Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I too will vote for Deputy McDonald for Taoiseach and vote against Deputy Varadkar and Deputy Micheál Martin. In doing so I will seek to use my vote to give effect to the desire for radical change expressed at the election. Before the election we heard from Fine Gael Ministers and various commentators about how the political centre would hold. It did not hold because the extreme neo-liberal centre, represented by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, and the interests of big business, landlords and developers who have benefited from the crises facing ordinary people had delivered those crises for those people; because they delivered housing crises of an unprecedented scale and a health crisis; and because they drive us towards climate disaster. They have been rejected at the ballot box and they should not try to hold on to power. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have said the left has won this election and that it should now implement its programme. Then I ask them to stand aside. They should abstain today and allow an alternative minority Government to be formed. People want an end to the cycle of their rule and want a Government that will improve people's lives, returning the pension age immediately to 65, cutting rents, implementing a rent freeze immediately, increasing the minimum wage and removing restrictions on the rights of workers to organise and to strike. If there is a real prospect of a return of either or both of these parties, that will generate real anger, and that anger will mobilise on the streets in protest.

Sinn Féin should be under no misunderstanding about the nature of my vote. I think Deputy McDonald will have the most votes for Taoiseach today because of my vote and the votes of other left-wing Deputies. These are not votes to be used to strengthen Sinn Féin's hand in negotiations with Fianna Fáil; they are votes for an alternative government excluding Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. While I will vote for Deputy McDonald, I say to her very clearly that if Sinn Féin forms a Government with Fianna Fáil, it will represent a betrayal of Sinn Féin's voters. Such a Government will not deliver on the change that Sinn Féin's voters and our voters want because Fianna Fáil, like Fine Gael, represents the big business and vested interests that will not allow change, and I will oppose such a Government. For real change in people's lives, what we need is not just an alternative Government, but a left Government with socialist policies and a programme that prioritises the needs of people and our environment, not the profits of big business. We need a Government that would break with the reliance on the market in housing; introduce real rent controls and rent cuts and a massive public housebuilding programme; introduce a national health service, taking the private hospitals into the public system; and take radical climate action by taking big polluters into democratic public ownership. An alternative Government combined with mobilisations on the streets can be an important step towards that change we need.

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