I welcome the opportunity to express my confidence in the Ceann Comhairle. Fairness as a politician is essential. What we see today is not fairness. There is no fairness to what the Office of the Ceann Comhairle represents and no fairness to the Ceann Comhairle, only verbal abuse, bullying and permanent outrage. What we witnessed last week would not be tolerated in any workforce or workplace. The pictures circulated that tell the story are pure embarrassing. What we are seeing from the parties opposite today are grandstanding, a populist stunt and opportunism. They seem to think that confidence in the Ceann Comhairle is a selection at a pick and mix sweet display. Just a few weeks ago, they were all more than happy to express confidence in the Ceann Comhairle when her ruling on the Regional Independent Group suited them. Now they believe that because a decision did not go their way, they can put the confidence back into display and choose no confidence instead. With all the challenges facing our country, the parties opposite choose to grandstand on this. What we have witnessed from the combined Opposition, led by the Sinn Féin troops and aided by serial hard left, is a situation where, unless the minority on the other side of the House is in agreement, we get not total opposition but attempts at chaos, disruption and bullying, and made-up complete untruths about nods and winks and even thumbs up.

Sentiment score: 0.14

The Deputies opposite believe they have a veto. Let me say there is no such veto. We all fought an election and the people had their say. We came together on this side of the House to form a Government and those opposite tried to disrupt the process and lost. We put forward modest changes to Standing Orders to ensure everyone's mandate in the Dáil would be respected.

Sentiment score: -0.05

They objected to that. We put it to a vote and they lost. Sinn Féin has a chequered view of the ballot box and it really only plays second fiddle to its agenda. Its stated objective is to undermine the Dáil and Government and create mayhem. We know of its lack of loyalty to the institutions of the State.

Sentiment score: 0.05

The Government is about respecting the rights of Deputies democratically elected to this House - all of them. We take our direction from the people, the people who voted for us last November urging us to form a Government and run the country. It is from the people that we take our orders, not from Belfast or anywhere else.

Sentiment score: 0.16