Deputy Micheál Martin - speech from 20 Feb 2020

And I too would like first of all to congratulate every single deputy in the House who has been elected and their families as well because this day is always a very special day for newly elected TDs and it's a day of relief for re-elected TDs but it's also a very colourful day and we had some stars at the show today in terms of the vintage cars that were on display outside in the plinth and I never cease to admire the marvel of the Healey Ray marketing techniques because they're constantly come up with surprises from time to time so it's a colourful day, it's an important day for the families of those who were elected on the first occasion and in line with practice on each occasion when the Dáil has failed to nominate a person to serve as Taoiseach at its first meeting I would like to outline our party's approach to trying to form a government in the coming weeks based on the promises which we made to the nearly half a million people who supported us in the general election we've agreed our priorities for urgent and sustained action that we believe should be delivered by the next government we've also agreed our approach to who we might serve in government with and I want to briefly detail these however first of all it is important to make a point concerning the mandates which we all carry as members of Dáil-Irden there have been often loud and angry claims made in the past two weeks that there is one position which has emerged victorious from the election and that we should simply stay quiet and get in line and don't do so and don't do so has been condemned as part of an elite establishment trying to somehow block the will of the people these are classic populist tropes common on the left and the right where some parties claim that they uniquely represent the people and denies the legitimacy of the mandates held by others every party and deputy elected to this house has both a right and a duty to represent the mandate which they received in order to deliver functioning government compromise is required and this is a belief for which we have been attacked repeatedly in this place but we reject the idea that there is no limit to be set to the compromises you should take demanding that others just stay quiet and abandon their core beliefs in order to grab power because quote sure isn't that what big people do on court is not something we agree with equally the attempt to use profound social problems as a justification for pushing aside legitimate concerns about democratic practices is deeply cynical whether or not you agree with us Fianna Fáil fought the recent election based on a clear set of principles and policy objectives we are committed to trying to trying to form a coalition coalition government which will agree to take urgent and sustained action on these objectives and which respects core principles about what is legitimate behaviour in a democratic republic as we have said repeatedly over recent years we believe that the next government must be based on a belief that state action is required to improve key services and to address emergencies in housing health climate change and the cost of living we are very clear in that we reject the idea that major increases in taxes especially on enterprise can be introduced without causing dramatic damage especially to workers and to public finances however while protecting the core economic strength of our country dramatically more can and must be done we have identified a series of priority areas which we are seeking to discuss with parties and deputies on the overall economic and financial framework for a new government we believe that Ireland must remain an open trading economy with a pro enterprise tax policy there is an opportunity to increase public spending but that and there are significant limits to this we believe that action on every element of the housing emergency is required this must include a major increase in the building of social and affordable housing support to increase the skilled workforce and capacity required to achieve new home building targets and regulation of the rental sector to prevent market distortion and push rent downwards on health we support the implementation of long-term reforms but we believe that more immediate action is also required therefore we want the new government to agree to both short and long-term actions to start with repairing broken relations with health professionals and also to agree to develop mental health services without any further delay the next government must respond to nine years of delay in action on climate change and biodiversity there is no easy way of meeting this challenge action on all fronts is required including carbon taxation a radical approach to renewable energy and dramatically increasing action to not only protect but to restore our natural environment education should be a priority for the next government and in particular supporting schools which serve children in disadvantaged communities and we simply must transform the experiences of many families with children with special needs in terms of their interaction with the state and their education system and we must also urgently address the worst funding crisis in the history of our higher education system we believe a new beginning is required to support both urban and rural communities we need to restore and develop local community development initiatives and to develop a core state community services guarantee protecting rural communities must also involve insisting that the common agricultural policy be properly funded and to do more to help farmers in their roles as stewards of both our most important indigenous industry and our natural environment already this afternoon there are crucial meetings being held at EU level as the teacher has mentioned in relation to multi-annual framework which will have profound consequences for the common agricultural policy and I wish you well in terms of the conduct of those negotiations over the coming weeks we also need a government which will step up the fight against crime and this requires more Gardaí a new approach to community and rural policing tougher legislation to target drug gangs and strengthening the essential role of the Special Criminal Court in bringing to justice people who think they are untouchable we must also put an end to the crisis in our defence forces and restore morale of our military personnel and pride in our services we believe that a new government must also show urgency in relation to Europe and Northern Ireland as we can all see an enormous amount of work is required in relation