Results 19,121-19,140 of 21,499 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: 20. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the World Economic Forum. [29327/22]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: As was recognised at the World Economic Forum, the world is facing an unprecedented energy crisis. In reality, we have yet to experience the full impact of Russia's entrenched aggression against Ukraine on Europe's energy supply. Collectively, we face a massive challenge to counter climate change, forge a new path in energy production and secure a cleaner future for our island. The...

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is a 15-minute slot. Sinn Féin tabled its motion of no confidence in the Government opposite because we believe that change is needed now more than ever. The Government in those benches is out of touch, clearly out of ideas and now out of time - a Government that is unravelling before our very eyes, which has lost the support of the people, if indeed it ever had it. Last week it...

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is one designed to prop up extortionate house prices and to saddle people with additional debt, and the Taoiseach boasts that people in desperation will reach for that measure. That is nauseating. The scourge of homelessness is back to record levels. People in families who never thought that they would ever be in such an horrific situation find themselves in emergency accommodation,...

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: Let me suggest that the Minister be at the front of the queue when this Government packs its bags to go. It is time now for a housing Minister who will implement policies that turn the tide with a housing strategy that really matches the scale of the challenge because housing can be fixed. There is no doubt about that-----

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----but it will require a new Government with the right priorities-----

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----making the right choices. Simply put, we need a government that builds public homes on public land at a massive scale and these must be homes-----

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----that ordinary people can afford to rent or buy.

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: Strike two against this failed Government relates to health. Under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, so many are denied the medical care that they badly need. Our hospitals are chronically overcrowded and we have a never-ending trolley crisis. Waiting lists have ballooned to record levels. Children with conditions, such as scoliosis or spina bifida, wait years for life-changing surgery....

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Government will instead wait for 12 weeks before intervening. Ministers are quick to homilise and to tell those of us in opposition that we do not have a monopoly on empathy for people who are suffering.

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: I agree with that, but a government does not get to stop at empathy. The Government does not get to empathise and then do nothing for people who are overwhelmed by a cost-of-living crisis, the likes of which we have not seen since the 1980s. It is the responsibility of Government to act because empathy without help or action is pity. Workers and families do not want the pity of Government;...

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: I speak directly to the Independent Deputies whose support keeps this week an ineffective Government in power. We have all had ringside seats to witness the repeated incompetence of this coalition. These parties have failed the people of the Independent Deputies' constituencies and all they get from them are shrugs of the shoulders, excuses, alibis and heckling - they are good at that. Let...

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: With their eyes wide open, that is the question each of the Independent Deputies will answer with his or her vote today.

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: Two years ago, people voted for change in massive numbers.

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: They voted for a new direction, for a fresh start and for a better future. Workers and families backed Sinn Féin and others who promised change-----

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----and they wanted a party and people at Cabinet who would speak for them and govern for them, but Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens could not stomach that and could not stand the thought of a Government led by a party that would prioritise the well-being of ordinary people-----

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----over vested interests, the insiders and the golden circles.

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: What did they do? They clubbed together to stop change. In doing that, they planted the seeds of their own demise and the Government's failure because, make no mistake about it: this is a Government that was born out of necessity, not ambition; formed out of a self-serving desire to keep things the same, rather than to drive progress-----

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----and cobbled together to defend the interests of those at the top, rather than ordinary people, the very definition of cynicism, cynical politics and a cynical Government.

Confidence in Government: Motion (12 Jul 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: And so, it is farcical that the Taoiseach proposes to hand the keys of his office back to the Tánaiste in December to carry on as normal, because it is very clear that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been in power for far too long and, by God, families and workers throughout the land have paid a heavy price for that. More and more people see that we need a change of Government,...