Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I stand in support of the Private Members' business. I have been a Member of this House for six months and have worked with Deputies and Senators in other political parties and Independents alike. Although I disagree with them on a range of issues, I never doubt their sincerity. I cannot say that about Sinn Féin. I doubt that party's Members' sincerity on almost every issue, and this is a prime example. Every decision they take is not about what is right but is based on what is popular. It was for water charges until it was against them. It wanted to leave Europe until it wanted to stay in Europe. It is all fake. The best example of this has been the past few months during Covid. When Sinn Féin was asked if we should enter lockdown again, it could not answer. Why? Because it did not know what the public mood was.

Sinn Féin's politics is about dividing people and communities, pitching certain groups and sectors against each other. It claims to represent the ordinary working class but it does not. It has proven this in Northern Ireland, giving only £100 to people who lost their jobs during Covid. It talks about high moral standards but when most of the party attends a gathering of 2,500 people in Belfast, no one accepts accountability. Sinn Féin seems to think it is believable that someone could have £10,000 in their bank account for six months and not know about it and it claims expenses in the House of Commons while not attending.If this was any other political party in the State, it would be extinct.

Sinn Féin should not accept the €4 million and, as the richest party on the island, the least it should do is pay back the State the €25,000 it wasted last night on a motion of no confidence in a man who stands for everything that is the opposite of Sinn Féin - honesty, integrity and accountability.