Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LAST UPDATE | 12 Jul 2022
THE GOVERNMENT HAS won a confidence motion in the Dáil by a margin of 85 votes to 66.
It was expected to survive the motion, which was tabled in response to a no-confidence vote by Sinn Féin, despite having lost its majority last week.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said this evening that he did not believe voters want a general election at this point in time.
Speaking on Prime Time this evening, Martin said he believed that “they appreciate what the government has done in the face of an unprecedented pandemic, and the work that the government has done over the last two years, in respect of that pandemic … but also our leadership on the war on Ukraine.
“We can never be guided in government by opinion polls, because that would lead to short termism. This the problem with this motion of confidence – we’re only two years in government, in the face of unprecedented problems.
“A general election every two years is not a good thing for a country because it leads to short-term decision making, which isn’t good for people.
“Take issues like climate change, take issues like economic development, research, education, child care – you need four to five years in government to deliver reform and change.”
The debate on the motion saw both the government and the opposition outlining blistering criticisms of the other in their case for the vote.
“Fundamentally this is a debate between those who believe in tackling problems and those who believe in exploiting them.
“Shouting ‘not enough’, ‘more’ and ‘what-about’ represents an approach to politics that is, at its heart, deeply dishonest.
Outlining the government’s achievements to date, Martin conceded that “there are many more issues to tackle, there are many who do not have access to the services they need – but you help these people by delivering credible, sustained and secure services not by the cynical politics of refusing to acknowledge any progress.”
Martin accused Sinn Féin of “the same aggressive populist politics which we are seeing in much of the world at the moment”.
But this will not last, because the extreme cynicism of this strategy is becoming clearer by the day. It will run out of road. It will be found out.
“I am proud of what my party and our partners in government have together helped our country to overcome in the past two years – and the policies we have put in place for sustained, long-term progress,” he said.
“We believe in a politics which works for the long-term interests of our country not one looks for issues to exploit.”
In her speech, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the Government had accumulated “three strikes” by failing to tackle crises in housing, health and the cost of living.
She accused the government of being “out of touch, clearly out of ideas and now out of time”.
“It’s not hard to see why this coalition is coming apart at the seams,” she said.
“It is a government that has presided over two years of utter and abject failure. Not only has this government failed to make improvements in the areas that really matter to people, but you have in fact managed to make a bad situation so much worse.
“People expect so much more from those they elect.”
She said the government’s health policies “hollow out our public health system.”
On the cost of living crisis, she said that “households across the country are at breaking point” – not just households on low incomes, but “middle income households too.”
On housing, she said the Government “remain wedded” to the housing policies that caused the crisis.
“Children still grow up in hotels, in B&B’s, robbed of a decent childhood. For any state that calls itself a republic, one child in homelessness is a scandal. But hundreds of children homeless is a damning indictment of those in power,” she said.
The dogs on the street know and can see that Minister O’Brien has failed abysmally. Let me suggest that he be at the front of the queue when this government packs it’s bags to go.
She said it is now time for a housing minister that can deliver a strategy that will match up to the challenge.
“Housing can be fixed. There’s no doubt in that, but it will require a new government with the right priorities making the right choices. Simply put, we need a government that builds public homes on public lands at a massive scale, and these must be homes that ordinary people can actually afford to rent or buy.”
She urged independent TDs to vote against the Government.
“You have a chance to stand up and make a difference and the ball is in your court,” she said.
“Will you stand with the workers and families you represent, or will you back a Government that consistently lets them down? With your eyes wide open, that is the question each of you will answer with your vote today.”
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar dubbed Sinn Féin’s no-confidence motion “pointless” and “a publicity stunt”.
“I think actually Sinn Féin, often master tacticians, have made a tactical error here because you’ve allowed us to demonstrate tonight that we have a clear working majority that we will be able to pass a budget and that this government can and will last full term,” he said.
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said McDonald’s speech was full of attacks with only one solution to the problems the country was facing.
He blasted Sinn Féin’s approach to politics and said it would not work if they were to lead the country.
Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien told McDonald that her “arrogance had not just gone stratospheric, it’s gone intergalactic”.
“You’d need Nasa’s Webb telescope to be able to track it,” he added.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said her party would not support the government for a number of reasons.
“We have never had confidence in this government to address the housing disaster, to address the childcare crisis, the spiralling cost of living or indeed the climate catastrophe,” she said.
