Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

-----therefore, I will start by saying that I have no confidence in this Government whether it is led by Deputy Enda Kenny, Deputy Leo Varadkar or Deputy Simon Coveney. It is not just about policing, even though the Government's record on policing is so shocking and so poor. It is also about our health service. It is about a country with waiting lists so long it is ranked 35th out of 35 European countries on accessibility to health services. It is about housing. Despite a housing and homelessness crisis, local authority house building under this Government is at its lowest level since the 1970s. It is about workers' rights. Under this Government, a company which makes a profit of €250 million every year, Tesco, can attempt to cut wages by 20% and organise a crude campaign of union busting without this Government so much as lifting a little finger to outlaw that union busting campaign. Meanwhile, workers at Bus Éireann face wage cuts of more than €7,000 a year while the sole shareholder, the Minister, Deputy Ross, stands idly by.

The Ministers, Deputies Varadkar and Coveney, may not be as clumsy as the Taoiseach when it comes to telling tall tales but they all support the same policies and the Government they are all part of is unworthy of confidence.

My constituency colleague, Deputy Billy Kelleher, was very interesting on "Morning Ireland" this morning. He was asked three times if he had confidence in the Government and three times he refused to say "Yes" or "No". He was asked four times if he had confidence in the Taoiseach and four times he refused to say "Yes" or "No". Instead of a proper answer, all he would say was that he was confident the Government would continue. Deputy Kelleher's hapless interview aptly summed up the Fianna Fáil position. The reality is that the Government may well continue but only as a result of being propped up by Fianna Fáil. It may not yet be a grand coalition of the right but it is getting very close to it.

This is a coalition of forces that may well face some real opposition in the weeks ahead. That opposition will be mounted on the picket lines, with nurses fighting for a decent health service, other health service workers fighting for decent compensation after years of austerity and, if the talks do not make serious concessions, bus workers fighting for decent pay. We will support those workers to the hilt and will step up our fight for a left alternative, a general election and a left-wing Government in this country.

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