Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I could talk about my friend Dermot, whose 87 year old mother went into hospital this day last week with chronic pain. She ended up breaking her hip in that hospital - the Bon Secours - and was sent to Beaumont Hospital over the weekend, where they would not operate on her. She was then sent to the Mater Hospital and was only operated on days later after sitting on a trolley. I could talk about the hundreds of people who turned out for a school meeting in Lusk last night because their children cannot get access to proper decent facilities in the community school there. We could talk about the fact that the average house price is now €350,000 in Dublin, meaning a couple would have to have an income of €90,000 to get a mortgage.

Only 7% of the population is in that category. We have a crisis in the State in needs that are not excessive and which people thought were normal such as the right to health care when one is sick. The belief people have that their children can be educated and given the opportunity which they perhaps did not have and the idea of a roof over one's head were delivered on in the past but are under threat now. We have a serious crisis in the State. I do not have time to develop those points but the challenges are huge. There is an incredibly sad irony in the fact that as we sat here today the Charleton inquiry was under way. We heard evidence that 11 of the 15 phones that Mr. Justice Charleton needs to access are lost. Nobody can find them - surprise, surprise. We heard that Martin Callinan was talking broadly about Maurice McCabe being a "kiddie fiddler" and that nobody should listen to him. We heard today in the Committee of Public Accounts about the ongoing crisis in An Garda Síochána.

I am not being personal but the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, has shown no interest in any of these issues previously. If we are to believe the media, he did not want that job. He was not happy to get it. I can guarantee him we have made up our minds to make it absolutely the case that he will not be happy in that job unless the hard decisions, which unfortunately were not taken by his predecessor, are taken. There are two very simple measures which could be taken immediately that would signal to the people that the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar's Government is different from the last one and that he intends to clean up the show and to deliver confidence. The first issue is the role of the Garda Commissioner who has lost all credibility. Removing her from that position would demonstrate leadership and seriousness and it would give an absolute boost to the men and women of An Garda Síochána and the people the length and breadth of the country. It would be a fitting conclusion to the journey started with Maurice McCabe all those years ago. If the Taoiseach does not do it, he will be letting him down.

It is in that context that I found yesterday's announcement of the promotion of the Attorney General to a lucrative position in the Court of Appeal as utterly shocking. I do not say facetiously that she is probably the worst Attorney General in the history of the State. She lost court cases taken against the Government and her advice in the children's referendum was found to be wrong. She was roundly discredited by Mr. Justice Fennelly as being the catalyst for the removal of Martin Callinan and putting the former Minister for Justice and Equality and the Taoiseach in an invidious position. That a person would be given a job he or she supposedly did not look for, in that context, is utterly shocking. I do not have any further time. I want the Taoiseach to enjoy his night tonight but I think he has made a mistake. I hope he thinks on some of the points because, as Deputy Wallace said earlier, we want him to succeed. It is in the interest of the people that he does. Unfortunately, his Cabinet decisions do not give us an enormous degree of confidence in that regard.

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