Confidence in Government: Motion
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-14
============================================================

Mary Butler (FF), Waterford

We have heard a lot from Sinn Féin and Independent Ireland about ordinary hard-working people. They say this Government will not listen to hard-working people. They say this Government has lost touch with hard-working people. They seem to think they have a monopoly on hard-working people. Well, I am a hardworking person. I worked a counter and managed a family retail business for 17 years, through good times and bad. My family are hard-working people. Since the day he started working shifts at the age of 16, my husband has worked on the ground for 44 years. I come from a community of hard-working people in Portlaw. I got into politics to represent ordinary hard-working people.
Last week, Sinn Féin and Independent Ireland shamefully blurred the lines between peaceful protests and illegal blockades. Peaceful protest is a cherished-----

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-14