Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister must think my decision to support him or not is a foregone conclusion, as he decided that I would not be one of the Independents to ring for support in the last few days. He should remember the saying of an old wise man in west Cork that what is not worth asking for is not worth getting. Votes of confidence or no confidence are very serious matters, as far as I am concerned. My record in the Dáil since 2016 shows that supported the former Minister, Frances Fitzgerald, the then Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Calleary, and Deputy Cowen, who were all wrongly accused. In 2016 I called for a vote of no confidence in the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, because the country was in a deep health crisis. I did not support the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, in the Zappone affair because of the lack of transparency. In my assessment of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage's time as Minister, I agree that he inherited a complete mess and it is going to take time to clean that up. However, the dozens who come to my office and clinics weekly in Skibbereen, Clonakilty, Bandon, Bantry and the surrounds do not have time. They are begging me for a home or not to let them be evicted. They are crying and afraid that they will not be able build a home. I know of others who spent €10,000 on planning for a west Cork island family farm and were still refused permission. It leaves the housing crisis as bad now as at any time in the past. I find it easy to make a decision on the vote on that basis.

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