Dáil debates

Thursday, 11 October 2018

Resignation of Minister: Statements

 

4:25 pm

Photo of Mick WallaceMick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Government threw Deputy Fitzgerald under the bus. We were very critical of her as Minister for Justice and Equality but we did not go after her head. The third interim report of the disclosures tribunal was published earlier by Mr. Justice Charleton. It is an excellent report. It does no harm to Deputy Fitzgerald or to the Comptroller and Auditor General - the same Comptroller and Auditor General that the Government allowed the Department of Finance and the then Minister for Finance to challenge.

He did a wonderful job on his investigation into how the process was handled on Project Eagle and he got bugger all support from the Government. What the Government has done has changed bugger all. It can get rid of the former Minister, Deputy Denis Naughten, for making mistakes and it can also get rid of other Ministers but what changes? How are things being done differently? The National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, has cost more than €20 billion but the Government does not want to know and is prepared to turn a blind eye to it. The malpractice is frightening and the Government does not want to know.

I gave the Taoiseach the benefit of the doubt and I still respect him but the Government's failure to deal with the housing crisis is mind-boggling. The way the Government is approaching the crisis will not sort it out and is unfair to the people of Ireland. I honestly believe the Taoiseach should dissolve this Parliament, call an election and let the Irish people decide where we will go from here. God knows what the mix will be afterwards but the Taoiseach should give people a chance to decide. This has been a dog's dinner of a place since 2016. The confidence and supply arrangement is nonsense, rubbish. Fine Gael could even form a proper coalition with Fianna Fáil or Sinn Féin afterwards but it is in the interests of the people that the Government go to the country and let it decide. This is the craziest building on the planet.

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