Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

That was then. A few months ago in respect of the McNulty controversy the Tánaiste said: “What I am determined to see is that we have procedures and processes which are clear to everybody.” Thanks to the Government we have procedures and processes which are absolutely clear to everybody. It is also clear to everybody that the Government and the Tánaiste in particular, the Leader of the Labour Party, chose to bypass those particularly clear processes.

The Tánaiste stands condemned by her own words and by the platform on which she and her party were elected. This is absolutely inexcusable but that has not stopped the Labour Party trying to find a way to excuse it. The excuse of choice as far as I can tell from the Labour Party is that articulated by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, saying it is not against the rules, which is what the Ministers opposite were trying to express a moment ago. Is that the best the bringers of the democratic revolution, the promisers of political reform, the slayers of cronyism in Irish political life, can do? It is the equivalent of the dog ate my homework. We know it is not against the rules. Nobody is saying it is against the rules. There is a problem with the rules but that is not the point. Is it right or wrong? Is it cronyism or not? Would the Tánaiste have appointed, in the manner in which she has appointed David Begg, someone of similar or the exact same qualifications who was not personally known to her and was not a political supporter of the Labour Party? The answer is obvious.

The second excuse of choice is that articulated by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy White, on the radio this morning, that nobody has credibly challenged David Begg’s qualifications. I have no idea if David Begg is suitably qualified or not. I am not sure any of the Ministers opposite have any idea whether he is qualified but I am very strongly of the opinion that David Begg has not been appointed because of those qualifications, appropriate or not, but because he is known to the Tánaiste and because of his support for the Labour Party and what the Tánaiste previously referred to as services to the Labour movement. For that, one can read services to the Labour Party in keeping a lid on the Labour movement throughout the time the Labour Party has been in government and he has been general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, working to prevent his members protesting and striking against this Government.

We all know the Government has a big majority in this House. We hope that perhaps some Labour backbenchers will wrestle with their consciences, that their consciences may for once win out and they may not vote confidence in the Tánaiste. We know it is likely that tomorrow night, with the Government’s big majority, the Tánaiste will get a resounding vote of confidence in the Dáil. That the Government can have such a poll here only speaks to how wildly out of touch are all the establishment parties. There is a poll running in the TheJournal.iein which 80% of people say they have no confidence in the Tánaiste. If there are further revelations tomorrow about other appointments, that figure will rise. In five or six weeks’ time people will have a chance to vote no confidence in this Government, the Labour Party, and the Tánaiste. They will have the chance to say "No" to broken promises and political cronyism and to demand a political revolution against the establishment parties, to clear them out and build a different type of politics and society.

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