In 2020, we did not support the election of the Taoiseach, and now we believe in the need for a change of government, because we believe that the project of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party has been unsuccessful. Despite their stated aims, they’re simply not delivering the desired or necessary outcomes or results.
She also criticised Sinn Féin for failing to mention the climate crisis in the no-confidence motion.
Solidarity-PBP TD Paul Murphy said the Government is doing “a great job for the people they represent”, citing the increased profits at big energy and food companies and landlords.
Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy said it is “impossible to vote confidence in this Government based on any objective analysis of their performance to date”.
She accused the Government of being “blind” to the “havoc it is causing in housing”, which she said has morphed “from a crisis into a disaster”.
“One of the most basic requirements of any functioning society is the provision of secure and affordable housing. It’s supposed to be the biggest priority for the Government, but it is also its biggest failure,” she said.
Sinn Féin tabled their no-confidence motion last week after the coalition lost its 80-seat Dáil majority, when Fine Gael TD Joe McHugh voted against the Government on mica redress legislation.
McHugh resigned the Fine Gael whip, leaving the Government with the confirmed support of just 79 TDs, one short of a majority.
A number of Independent TDs said that they would vote in favour of the Government this evening, including Tipperary TD Michael Lowry.
Sean Canney, TD for Galway East confirmed his intention to support the Government because he said the upcoming budget was more important than an election.
Meanwhile, Kildare South’s Cathal Berry previously said that his vote would depend on whether the Government plans to increase funding for the Defence Forces, which was agreed upon this afternoon.
Waterford’s Matt Shanahan said he would abstain as he did not agree with either the Government’s or Sinn Féin’s messaging on the issues that prompted the vote.
Suspended Green TDs Neasa Hourigan and Patrick Costello, who had the whip removed from them in May after they voted against the Government, earlier confirmed that they would vote to support the coalition.
With reporting by Emer Moreau and the Press Association
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Enough, FFS!! Enough is enough.
No self respecting human can say this act of pure savagery was done on their behalf.
May the innocent victims of these animals rest in peace.
Tragic event and an awful way to die.
..Glen you don’t perhaps work for a living do you? Your here more than me!
Early retirement Royston
Rocket Science must take a lot out of ya! ;-)
These ‘soldiers’ are brave enough to take up arms and fight for their cause, but too cowardly to come forward and admit responsibility for their actions.
What ” soldiers” are you talking about ?
I’m assuming that those responsible label themselves as ‘soldiers’. I could be wrong, maybe they call themselves something else.
Soldiers don’t do that
Terrorists do !
See my previous comment.
Surely there should be a warning on the third picture down that there are clearly visible human remains!!! These poor people and their families deserve some respect and this picture should be taken down!
Sorry about that, Fiona. That picture wasn’t meant to be there at all.
I’d say its pretty hard to publish a picture by mistake.
..yeah after the Lady spotted it! Bad form guys..
The news has been showing pictures of body’s since yesterday.
Please remove it then.
Hi guys,
The picture was in there by mistake and was removed within minutes.
It was a genuine error on my part and in no way was meant to be exploitative. Had I meant that, I could have used it as the main picture.
Paul
Why would you put a picture of bodies as the main picture?
You visited an article with a subject indicating that it was going to show pictures of a plane crash site where almost 300 people have died and now you are complaining because the pictures show the horrific scene in full?
Wow. Just wow. What did you expect to see when you visited this article?
Have to agree Cupán Tae – the subject matter is grim and while it’s unsettling and harrowing to view such footage, from a journalistic point of view I don’t criticise organisations/media that publish such pictures. It brings home the awful reality of what happened.
@ Cupán Tae
Some people aren’t happy unless they are offended at least once a day.
Why would a family member scroll down through an article that’s headed “In pictures: The MH17 crash site”?
Because the journalism saying is, if it bleeds it leads.” To get more hits on the article or the site, he could have used that photo as the main article image. Obviously he didn’t because it wasn’t intended that way. But some news outlets will do that as the intended purpose.
