Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is a bad man who never made a mistake or, as Deputy Michael Healy-Rae said, a man who never made a mistake never made anything. The Taoiseach made many mistakes and his Government was punished severely by the electorate at the previous general election. However, the party colleagues who remained and Independent Deputies gave him a second chance, which he has completely blown.

He has come in here this evening blowing his own trumpet again. He will definitely get a place in the Artane boy's band or the Mayo pipe band when he retires. The Taoiseach said that he will not apologise for his record when it comes to child protection because it was at his direction that the referendum to enshrine the rights of children in the Constitution was held and the Children First guidelines were put on a statutory footing. I voted against that. I was the only person here who campaigned against it. Look at the mess we have now. The Taoiseach also said that he appointed the first Minister for children. The current Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, is doing a reasonable job but the Taoiseach tried to trip her up the other day in terms of the confusion around when and where he met her. The Taoiseach changed his story in that regard three times last night.

During a motion of no confidence in the Taoiseach a number of years ago I gave him the benefit of the doubt but he blew that as well. As I said, all he is doing is blowing his own trumpet. I am surprised that the Taoiseach did not refer to the "recovery" in his speech tonight. What happened to the recovery? It has gone down the river in the flood. The phrases we are hearing now are "damage limitation" "cover-up", "deceit" and "deception". The Taoiseach said in his statement tonight that he was going to ensure a recovery through use of the fruits of a growing economy yet there is a continued failure to tackle the serious challenges in the health services. Given the statistics we heard in that regard last week, the Taoiseach and his Ministers should hang their heads in shame. They were found out when they could not suppress them any further. The health service is an appalling vista. The Taoiseach, or whoever drafted his speech for this evening, neglected to mention that, yet he has come in here this evening expecting people to vote confidence in this Government.

I also opposed the establishment of Tusla. It is a mess. As in the case of the HSE, the people involved in Tusla are accountable to nobody. The Government will not hold them to account but this House will hold the Government to account. If we cannot hold it to account the people will do so soon. I said before that they were waiting in the long grass and they were. They made their decision with the peann luaidhe and they will do it again. The people are sick and tired of this Government's deception, deceit, dishonesty and the spreading of outrageous misinformation by spin doctors.

The Government has a cheek to table this motion of confidence in itself.

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