Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Zappone affair cannot be explained simply by the sense of entitlement felt by merchant princes. Fine Gael has been in power for more than ten years now. Its Ministers believe that power is theirs by right. The Varadkar leaks affair showed that last year; the Zappone affair shows it this year. As well as being the Minister most caught up in the lobbying, cronyism and deception of the Zappone affair, Deputy Coveney is just one of the Ministers whose fingerprints are all over this housing crisis, who have drastically underfunded mental health, and who continue to deny our nurses a Covid bonus for their sacrifices during the pandemic. I could go on. I have no confidence in the Minister, no confidence in the Government and no confidence in the system they defend.

Fianna Fáil Deputies will use their votes tonight to keep the Minister in office and no doubt he will then believe he is out of the gap. However, the Minister will be somewhat tarnished and the Government will be somewhat damaged. As Covid recedes and class issues re-emerge, I strongly suspect the Minister and the Government will increasingly find themselves on the back foot from this point on right up until the general election.

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