On prevailing side: this member voted with the winning side in 509 of 516 decisive votes (0 abstentions excluded). Read it as a government-or-opposition indicator rather than a measure of influence — the figure is near 100% for members supporting the government of the day and near 0% for those opposing it.
This is the point of the site: contributions keep the party held on the day, not the one held now.
| Party | Recorded as | Contributions | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| FF | Fianna Fáil | 19,180 | 2020-02-20 – 2026-09-30 |
Membership spells on record: FF 1989-06-15–1992-11-05 · FF 1992-11-25–1997-05-15 · FF 1997-06-06–2002-04-25 · FF 2002-05-17–2007-04-30 · FF 2007-05-24–2011-02-01 · FF 2011-02-25–2016-03-09 · FF 2016-03-10–2020-01-14 · FF 2020-02-08–2024-11-08 · FF 2024-11-29–present
No, I am not. It is the Oireachtas. That is the Deputy's responsibility. What has he done about it? We created the commission for the Oireachtas. The Deputy either takes it on board or he does not. That is a matter for the Oireachtas in its entirety. It does not justify it. It was wrong but the Deputy should not try to pin everything on the Government.
The other point is that this Government was not in government in 2017. This is a small little fact-----
-----that has passed the Deputy by. We are now responsible for something then. I am not blaming the Government then. It is perfectly normal to say that old equipment needs to be replaced with new equipment. What is inexcusable is that those in the National Gallery at the time decided to procure this without figuring out how they were going to deploy it and what room they were going to put it in. It is unacceptable.
That is why we have the Comptroller and Auditor General to highlight and unearth these issues. That is why the public accounts committee in this House is there. It is there to interrogate and to hold people to account in respect of unacceptable practices and behaviour. That is the bottom line. The Deputy mentioned cybersecurity attacks as if the person or the group - very often criminal organisations-----
Sorry, I did not interrupt the Deputy. He have a great habit of interrupting-----
I did not interrupt you. You do it all the time, of course. It is a tactic of yours which you learned from your former colleagues. It is a well worn campaigning tactic. The Deputy mentioned cybersecurity attacks as if it is the recipient of those attacks who is responsible for the expenditure. Come on; let us have some balance in the debate. I do not blame the HSE for the cyberattack. There may have been vulnerabilities and maybe we could have been stronger. I blame the Conti group who made that attack on the Irish…
-----that the Deputy should just neatly try to bundle cyberattacks and the cost of them into the broader-----
-----legitimate issue of value for money in public expenditure, which has to be at the core of everything we do.
I reject that entirely. By the way, I do not accept his analysis of the private sector and accountability. That is a well-worn trope in this House, but, as far as I can see, anyone who looks at the private sector-----
-----will see that anyone who is ever in difficulty somehow gets sidelined with a huge sweetheart deal in the private sector. That seems to be the norm. The Deputy should not, therefore, try to make a false comparison between private sector accountability and public sector accountability. I have never bought into it or accepted it. What I will accept, though, is that there absolutely has to be value for money. There has to be a very vigorous and forensic analysis of all spending carried out by the State.
That is legitimate and proper. That is why we have the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Committee of Public Accounts. That is also why we do have the checks and balances. I looked at a list of the codes of practices and various circulars that have issued to every Department and agency. They are all there. We do need better delivery and implementation by people on the ground working in various agencies in that respect.
Either do that or abolish every single agency in the country and we certainly are not going to do that.
That is what the Deputy is trying to say in here if we take that approach to its logical conclusion.
That is what the Deputy is saying.
By the way, through the Chair, I think the Oireachtas needs to reflect on itself as well.
Behaviour in this House has cost the taxpayer a lot of money as well.
I saw that programme last week in respect of what happened to Angela Kerins on foot of this House, which cost the taxpayer a lot of money.
No, it is not.
I have listened to quite a lot. I have observed with some interest the growing alliance between the Labour Party and the Sinn Féin Party in this House.
The Opposition keeps using the phrase that the Government is trying to ram this through. It seems to me that the Opposition has been trying to ram through a new order in the House and a new precedent.