Try as you may wish, Taoiseach, with all the tools of deflection, there was one person and one side of the House that undermined democracy yesterday and it was the Government.

Hear, hear.

Yes, you get to defend your rights as a Government. You have assembled your Government between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Lowry Independents. That is your prerogative - I absolutely recognise that - but you do not get to put together the Opposition.

Hear, hear.

That is the point. The most basic rule of the functioning of this place is the distinction between the Government exercising its prerogatives and the Opposition holding it robustly to account. You do not like accountability, Micheál Martin - cry me a river, because you will be held to account. The other basic necessity is the independence and absolute impartiality of the Ceann Comhairle. Very regrettably, yesterday that has been decimated. The Ceann Comhairle no longer enjoys the confidence of the Opposition. I will ask her again to reflect on her position. To be clear, if necessary we will move a no-confidence motion in her.

Hear, hear.

I thank the Deputy and call the Taoiseach to respond.

From the very get-go of this Dáil, you have made the life of the Ceann Comhairle impossible.

You did that by pulling a stroke.

I endeavoured to speak yesterday. There has been very little commentary on this but it will have been clear to anyone who watched this on television yesterday. I endeavoured to speak yesterday for three minutes in response to Deputy McDonald.

You could have just accepted her ruling.

Her Deputies, in a co-ordinated, strategic way, determined deliberately to make sure I did not get the opportunity to speak.

You would not answer the questions.

Deputies Doherty and Carthy and so on were orchestrated to shout me down, barrack and not let me have the right to speak. That is what happened yesterday. New precedents have been set in this Dáil by your co-ordinated strategy.

By the Taoiseach and his grubby deal.

I know what you are about. You have been at it for a long time and your tactics are well known. However, they will be met by steel on this side of the House. You are not going to run the House, Deputy McDonald, and Sinn Féin will not run the House.

Hear, hear.

You are trying to run the Opposition and that is the crux of the problem here.

I am open to working with people as I have over the past five years on an ongoing basis.

You did not even meet us.

I have been very clear from day one-----

I thank the Taoiseach.

-----about what Sinn Féin has been about in this Dáil. It was manifest on day one.

Taoiseach, the time is up.

What has he got on you?

New precedents have been set. I do not believe this Dáil will ever be the same again-----

Because of what you have done.

-----because of what has transpired over the past few weeks. It will never be the same again.