Taoiseach hanging on to power `for power's sake'

The Taoiseach's sole interest was in hanging on to power for power's sake, said the Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn.

The Taoiseach's sole interest was in hanging on to power for power's sake, said the Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn.

He said it was "not power to achieve political goals, not power to map out new directions for our nation, but power because it alone is the holy grail he learnt from his former master".

Mr Quinn, who initiated the no-confidence debate, said "power, of course, lets you look after your own - misplaced political patronage".

"Like the rescuing of Mr O'Flaherty because deep down you never really believed that he had done anything wrong. Political expediency dictated he should go, so he did. But he went with a nod and a wink. "That is how Haughey operated, it is how Fianna Fail operates. Against these priorities, the concerns of the public are only secondary."

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He went over controversies including the tribunals, Ansbacher accounts, the Taoiseach's appearance at the Moriarty tribunal, the Sheedy affair and the O'Flaherty appointment. Condemning Mr Ahern, he said that "every day this Taoiseach remains in office represents a missed opportunity for this party".

The Labour leader hit out at the Government's attitude to asylum-seekers and immigration. The Taoiseach and Government "has shown itself spectacularly unwilling and unprepared to show political leadership". "A 21st century issue has elicited a 19th century response. The Taoiseach's only notable intervention was designed to solicit short-term and short-sighted electoral support. Racism is becoming a prevalent and ugly feature in our society. It has no place amongst a people who have suffered at its hands for centuries.

"But despite an increasing number of racists attacks, this issue has been met with stony silence and no action from Government. There has been no information or public awareness campaign despite the promise of €1 million for that purpose.

"But most importantly we will never get from this Government the reassessment of what it means to be Irish in Europe in a globalised world economy or in the 21st century."

Criticising the Tanaiste, Mr Quinn said that the PDs were elected to prevent Fianna Fail's "worst excesses". It was unfortunate that the "days of Dessie O'Malley are long since gone".

"In their place we have Deputy Harney who is presiding over the slow death pangs of that party."

He said Ms Harney "thinks the O'Flaherty affair will be forgotten. She is wrong and she will pay the price for that error.

"She may have spent the bulk of this week hiding away from the media but she will not be able to hide from the electorate for her part in what Liz O'Donnell has described as a wrong decision and one which will poison every other decision made by Government.

"Deputy Harney will be remembered as the only party leader who achieved precisely the opposite of what her party was established to achieve - the calling to account of Mr Haughey. It is a particular skill that allows one to be so inept as to be able to grab defeat from the jaws of victory in so spectacular a fashion. But Deputy Harney has it. And still she believes she owes no explanation to anybody for her actions, least of all the Dail, which has been treated with increasing arrogance and contempt by this Government."

He said there were a few "simple" lessons in politics and the most important one was "do not treat the public with contempt and expect to get away with it. This is what the Taoiseach, his Tanaiste and his Minister for Finance have done. The choice facing their supporters today is whether to sink or swim with him.

"The behaviour the Government is asking its supporters to endorse today falls far below that which our citizens are entitled to expect. It is demeaning politics and our democracy. Those who stand over it will ultimately pay the price."