Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I also think it is a disgrace that the Minister is not here. It is more game playing. He said that the crisis is not of his making, or rather, the crises, and I agree with him but his handling of them has been disastrous, defensive and has lacked any appetite for truth, transparency or accountability. We have spent 18 months dealing with one issue after another, pointing out the fact that he has had no appetite for the truth. This place is disconnected from the real world. Fine Gael and Labour Deputies will get up and vote confidence in the Minister tonight, saying "sure, everything is grand; isn't everything grand". There are not many people who live outside of this place who think that everything is grand. It is a joke; it really is - what they are standing over with the Minister. It has been one sham after another - penalty points, the internal reports, the Roma children, pretending there is no racial profiling, pretending there is no bugging of GSOC, with one weak report after another. Eventually, one public inquiry was set up in the end because the information will come out soon enough anyway. The people do not believe that the Minister has any credibility. The Taoiseach is now backing him 100% and he is losing credibility as well because he is standing over the indefensible. Why did this Government say that it was interested in transparency and accountability? Why did it say that it was interested in doing politics differently, when it is not? It is more of the same. Is anything ever going to change? As long as the Deputies opposite defend the Minister, they are just part of everything that has gone before them. It is a joke.

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