a bit of a rant but I believe I represent common sense in this. I appeal to those undergraduate Deputies to cop on and grow up.