SF: Harris should do us justice and call election
When DJ Avicii (above right) died suddenly in 2018, Varadkar let the world know he was a huge fan, saying: “So sorry to hear of the untimely passing of Avicii.
Just hours after meeting Hillary Clinton in Washington during St Patrick’s Day festivities
TOMORROW TDs will gather in the Dáil to vote for a ‘new’ Taoiseach.
Except there is nothing new about the heir-apparent who looks set to be handed the position by his Government colleagues.
Simon Harris’ fingerprints are all over the mess that Fine Gael has made during their time in government. He has sat at the Cabinet table for eight years as home ownership collapsed, as rents sky-rocketed and as our health services crumbled.
He is a senior minister in a government that has lurched from crisis to crisis, while utterly failing to deliver on the issues that matter to people.
Sitting at the heart of government, Simon Harris has presided over an ever-worsening housing crisis, a crippling cost of living crisis, the ballooning of health waiting lists, and young people forced to emigrate.
Shameful
In recent weeks, the Government set another shameful record for the number of homeless people in this state. Yet, in the days since Harris was chosen as Fine Gael leader, he hasn’t said a word on housing.
He has remained silent on what is the biggest issue facing workers and families today. His silence on housing shows Simon Harris is more of the same.
Expect more big promises, more big announcements but very little substance or delivery.
We don’t need a crystal ball to know what we are getting with Harris as Taoiseach.
We need only look at his performance as Health Minister. He and his Government colleagues seem to have forgotten.
However, ordinary people impacted by this government’s disastrous health policies are not able to forget so easily.
Last week, I visited Limerick and met with patients affected by the crisis at UHL. The seeds of the nightmare experienced in that hospital every day were sown by successive health ministers, including Simon Harris.
When he was Health Minister, he should have funded the 230 additional beds that the hospital so badly needs.
If he had done his job, those beds would be in place today, and UHL wouldn’t have the perpetual state of emergency it has today.
He also wants us to forget that he allowed the trolley crisis to escalate, breaking the 100,000 mark twice.
He wants us to forget that his time as Health Minister saw a million patients on hospital waiting lists for the first time.
It was on his watch also that the debacle with the National Children’s Hospital deepened, as costs spun out of control.
Perhaps those who best remember Harris’ stint as Health Minister are those children living in agony with scoliosis, who he promised would not be waiting more than four months for lifechanging spinal surgery. It was another broken promise.
His performance as Health Minister caused the 2020 General Election when he faced a motion of no confidence.
Fianna Fail’s Micheál Martin said of Harris at that time: “I think he has been a very poor Minister on a number of fronts”.
In 2020, Martin said of Harris’ failure to deliver the National Children’s Hospital: “It is a defining illustration of this Government’s hands-off approach to major projects. They are more interested in the photo ops than they were in getting it done on time.”
Despite those scathing words, today Martin and his Fianna Fáil TDs prepare to vote for Harris to get the top job in government. You couldn’t make it up.
Harris’ track record should rule him out of becoming Taoiseach.
Delivery
However, for Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, cosyclub deals mean more than competency and delivery.
If he becomes Taoiseach, Harris will be the third Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael Taoiseach in four years.
If he believes the public supports this Government and that they back him being Taoiseach, he should call a general election.
We need change more than ever. It shows why we need a new government that will move heaven and earth to fix housing, sort out healthcare, and tackle the cost of living with speed and purpose.
A better Ireland is possible. A fairer, more equal Ireland.
It’s time for new people, with new ideas. It’s time for change.
Not more of the same with Simon Harris.
It’s time for a general election.