Mr Speaker, I smell a rat; I see him forming in the air and darkening the sky; but I will nip him in the bud.

While arguing for a bill Roche once said "It would surely be better Mr. Speaker to give up not only a part but if necessary even the whole of our constitution to preserve the remainder!"
While these Irish bulls have led many writers to portray Roche as a buffoon other biographers have interpreted them not as blunders but as calculated attempts to disarm opposition to ministerial policies through humour. He chose not to attempt to enter the British House of Commons and retired on a government pension until his death married but childless in 1807.