to securing Northern Ireland's Special Economic Status and Dublin must return to being a leader in the work of challenging sectarianism and building reconciliation a new government must also be resolutely in favour of Ireland being a positive member of the European Union for a new government to succeed it must involve a shared belief in core principles about democratic politics its members must be able to trust the good faith of those they serve with they must be transparent and open with each other and they must reform how government works in key areas these are our priorities for the new government we want to help form as we said both publicly and in private conversations we are seeking to work with deputies which agree with this core approach we understand that no two parties share the exact same priorities and compromises are required but every party is also entitled to set a limit to the compromises they are willing to adopt today and throughout the last two weeks we have been roundly attacked by Sinn Féin and others for insisting that we will abide by our statement to our voters that we will not share government with them and our focus remains our positive agenda for a new government but given the fact that this issue is dominating much of what others are saying and general commentary it is necessary to outline why we hold to our position concerning Sinn Féin and to put it on the record without any rancour I have explained this directly to the Sinn Féin Leader Deputy Macdonald and I will do so briefly here firstly the fact is that the core policies of our parties are irreconcilable on fundamental issues Sinn Féin's position is that there needs to be a radical change in public policy towards what they describe as democratic socialism the party's position is that there needs to be a radical expansion in the role and size of the state which goes well beyond the scope of tackling emergencies in health and housing and this is to be funded by major increases in the taxation of enterprise Sinn Féin has confirmed repeatedly including today that this approach is fundamental to any programme for government which that party might agree we have taken them at their word when they say that the core approach of the next government must be a radical left approach and we simply do not and will not agree with this there is also the fundamental issue that we do not believe that Sinn Féin operates to the same democratic standards which is held by every other party in this house Deputy Macdonald has confirmed that she does not accept any of our criticism that's the entitlement of her party's practices and standards we simply do not agree and this is not simply about the past the past is important and Sinn Féin's efforts to legitimise a murderous sectarian campaign keeps alive a narrative which is used by dissidents to legitimise their campaigns today but this is more fundamentally about today it is about practices which any party which shares government which Sinn Féin must accept as normal every single time an issue arises about the behaviour of people associated with the provisional movement and today's Sinn Féin the response is to attack and dismiss only when the evidence keeps piling up and the political pressure grows is there any movement offers to meet are expressed and calls for cooperation with law enforcement are issued but nothing ever happens no one ever comes forward victims never get justice when I raised the issue of the systematic cover-up of child abuse by the provisional IRA I was called a lowlife by deputies present here today yet when everything turned out to be true those deputies be the old hands or new faces carried on regardless when people accused us of talking about the distant past please remember the case of Robert McCartney a 33 year old father of three stabbed and beat to death 10 years after the ceasefires in the public house full of 70 Sinn Féin activists none of whom admit to seeing anything under pressure many of them were briefly suspended by Sinn Féin but now they continue to prosper in the organisation in fact one of those activists was hand-selected to be an MLA in December and appointed as a minister last month when challenged about what she had to say about the savage murder the new minister claimed not to have noticed she asked to meet the family and called for anyone with information to come forward this is not the past it is today and to be fair I don't think Breej and Stephen Quinn should have had to wait for 13 years for an apology from Sinn Féin in relation to how their beloved son was murdered and indeed the comments that followed his murder repeated anti-semitism is brushed aside as a small slip and let's not forget that there have been allegedly 27 representatives that have resigned from Sinn Féin citing systemic bullying and I would like to make this point as well like Kean Curler that aggressive online abuse towards political opponents is not an oversight it is a strategy and of course there is an approach to government which has received almost no attention in the Dublin based media but has raised enormous concerns in Northern Ireland the use of front groups to receive public funding the forcing of employees and representatives to sign over wages to the party and the operation of a shadow system of control over ministerial decisions are not inventions of political opponents they have been documented in great detail and the glorifying of the provisional IRA isn't an accident of one deputy's exuberance as Deputy McDonnell claims Deputy McDonnell herself has praised provisional IRA units and when she ends speeches with chugging our law I think Deputy McDonnell knows full and well what the use of that phrase means popularised first by former Deputy Gerry Adams for decades it was shouted in our courts to signal a refusal to recognise this democratic republic when Deputy McDonnell says that our party sees no reason to change its behaviour and that they insist that they be brought into government as they are we fully take Deputy McDonnell at her word it's up to others to justify themselves if they accept that Sinn Féin's practices are of no concern to them however they have no right to demand of us that we join them in accepting these practices as I said our primary focus remains on seeking agreement on a positive agenda of urgent action and long-term reform which we believe the next government should carry out within our mandate we are open to fair compromise and to building a government which will not just talk about change but will actually deliver it in the time between now and when the Dáil reconvenes this is what we will seek to do thank you