Do you remember crash plane in Russia, 4 years ago with Polish president Lech Kaczynski and many Polish politicians? It was an accident-they said. Yes, probably it was. But until today Russian government (or president of Russia?) doesn’t want to give back this plane, recorded tape and they don’t want to investigate what really happen there. Please, don’t do the same mistake again-these top Russian politicians understand only the language of straight and power. If all nations cannot speak on the same way-it may happen again. They don’t care about passengers or their families. It would be sad if this tragedy won’t be a good lesson how to speak with Putin. I hope you have no any doubts he supported terrorists on Ukraine land?
Under international laws, nether the Rebels have any right to take the FDRs since they are not a recognised country and since the aircraft was in Ukrainian airspace the Russians have no right to have it.
International law didn’t stop Russia from taking Crimea.
Will this be another Lusitania or pearl harbour ?? If this was indeed Russia , it would have to be proven , they can’t get away with it , then again media convinced us all there was weapons of mass destruction in Iraq !!!
They have been steeping up security recently at airports emphasising to charge up your smart devices before flying etc.
Just how exactly do they plan on preventing another one of these? It’s a new level and it’s scary.
It’s not new John, this had happened before & in the Ukraine..
Point taken Royston but it’s still going to cost the passenger as now airlines will have to consider every route near a war zone and use an alternate. What is new to me is that someone can take down a plane from the surface at 33,000 feet. Normally they try and get them coming in to land etc. That’s what I meant.
Also happened in Iraq several years ago, just goes to show no matter how many hoops they make you jump through at security and how many bottles of water they take off you, if someone wants to do something badly enough they’ll always find a way.
John point taken but your assuming it was a deliberate attack?
The airline was allegedly shot down by a very sophisticated missile system designed primarily to take down large NATO bombers during the Cold War..
Perhaps it would be wise for airlines to avoid areas of conflict where these systems are active..
Personally I think this could have been avoided, there was a lot of Anti Aircraft defence systems active in this region over the past few days. Why this was not taken onboard by the relevant air authorities is something we will have to learn over the coming days..
John – “airlines will have to consider every route near a war zone”. I agree. If implemented the vast majority of the Middle East and a large country in Eastern Europe will be no go areas for commercial airlines.
Barry the Iraq event was a smaller shoulder launched missile intent on targeting a western military or commercial aircraft.. To joe public it seems the same but it’s not. The Malaysian Airways aircraft was transitioning the airspace above Ukraine & flying at 10k above ground, well past the capabilities of the best shoulder fired rocket..
Well aware of the facts of that incident thanks, the plane was still shot down by an a$$hole wasn’t it? My point was in reply to John’s original comment on threat levels and preventing things like this i.e. you can’t.
“What is new to me is that someone can take down a plane from the surface at 33,000 feet.”
The Soviet-designed Buk missile system can be used to engage targets at an altitude of up to 85,000 feet depending on the version. Missiles capable of engaging targets at extremely high altitude have existed for over 50 years.
Please remove the picture of the dead bodies. Most news sites have chosen not to show them, I didn’t expect to see it here.
You should see the news sheets
So you went into an article titled MH17 crash site, and complain when it shows the crash site? What did you expect?
Third photo down shows dead bodies, out of respect it should be removed,
They should be given 24 hours to hand over Igor Strelkov or else the world should take over the territory that he is controlling like he was boosting about taking another bird out of the sky just 20 min after the flight crashed
Putin the s***bag had to have armed them so now it is time the world turned it back on russia
We need world leader that are not going to shy away from holding the s***bags that did this to account
Is it normal for an airliner to fly over a war zone?
Apparently is was flying 1000ft above the warzone area. Could only think they did that to save money instead of using fuel to go around it.
Mark, yes on a particularly busy and active flight path linking two continents
Yep! I flew over Iraq (bagdad to be precise, twice between 06 & 09), although the airline removed the names of the city from the onscreen map you could still make out the Euphrates down in the city.. I guess they just didn’t deem the height we were at as a threat..
@ Jason
Think it was 33k feet?
I read it and also heard it on news talk. That’s all.
I mean 1000ft above the air/sky area that is deemed a no flyzone. Not as in flying 1000ft above the ground.
More than that even from the information I saw. No-fly zone extended up to 4,000m while MH17 was at an altitude of 10,000m.
I see. Thank you gentlemen.
Why did Ukraine traffic control tell the Airline to drop its altitude.
This horrific event also raises a question regarding civil aviation routing – why in Gods name are passenger aircraft flying over a war zone in the first place? A major rethink required to protect passenger welfare.
have your say