Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We will not support the nomination of any Fianna Fáil or, for that matter, Fine Gael Taoiseach. There are many reasons for that but we saw one of them this week when Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were implicated in an attempt by so-called Independents, the Healy-Raes and the Regional Independent Group to insult the intelligence of the people of this country and to undermine our democracy by trying to claim they were in opposition when they are a party to the programme for Government and are committed to supporting that Government. Thankfully, a united Opposition and public outrage has forced them to backtrack on this absurd proposal.

It is utterly outrageous that, when we are facing almost three months without a functioning Dáil, there is going to be yet another two weeks off. As somebody asked me on the street as I was coming in here today, do those making the proposal think that children living in emergency accommodation are going to get two weeks' respite from the hardship and suffering they are enduring? Do they think that section 39 workers, nurses and the health workers who are run off their feet in our hospitals are going to get two weeks' respite from the stress they are under? Do they think people who are in pain while on waiting lists for hospital procedures are going to get two weeks' respite from the suffering they are enduring? It is an insult for this government to start off with another two-week break when we should be meeting to discuss the crisis of housing and homelessness that is blighting the lives of tens of thousands of people in this country and the absolutely disastrous situation in our health service that has led those section 39 workers and health workers to ballot for industrial action en masse. We oppose this nomination.

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