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THE DÁIL HAS voted to pass a motion of confidence in the government with 88 votes to 51. This was a counter motion to Sinn Féin’s motion of no confidence which was tabled and debated in the Dáil this week.
Speaking during the debate before the vote, Sinn Féin TD Mary Lou McDonald said so many of the promises made during the last election and on the formation of government have been “dumped as Labour and Fine Gael adopt the failed policies of their predecessors”.
“Deficit reduction is to be achieved by hammering citizens of modest means, by cutting the very meagre supports that are afforded to the sick, to the elderly, to the disabled and to children,” she said.
“Sinn Féin moved this motion of no confidence in the government because confidence in this administration has now run out.”
“Your time is up, do the decent thing and go,” she added.
Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley said the government has “failed utterly” to provide a strategy or leadership in addressing unemployment. He said the coalition also failed to tackle the banking crisis, the promissory note and mortgages.
Several Sinn Féin TDs challenged Eamon Gilmore who they said had failed to stand up for his party’s policies.
Commenting on the motion Labour TD Pat Rabitte called it a “parliamentary farce” and said the Dáil had “serious business” to do.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the motion represents “nothing more than a politically opportunistic act from a party with nothing to offer to the national debate except easy options and damaging policies”.
He said the government has been “hard at work cleaning up the economic havoc” left by the former Fianna Fáil administration.
The Taoiseach said the government has delivered on its promises with respect to reducing bailout interest rates, the restoration of the minimum wage and keeping a large portion of the proceeds from state assets.
Kenny said he recognised the burden on Irish taxpayers is still onerous and said the sacrifices of the Irish people have gotten us to a position where we can look to the future with confidence again.
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Someone who arrives at an A&E with an alcohol related illness might think twice about clogging up valuable resources if they were sent a nice hefty bill for the pleasure. It’s the only way to knock some sense into some people.
Point taken
I’ll drink to that!
Why are you assuming that a person in hospital because of alcohol related issues must be on the dole ??? Very small minded
read my comment again Erin….I said that you pay (if you are working) ,and if you are not working then your dole gets reduced by some ammount. How is that small minded? Its a fair approach to ensure everyone pays something and thereby learns to take responsibility for the consequences of their drunken bed blocking!!
interesting statistics, I’d quite like to see the numbers associated to the percentages, you have to keep in mind that men don’t have bed days associated with child birth which might push the women’s numbers down artificially.
and the cost of Cannabis-related illness was……
A New York type “Trunk Tank” might be a better deterrent.
have your say