Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

On a personal level, I congratulate the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, on his soon-to-be elevation to Taoiseach. I recognise that this must be a very proud day for him, his partner, his family and his many political supporters.

I wish him well because we need him to do well as Taoiseach. It would be great to think a changing of the guard represented a change in the kind of politics we have had in this country for the past number of years. We desperately need a departure from the kind of politics we have seen, which has resulted in public confidence in the political system being at an all-time low, has left so many people behind and many others struggling just to survive. There are two issues which do not augur well in that regard. The first is the issue raised by many other speakers of Deputy Varadkar's welfare cheats campaign which was a serious error. It was nasty, ill-founded, disingenuous and wasteful. The second is what happened yesterday at the last Cabinet meeting where a decision was taken to appoint the outgoing Attorney General to a plum judicial position bypassing the normal procedures that are required. This represented the worst kind of crony politics. The acquiescence of the Minister, Deputy Ross, in it is the height of hypocrisy and establishes this kind of pork barrel politics as now acceptable within this Government. It puts Tom Parlon very much in the ha'penny place.

The phrase the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, used today in the media is "the republic of opportunity". It is an interesting phrase and it will be interesting to know just exactly what it means. Is he talking about equality of opportunity where people who are already strong, healthy, well-positioned and well-connected can avail of opportunities or is he talking about the much more challenging approach which is to ensure equality of outcome? He needs to have the courage to make the kinds of deep interventions and investment required to lift people out of the abject poverty which unfortunately so many of our people are living in. It will be interesting to see which of those opportunities he is talking about. Does he have the courage and political foresight to bring about the kind of fundamental reform that is required? There is a glaring requirement to act on corruption and white collar crime and to restore public confidence in the rule of law both within public life and the business community. An independent anti-corruption agency is needed for that to be done. I hope Deputy Varadkar will take up the Social Democrats proposal on it. He has a unique opportunity to do something of real, lasting impact in our health service. There is now a report before him that has full cross-party agreement on how to bring about an equal and efficient public health system. Please do not squander that opportunity.

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