Dáil debates

Wednesday, 14 June 2017

Appointment of Taoiseach and Nomination of Members of Government

 

4:05 pm

Photo of Clare DalyClare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It makes a bit of an irony out of proportionality and inequality and leads us into a situation, which we have heard a lot of tonight, where language is losing its meaning.

I do not claim to know the Taoiseach at all but I remember him as a larger person than he is now when he was a member of Fingal County Council. He usually arrived in late to the meetings - he had probably been at work - with a can of Coke and a Mars bar in his hand. However, I also do not ascribe to the points made by other people earlier who said that he did not distinguish himself in his ministerial offices and that he had not stood out. As far as I am concerned, he did a good job in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. When I had to go to him on issues of health, he distinguished himself to me. I associate myself with the remarks made earlier by Deputy Wallace that we respect him, but that does not mean that we will spare him. It is very much in the context of those remarks and in all sincerity that I can genuinely say that I am utterly gobsmacked and underwhelmed by the announcement of his new Cabinet tonight. In some ways I just cannot believe it. It is not a good sign for his term of office and I genuinely think he has made a serious mistake here tonight.

People identify the Taoiseach as someone with a bit of backbone who is not afraid to stand out from the crowd. He displayed that when he was the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and he was the first Minister that Maurice McCabe went to. We remember the time when we could not get issues about Maurice McCabe's case onto the agenda. He was the Minister to whom Deputy Wallace tabled a question about something else but brought in the whistleblowing points. In fairness to him, he answered Deputy Wallace on those points and put the issue on the record for the first time - showing backbone and balls.

However, we did not see it here tonight. The Cabinet we got is mediocrity and political expediency. Without being derogatory, I know he did not have an abundance of people to play around with, but he could have shaken things up more than he did. By arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, the Taoiseach has ensured that he is on a collision course for an iceberg. To me it has shown that this Government can only be short-lived, helped by its friends in Fianna Fáil.

I could talk about a lot of things but I know that everyone is tired. They justly want to go and spend time with their families and so on.

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