The Irish people have shown extraordinary restraint in the past six to 12 months despite mounting economic pressure says Senator John Paul Phelan.
Senator Phelan was elected to Kilkenny County Council in 1999 for the Piltown Electoral Area. First elected to Seanad Eireann in July, 2002 and currently the Fine Gael’s Seanad Spokesperson on Enterprise, Trade & Employment.
Senator Phelan told the Seanad that opposition politicians who expressed concern over people “showing too much anger” might get out a little more and talk to them.
“They [the public] are being extraordinarily understanding of some of the decisions that those government made over the past eight years that have brought us to the pass at which we are now,” Senator Phelan said.
Speaking about budgetary process changes, Senator Phelan added, “Fine Gael has produced alternative budgets for the past three years and brought forward numerous proposals, none of which has been listened to by the Government.
“It was interesting to hear Senator Ormonde and others on the Government side speak about confrontational politics. They want to listen to the Opposition now that they have made a hames of everything. They did not listen to us for the past seven years when we had constructive proposals, especially for dealing with the excessive reliance of the economy on the property sector.
“I even recall the Taoiseach, when Minister for Finance, laughing from the ministerial chair in the Chamber at Opposition Senators who warned about the difficulties in the property market. I will not be lectured to by Senator Ormonde on this or any other issue,” the 32 year-old Senator warned.
The senator feels there has been an insufficient level of debate in the Seanad since its summer return. He said, “I want to bring up an issue concerning school transport, a small but significant issue for the families concerned. For the past 18 months I have asked the Leader for a debate on the allocation of catchment areas in the school transport scheme.
“In my part of County Kilkenny it is a significant issue because the areas have not been revised since the 1960s. It is time they were revised because many families throughout the country are undergoing hardship as a result,” Senator Phelan concluded.
