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

As my colleague Deputy Paul Murphy said last night, the Labour Party manifesto, on reforming politics, referred to it being a time for change. The manifesto made it clear that Ireland would never again suffer from abuses such as those seen in the past and that all positions were to be opened up to qualified candidates.

After the McNulty candidacy, the Tánaiste spoke about new procedures which would be much clearer. Now, this week, those have been bypassed. The Tánaiste is condemned by her own words.

The Labour Party leadership came in tonight in the form of Deputy Brendan Howlin and tried to throw smoke and mirrors around the whole issue. It was laughable hearing Deputies opposite talking about gender quotas to try to distract us in some way. Then they came along with the charge that anybody supporting this motion is attacking the labour movement because Mr. Begg comes from that movement. What part of the labour movement does Mr. Begg come from? He comes from the part of that movement that earns €137,400 a year - his salary as the general secretary of ICTU - and has a company car. I assume the Tánaiste agrees with that. In other words, he does not represent the many people in the labour movement who do not earn €137,400. He represents the side of the labour movement that consciously worked to ensure no protests took place when the working class people of this country were sacrificed to pay the gambling debts of developers, bondholders and the wealthy elite.

Since the Labour Party has come in tonight trying to defend the appointment of Mr. Begg, it has put his position up for debate. In 2010, he was the head of the trade union movement in Ireland, when the beginnings of €16,000 was taken out of the pockets of every man, woman and child to pay the debts of the bondholders. Mr. Begg retired in March and who gave the eulogy at his retirement do only the Tánaiste. She thanked him for his role in supporting the work of the Labour Party. What part of cronyism is that? The Tánaiste appoints one of her own, who supported her in her work. I know the position only pays €20,000, which is chicken feed in the pockets of David Begg but to other people, it is a serious amount of money. Mr. Begg was involved in Eircom and Aer Lingus when both companies were privatised, about which he did nothing. Recently, he testified to the banking inquiry as to why he did nothing as a non-executive director of the Central Bank. He admitted that supervision was neither effective nor appropriate in that context. This is the David Begg for whom the Tánaiste has rushed to bypass the selection procedure.

Tonight we are debating a motion of no confidence. The Government has put up many reasons that we should have confidence in the Tánaiste. As Shakespeare said, "let me count the ways" that I do not have confidence in her. Since coming to high office, the Tánaiste has rendered useless through over-use so many adjectives used in the past, such as treacherous, disgraceful and incredible. Even by the standards of right wing Labour, which has gone into coalitions for the past generation, in her role as Minister for Social Protection, a portfolio so integral to so many vulnerable, working and unemployed people, women and children, she has shown no mercy when asked to swing her axe by Fine Gael.

She began with a propaganda campaign about welfare abuse when she took office in that Department, paving the way for an attack on all of the safety nets that people need in society. Most startling is her attack on women, mainly working class women. Funnily, she got elected on the back of Mary Robinson's election in the Mulhuddart ward. Since coming into this office, she has proceeded to cut child benefit, which attacks every woman in this country - a broken promise by the Labour Party-----

See this speech in context