Digital Desk Staff
The Government is confident all 84 TDs from the coalition parties will support Tánaiste Leo Varadkar in voting down a Sinn Féin motion of no confidence tomorrow.
According to the Irish Times, the three parties in Government presented a united front over the weekend ahead of the two-hour debate which will occur in the National Convention Centre on Tuesday evening.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has rejected claims that the party’s motion of no confidence in the Tánaiste was “simply to score points or mudslinging”.
She said Taoiseach Micheál Martin had not sanctioned Mr Varadkar and “as the Opposition, the only sanction available to us is to table a motion of no confidence”.
Mr Varadkar has admitted sending a draft copy of a GP contract agreed with the Irish Medical Organisation to the rival National Association of General Practitioners.
Old boy's network
Ms McDonald said “the politics of the nod and wink, the insiders, the cosy clubs, the old boys’ network, call it what you will, has a cost, has a price and it’s a cost that’s borne by the Irish people.
“This type of claustrophobic, entitled, obnoxious frankly, politics is exactly the kind of politics that has left us in difficulties,” she claimed in an interview with RTÉ Radio’s This Week.
Insider, cosy club, old boys network, entitled politics is obnoxious politics. Let's make obnoxious politics history #ChangeIreland
— Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) November 8, 2020
Meanwhile, the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said on the same programme that “the very kind of accountability” Sinn Féin was seeking had already happened when Tánaiste publicly acknowledged the issue, consulted Government leaders and went into the Dáil and apologised.
He claimed there was always “heat” from Sinn Féin but “never any light” and the party was always “pointing the finger and never showing the way”
Fine Gael has also accused Sinn Féin of costing the taxpayer an additional €25,000 because the Dáil will have to sit in the convention centre to allow all TDs vote on the no-confidence motion because of Covid-19 social distancing requirements.
Each sitting of the House in the building in Dublin’s docklands costs in the region of an additional €25,000.
The Dáil business committee had agreed to a sitting on Wednesday in the centre before Sinn Féin announced its motion. The party’s speaking time is on Tuesday but Sinn Féin said there would be no additional expense if the party instead swopped with Independent TDs who have a slot on Wednesday.
Insider dealing
Sinn Fein insists it has been forced to table a motion of No Confidence in Leo Varadkar following the leaking controversy.
The Village Magazine says it will publish fresh allegations against the Business Minister later, over the sharing of a confidential doctors deal with a rival union.
Sinn Fein’s Eoin O’Broin says the party had to act.
"With respect to Leo Varadkar, this isn't some side issue this is about how this government does its business. It is about the insider dealing.
"It is about those on the inside and those in the know who get privileged access and the rest of us don't."
