Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach seems to have learned nothing have after his reshuffle today. On 23 May 2014, his Government took a hammering of Brazil v. Germany proportions but instead of apologising and taking full responsibility for that as Luiz Felipe Scolari did, we are seeing a continuation of the same tactics. In case the Taoiseach is confused, the message the electorate delivered was that it wanted a lifting of austerity and did not believe in the Government's fake recovery yet the Taoiseach did not mention the word "austerity" once in his speech nor did the Tánaiste.

The Taoiseach did not announce one policy change. We have seen a few new faces and the rejigging of a few new Departments. However, the strongest message the electorate delivered was to the Labour Party. We have a new leader and a new Tánaiste. She mentions the buzz words "low and middle-income earners" - working-class people that she and her party betrayed in the election. She discovered last weekend that there is a housing crisis and that there is a problem with low pay. Today, she announced that the Labour Party has full control of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. Is there any chance of an actual house being built any time soon for the people out there? The Tánaiste spoke about increasing supply by 2020. There are people in her constituency contacting my office who are living in cars and tents in other people's gardens. What is she going to do about that or is it all just window dressing like the Threshold help line the Government set up recently? Following questioning, I discovered that this helpline has helped six people in three weeks. The Tánaiste seems to be continuing the same policy.

Has Labour got anything to say about Big Phil who is off to Europe with his big fat salary having inflicted the hated property tax on tens of thousands of workers in this country?

See this speech in context