Gormley equates no confidence motion with vote for election

GREEN PARTY leader John Gormley said that Fine Gael’s motion of no confidence in the Taoiseach was akin to asking the Dáil to vote for a general election.

“The question I must ask the Fine Gael party is: why should we want to do that?” he added.

Mr Gormley said the Opposition parties had described his progressive planning legislation as “Stalinist’’ and would like to undo it. They also wanted to repeal his animal welfare legislation.

He accused the Opposition parties of failing to be interested “in protecting 32 raised bogs or in habitats”.

They were opposed to a landscape conservation area, and he had heard mutterings about civil partnership.

“Sometimes I believe the Fine Gael party, in particular some of its newer members, is much more comfortable with the politics of Mrs Sarah Palin than those of President Barack Obama,” he added.

Mr Gormley said he wanted to continue with the Government’s reform agenda.

“We have managed to reform the expenses regime, a long overdue measure, cap the number of junior ministers and reduce the number of civil servants working in Ministers’ offices,” he added.

The Government, he said, wanted to go further by banning corporate donations and having a register of lobbyists.

It had made two very good appointments in Prof Patrick Honohan as governor of the Central Bank and Matthew Elderfield as Financial Regulator.

Minister for Health Mary Harney said a confidence motion was not a game, show or piece of political theatre.

The Dáil, she said, had elected 11 taoisigh. Some had been defeated in general elections, others had resigned while in office, while others had seen the writing on the wall when they did not command sufficient support.

“The House has never formally withdrawn its support from any taoiseach heretofore, and I do not believe Deputy Brian Cowen should be the first taoiseach to have confidence formally withdrawn by this 30th Dáil,” she added.

Ms Harney said she had sat at the Cabinet table with Mr Cowen for 13 years.

“At that table I see a man who puts the national interest first on all occasions,” she said.

“He advocates on behalf of the people of this country as he sees it. I do not see, as has been suggested here, a man who is in any way corrupt.”

Ms Harney described the Taoiseach as “straight, honest and hard-working”, adding that he was a person of substance and enormous courage.

She said she had seen this very clearly over the past two years.

“He was rock solid on the cancer control plan and even when there was political pressure to dilute the plan, he did not waver,” said Ms Harney.

“Unlike others, he did not march in his constituency for his local hospital but he put patients first.”

Ireland, she said, was seen as a country seeking to return its economy to growth.

“Ireland is also seen as a country that is stabilising its public finances, making its banks fit for purpose and reforming its public services and placing them on a sustainable footing,” Ms Harney added.