Deputy Mary Lou McDonald- speech from 15 Sep 2021

We are here this evening because of the culture of cronyism at the very heart of this government. We are here because the Taoiseach refuses to do his job. He refuses to hold Minister Simon Coveney to account. Minister Simon Coveney sought to make up a job for a friend and a former colleague and when caught red-handed he went about covering his tracks. He destroyed records that he was obliged to keep under law. And twice, twice fed a cock and bull story to a committee of this Oireachtas. This is, by any standard, an abuse of office. And Sinn Fein was left with no option but to move a no-confidence motion. But Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil go to great lengths, as does the Green Party it seems, to cast this fiasco as a non-issue. They want people to tune out, to sweep all of this under the carpet. And the deluded response from the Taoiseach as leader of government this evening is proof positive that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have held power for far too long. And the cronyism that you now so loudly defend is precisely the brand of culture that has squandered the hopes of generations. It is why governments have come and gone but nothing really changed. It is why the basics are denied still to so many. An affordable home, access to health care, a decent living. And these failures persist, not by accident, but because you govern for vested interest in those at the top. And let's face it, that's why you club together to form this shambolic, out-of-touch government. Because you couldn't countenance the idea that a new generation might get what you denied to their parents and grandparents before them. That is, political change and a government that acts in the interests of citizens. You simply couldn't stomach that. Because you believe that government belongs to you and your circle. You believe that power is your right. You believe that you and only you are entitled to govern. And for you, ordinary people are to be kept outside, far away from power. And this is all about power. Who has it, who wields it, and who has access to it. And this fiasco demonstrates again that the well-connected can literally have access to the highest level of government at the touch of a button. But those denied their rights and those campaigning for services are locked out and ignored. Those who regularly stand outside this stall protesting just to get the ear of government. I mean citizens with disabilities, carers, children waiting for surgery, families in Donegal and beyond, whose houses are literally crumbling around them. The list is endless. These, in my view, are the voices deserving of being heard by government. But the truth is that they are drowned out by the politics of cronyism. They have no idea of being heard. They have no idea of being heard by government. So, they have no idea of being heard by governments in the country. They have no idea of being heard with governments in their way and their colleagues. So Taoiseach, Eamon Ryan, Simon Coveney and Leo Varadkar, gentlemen, don't tell people that this doesn't matter, that this isn't serious, that this doesn't affect people's lives. Tonight is about Minister Simon Coveney, but it's also about your toxic culture, that culture that you fester in government. It's about your rotten way of doing business that has robbed so many of a decent life, and it goes to the heart of how politics has been conducted in this state for decades. And gentlemen, it must end here tonight, because this generation wants and deserves far better. And we will have an Ireland that matches the ambition of our people, an Ireland driven by equality and equality only, an Ireland where the right to a home, to healthcare, to a fair economy is the bedrock of our decent society and our brighter future. So I say to all of you who will line up this evening in defence of cronyism, you might delay change, but you will not stop it. The days of the Fianna Fáil Fine Gael Cosi Club are numbered. When you can have the past, that belongs to you, but the future belongs to the ordinary people of this country. I believe that a new and united Ireland is coming. And I, for one, look forward with hope and with enthusiasm to that day when we have a real 32-county republic and a government of change that really serves the people.