Yesterday, was an explosive day in the Dáil. What will follow today?
Christina Finn here to bring you through Leaders’ Questions today.
First up, Micheal McGrath.
Fianna Fáil’s finance spokesperson says nurses do not want to not want to go on strike but they have lost faith in the system.
“The shortage of nurses means that acute beds cannot be filled… while at the same time people are lying on hospital trollies.”
He says nurses have kept the system “chugging along” but says they “have had enough”.
“Who can blame them,” he tells the chamber.
Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald says people will suffer and it is something the government want to avoid.
She says she is disappointed at the decision to take industrial action.
“Huge efforts have been made to resolve this issue,” she tells the chamber.
Everybody recognises the challenges of recruiting and retaining staff, said the minister.
She said every other health system in the world are experiencing similar problems in terms of recruitment.
She is now outlining all the perks the government are offering nurses to return home.
Fitzgerald urges everyone to get involved in talks so that it doesn’t reach the point “where people will suffer”.
She said the Lansdowne Road Oversight group is meeting this afternoon.
“Every effort will be made to reach an agreement,” she tells McGrath.
She said there has been an increase in staff by 1,657, adding that new initiatives are being put forward to hire nurses.
No new hospitals have been built since 1998 and we need to change that.
Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald now raises the commission of investigation and the terms of reference that were published yesterday.
Labour’s Brendan Howlin used Dáil privilege to make a statement:
McDonald said what is to be investigated is “incredibly serious”.
“What is alleged is a comprehensive campaign of character assassination,” she says.
She calls it a “cynical campaign” and a “truly terrible vista”.
Is this when happens when someone stands up to wrongdoing?
She says the content of the allegations Brendan Howlin repeated yesterday were “vile” and “evil ” and aimed to “ruin a man’s character and standing”.
McDonald said Sinn Féin have called for Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan to step aside without prejudice.
She says this is needed to maintain “public confidence” in the gardaí.
“We are about to have a debate about the terms of reference,” says the Tánaiste.
When these allegations were brought to her attention, she followed procedure and had a judge carry out a report, she says.
“I don’t believe there is any reason for anyone to step aside,” says Fitzgerald. She says everyone has constitutional rights.
People are entitled to fair procedures and justice.
She is entitled to our full support and confidence.
Fitzgerald says if wrongdoing is found to be true it would have very serious consequences but says she does not want to preempt the commission of inquiry.
Tánaiste says there is no prima facie reason not to support O’Sullivan and therefore she is entitled to everybody’s support.
Independent TD Maureen O’Sullivan is up now and wants to talk about Donald Trump’s travel ban.
She wants the talk to Ireland’s slow progress on accepting refugees to Ireland from areas like Syria. O’Sullivan says our protest against Trump is hypocritical due to the situation that young people find themselves in in Ireland’s Direct Provision centres around the country.
Fitzgerald says she would have a “huge concern” about a blanket ban on Muslims.
She says she met with a Syrian group yesterday and says their stories are heartbreaking.
She said Ireland weren’t under any obligation to take refugees, but says Ireland has about 80 families arriving every week.
The Tánaiste says Ireland is very lucky that it has not had any negative campaigns against refugees, which have taken place in other countries.
Yesterday, Fitzgerald launched the integration strategy.
Fitzgerald says a lot of supports are being rolled out for young refugees. She says reforms are now in place so that those arriving will not be waiting years in direct provision waiting on decisions.
She says the people that have been here for years are people that are seeking judicial reviews. Things will move faster now, she says.
Catherine Murphy is up now and is talking about whistleblowers.
Something is fundamentally wrong at senior level in An Garda Síochana, says the Social Democrats TD.
“There is an attitude that things can be managed,” she said, adding that this has now backfired.
She says she was “astonished” that the Garda Commissioner’s statement last night and wants to know if the Tánaiste thinks it is credible that O’Sullivan did not know about the allegations made against her that were said under Dáil privilege yesterday.
The Garda Commissioner’s statement is below. It states:
The Commissioner has no knowledge of the matters referred to by Deputy Howlin and refutes in the strongest terms the suggestion that she has engaged in the conduct alleged against a serving member of An Garda Síochána.
“If the commissioner seriously didn’t know about them then there is serious problem,” says Murphy.
“It is very hard to believe the commissioner’s statement last night, it begs the question, what else can we believe.”
Fitzgerald says she has always said their needs to be a seachange in the gardaí.
“Everyone has said they will cooperate with it [the inquiry],” she says.
“I think the garda commissioner made a statement last night… we do have to take her statement she made last night.”
She says there is “no evidence whatsoever” that anyone will obstruct the inquiry.
Murphy says she doesn’t believe she was making allegations, and asks will the Tánaiste ask for the commissioner to step aside.
The Tánaiste reminds the House that something similar happened in the not too distant past.
We have seen allegations made in this House and on detailed examination were found not be be correct – that has happened very recently in this House.
“I believe we owe it to people” to protect their good name and reputation, says Fitzgerald.
“We would not want people to rush to judgment,” she tells her Dáil deputies.
These allegations are seriously contested.
The judge who examined the protected disclosures… he has said the way to deal with this is to have a full commission.
I believe we should await the outcome of the commission.
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