Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I met people as well but I did not betray them like Deputy McGrath has done. He made commitments. This is the second time he has done this. Deputy Finian McGrath was never an Independent and was never on the left.

Deputy Zappone and myself were on a couple of programmes putting the Independent case. She might remember that I joked she would be the Minister for Education and I would be the Minister for Finance. If we got enough Independents and enough left people we would run the government, and get rid of Deputy Noonan and his conservative policies. The question is, however, what can be done? What can somebody like Deputy Zappone actually do this year? The reality is that the 2016 budget was decided and fixed on all the key elements. Reading the stability programme update one can see that we suddenly, by the stroke of a pen from our European colleagues in Eurostat, lost a big chunk of money. Although he is not in the Chamber now, Deputy Noonan is anxiously worried about what is going to happen. What room for manoeuvre is there in the Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil so-called Independent Government? There is none.

We still desperately need a broadly-based, left-of-centre government of change. In the few months that this Government will last, we have to try to build together on these benches a strong alternative to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, to ensure that we have a voice for those who desperately need it most of all.

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