Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In making the case for confidence in this Government and in the Minister, I acknowledge the recovery that has yet to be led and the healing that this Government must and will help with. In making the case for confidence in the efforts of Simon Coveney and the Government, I acknowledge the work that lies ahead, work this Government is committed to undertaking.

Let me deal with the charges that have been made against this Government and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, this evening. Let us look at the track record of this Government and what it has achieved across recent months, while always acknowledging how much more we need to do. Some 7 million vaccinations have been administered, 500,000 people have come off the pandemic unemployment payment and the building of 3,300 homes was commenced throughout July. There is much more to do. There are also tests in politics and tests in the progress the Irish people want us to meet. These are the tests this Government is striving to meet, a contributor to which is the Minister, Deputy Coveney, in his work.

I have heard the allegations of cronyism and of some alleged elite. There are 145 reasons that charge does not stand up tonight, which are the 145 appointments made by the Government with the assistance of the semi-State body, the Public Appointments Service, that advises the Government on appointments that are made to leading positions in semi-State bodies. It is the kind of organisation that was put in place to respond to the concerns that Deputy Howlin has and is implemented and overseen by this Government. That is proper government. It is the way that the Government has made those decisions.

That leads on to the next point on the charges made against the Minister, Deputy Coveney. We have acknowledged what went wrong in that process, as he has. As other Deputies have said, when the long hours needed to be put in to defend our country on Brexit and to put together the proposition that led to the backstop, when a political crisis - how we could respond to Brexit - emerged, nobody did more and nobody worked harder with more integrity, patriotism and competence than Simon Coveney. If you are going to make the charge about a single point, and I hope all who are making this charge have records of perfection, unblemished records they can stand over, let us look at the man, his track record and his character. That is why we on the Government benches make the case on his behalf and on behalf of our efforts.

We do so in the face of a party whose members say they want better local services but they want to abolish the local property tax. They are in favour of doing more about the climate crisis but they want to abolish carbon taxes.

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