Confidence vote in government ‘big test’ for independents – People Before Profit

By Grainne Ni Aodha, Press Association

The vote of no confidence to be tabled against the government is a “big test” for independents who are part of the coalition, a TD has said.

Sinn Féin, the country's largest opposition party, are tabling the motion of no confidence in the Government on Tuesday.

It criticises the government for not reconvening the Dáil last week and not engaging directly with the protesters, while also calling on the government to take the “maximum action necessary” to cut fuel prices.

The Social Democrats, Labour, People Before Profit, and Independent Ireland have said they would back the motion.

It is unclear how several independents who have supported the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael coalition government will vote.

People Before Profit TDs Richard Boyd Barrett and Paul Murphy said government-supporting independents will need to “decide which side they are on”.

“It’s a big test now, isn’t it?” Boyd Barrett said at a press conference held in Dublin about energy costs.

“Are the so-called independents just Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in disguise or are they actually representing the interests of ordinary people? So it’s a big test for them.

“We certainly believe that people out there who want action on the housing crisis, who feel Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael failed to deliver that should put maximum pressure on these so called independents to decide which side they are on.”

Murphy said Independent TD for Kerry Danny Healy-Ray needed to decide if he was “on the side of protesters or is he on the side of his brother, who is a government minister”.

“I think there is a real question for the independents.

“I think the independents have to recognise that if they vote confidence in this government, they are likely to pay a very, very serious price at the next general election.”

Murphy added: “We’ll see how the numbers pan out in the next day, the next 24 hours as to whether it’s possible to get a general election.

“If it isn’t possible, well, we do know that there’s going to be by-elections very, very shortly, the end of May, very early June, at the very, very latest.

“That poses a particular opportunity to voters in Dublin Central and Galway West to revolt at the ballot box, to send the strongest possible message to the government that we want you gone, we want meaningful action on cost of living.”

Murphy and Boyd Barrett were speaking at a press conference proposing a €5 billion emergency plan on energy.

The measures include a cap on the price of fuel: a cap of €1 per litre of home heating oil, of €1.75 per litre of petrol and diesel, and of €1 per litre of green diesel.

They said the government’s package of €505 million was insufficient to grapple with rising energy costs caused by the US and Israeli war in Iran.

Boyd Barrett, Murphy, and the party’s Dublin Central candidate Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin said the protests could mark a “new phase of protests” against the government.

The Affordable Ireland Coalition are due to meet this week to discuss its next phase of protest in the wake of the fuel protests.

Boyd Barrett said: “What the protests over fuel prices and by the hauliers and farmers really underline, in a fairly dramatic way, (is) the abysmal failure of the government to address the cost of living crisis that is absolutely crushing ordinary people, householders, workers and small businesses and small farmers across the country.

“The government have absolutely failed to heed the warnings of the opposition and the crushing impact that it’s having on working people.

“Most people, most working people, most householders, have got little or nothing from the package that the government are proposing, 10 cents on petrol and diesel against the background where diesel prices are off the charts, petrol prices are still dramatically higher than they were before the outbreak of Trump’s war.”

Asked whether the new phase of protests should include blockades, he said it was “a discussion that has to be had democratically” among trade union groups and workers.

“Certainly we are in favour of robust tactics that really force the cost of living crisis into the face of this government,” he said.

“The ideal sorts of action would be industrial action by workers, which would involve hundreds of thousands of workers who have been given nothing by this government but are being hammered with cost of living crisis.

“The exact tactics have to be discussed by workers and by that wider movement, but we need protest because the government is not listening to ordinary people.”

Councillor Kay Keane said: “I fully support the right to protest, and there is justifiably anger out there because of the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, which is actually the second one that we’re trying to deal with now.

“However, throughout this crisis, the government’s mantra of ‘everything is under review’ is just insulting to the ordinary workforce and households.

“When I go shopping, when I go to pay my bills, the same as many of my constituencies, we can’t put that under review.”