Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Who will the Minister for Health blame next? He has no bother finding €12 million for the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018, but we have to wait for everything else. All of this suggests that political crisis has been avoided by mere chance up to now. Despite the changes that are being made today, the Government is on its knees. It would be no great sorrow to say goodbye to it, as long as it does not mean the end of the national broadband plan. The Government does not care about broadband or ordinary people. As it proved in this month's budget, it cares about the bankers and the big people. It missed the opportunity to tax the fat cats, to tax AIB on its huge profits, to tax the new landlords in Tipperary who are wreaking havoc on us all, to have any meaningful impact or result and to show that it cares about ordinary people. It can move the deckchairs, as Deputy Broughan has said, but the Titanic is well rattled and well shook. The only reason the Government is sticking together is to pass the dastardly Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018 with the help of the main Opposition party and the other Opposition parties. This purely regressive legislation goes far beyond anything that is in place in England or anywhere else. It is shameful. That, and nothing else, is the glue that is keeping the Government together.

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