John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Your time is up too.

The Minister, Deputy Coveney, may well be the person in the dock today, but what is on trial is a culture of privilege underwritten by the widespread practice of political cronyism within Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The roll of shame that has preceded this scandal is too long to recite. I could go back for many decades. The history of this State is steeped in scandal surrounding both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, the latest scandal being that surrounding Katherine Zappone this summer and the reverse-engineering of a job for her.

Since then we have witnessed a deliberate attempt to cover up the affair by the guilty parties once discovered. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, deliberately misled an Oireachtas committee. He has given contradictory and misleading accounts of his actions and role in the events surrounding this affair. He breached the law by deleting communications critical to our understanding of events and to allow for any transparency in the attempts to decipher his actions.

He has used his position as a senior Minister, alongside his party colleagues, the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, to make up and offer a job to a former colleague on the mooch for a cushy number that would provide access to the corridors of power within the UN. The Taoiseach, the individual with the ultimate responsibility for the conduct of all his Cabinet not just the Fianna Fáil Ministers, has failed in his duty to the people. He has failed to stamp out the toxic culture at the heart of the Government, a culture that has unfortunately existed in both main Government parties since the foundation of the State.

We are witnessing an attempt by the Fianna Fáil leader to deflect attention, telling us, "Move on; there is nothing whatsoever to see here". He will do anything to avoid scrutiny of the facts or his having to hold anybody to account. There is also a collective failure of the Fianna Fáil Party and the Green Party in this. There must be consistent exposure of wrongdoing and it must be done in a manner that cannot be ignored.

It is critical that the truth must come out. The jury, who are the public, have given their verdict and they know damn well what is the truth. They know what is happening here because they have seen it time and time again. They know the Taoiseach is guilty of presiding over a culture of cronyism and rotten politics at the heart of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. He is clearly unable to see the rot at the centre of his Government and the type of politics he represents which makes it evident how out of touch he is and how out of touch is the Government. That is because both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been in power for too long.

I do not have any confidence in the Minister. I have no confidence in the Government whatsoever. It is time for new politics. It is time for a change from this rotten type of politics. We need politics that puts ordinary citizens at its core, not cronies, insiders or the well connected.

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