So said Joseph O’Connor on Drivetime last night. I quoted this on the Order of Business this morning as I listened to the litany of woe and tragedy riddling our country at the moment. When you are in opposition you need to point out what’s going wrong. However all of this even got me (a loyal member of the opposition!) a bit down this morning.
I made my own contribution on the Order of Business starting with the above quote. Made a number of points to the Acting Leader. They included commenting on the statement yesterday by one of the banks that lending out cash freed up by NAMA as ‘one of the options being considered’, asking for any new social partnership agreement to be brought in front of the House for debate and commenting on the newly instigated Anglo Irish Bank court actions.
Then spoke on the Company Amendment Bill 2009 and the new Public Transport Regulator Bill. Nice to speak on two different pieces of legislation. The Minister for Transport made a change in the bill that I had requested where the new regulator will have the power to compel the public display of new transport licenses. This was in response to my proposals in the Seanad. Nice to secure a change in an important bill.
In the Company Act I made a number of earth shattering contributions around the location of a comma. The earth moved when I made that point. Also the need to be very sparing when making accounting concessions.
The day begun with private session of the European Affairs Committee where we continued our discussion on the role of parliaments post the Lisbon Treaty. We really need to get this one right and we had a vigorous debate on the issue.