Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I speak this evening in absolute opposition to the Taoiseach's motion of confidence in himself and his Government. He leads a Government that is without purpose and devoid of direction, stumbling from one crisis to the next. They have lost any authority to govern and that authority of course derives from their guardians in Fianna Fáil. The Fianna Fáil position is that it wants to ensure that this Government survives. The latest scandal to engulf Fine Gael and the so-called Independents is caused by Fine Gael's perpetual and disgraceful handling of the campaign of vilification against Maurice McCabe and other Garda whistleblowers. Fine Gael has lurched from one justice and policing crisis to another. Whistleblowers, brave citizens, have been the target of campaigns of abuse and harassment from within An Garda Síochána, enabled by this Government's behaviour. In no other modern state would these actions be tolerated, yet under the watch of two parties that have dominated politics here since partition, this is the state that we are in. Why? It is because between them Fine Gael and particularly Fianna Fáil are responsible for a culture of insiderism, strokes, cronyism, corruption, graft, cute-hoorism, brown envelopes, dig-outs and whatever you are having yourself Micheál.

See this speech in context