Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCeann Comhairle. In the course of a conversation with a constituent last week, I learned that it was 100 years ago, last Wednesday, since the Black and Tans had burned her grandfather’s creamery. He had to go on the run, leaving his family, with the price of £1,000 on his head. Afterwards, I received a message from her saying that her grandparents were committed to a republic, a better world, equality of access to education and employment and their democratic right to vote. She mentioned equality of access. For these just rights, she said, they risked their livelihoods and their lives. Are we, as Teachtaí Dála, staying true to this legacy? Spin will not paper over these cracks. Are we now going to deliver a vote of confidence in this Tánaiste in the light of the leaking of confidential information which has been well discussed? We know the Tánaiste believes that every Member of this House routinely leaks information and that a culture of spin and calculated leaks is completely acceptable.

We remember the promise of the so-called democratic revolution of former Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, but our lot was a bank bailout and the continued prosperity of the well-heeled, the golden circle. Who benefits from this type of cronyism? It is banks, the insurance industry and Fine Gael’s friends. What fate is in store for those who are not well-connected? Weeks ago, we had the survivors of mother and baby homes being ignored and dismissed by this very Government, whereas those who know the Tánaiste personally get confidential documents posted to them without question. It shows the insidious nature of insider politics. This, as the phrase in Kerry goes, leads to “daoine atá fágtha in áit na leathphingine”, those who are neglected or left behind. That seems to be the fate of rural Ireland with this Tánaiste and his party. Can people in rural Ireland enter the golden circle, the prism of privilege, the fortress of the favoured? School secretaries, who have no pension or job security and are on a two-tier pay scale, certainly cannot enter. I know one school secretary who worked for 28 years under these conditions. These secretaries were promised help but were then told that to help would be to open the floodgates. The Debenhams workers I saw in Tralee at the weekend certainly cannot enter. They are maintaining their vigil through the November nights with their hopes of assistance from Fine Gael or its partners in Government fading fast. The small inshore fishermen of the south west certainly cannot enter as they see the bays of Kerry literally being cleaned out by the larger boats following the recent High Court case.

Unlike the vulture funds, there will be no rushed legislation for those who choose to maintain a family fishing tradition; certainly not for seasonal workers, tour guides, bar staff and those in music and the arts excluded from the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP; and, finally, certainly not for those who live off the main roads of rural Ireland who cannot access broadband after the populous areas were carved up by the large companies and the State was again left to pick up the tab. One school in Kerry that contacted the Department of Education and Skills to complain about substandard broadband was told to contact their local representatives.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the end of the Siege of Tralee when, among other events, county hall, the seat of local democracy, was burned down by occupying Black and Tans. The Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil-controlled county council does not want to talk about that event or commemorate it in any way. Maybe they are afraid that the motives of those who struggled for equality 100 years ago and remembering men like Frank Hoffman, John Cantillon and Michael Maguire would lay bare the contrast between the promise of then and the reality of now. I oppose the motion.

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