Independent TD Mattie McGrath has re-affirmed comments he made during a scathing attack on the Taoiseach Enda Kenny . Deputy McGrath was speaking on the Motion of Confidence in the Taoiseach as put forward the Government in the Dáil yesterday:
“The Taoiseach and his Ministers came in to the Dáil yesterday and engaged in what only be described as an exercise in preening self-congratulation. They subjected all their actions to a rose tinted analysis that would make anyone with a hint of honesty blush.
But will the Taoiseach call in the banks for any kind of real scrutiny? Will he rein in NAMA, which is making people homeless? It is relentlessly terrorising a widow in my county whose late husband ended his own life in circumstances directly related to these kinds of activities. Will the Taoiseach call off the hound dogs of NAMA and the officials and ask them to stop terrorising that decent family in County Tipperary, of whom he should be aware and should know? The Minister of State, Deputy Tom Hayes, and others know the family. It is a shame and disgrace.
Now the banks are piddling down on top of us and walking on us, with sanction from the Taoiseach and the Minister. The banks are being let off with aplomb and the Government is patting them on the back. Up to 100,000 people are awaiting eviction. The Government talks about solving the problem of homelessness. The Government should try to sort out that problem by calling off the hound dogs of the banks, Revenue and NAMA – the biggest and most dangerous entity.
I could have used a word beginning with C to refer to NAMA but I will not use it in the House. It is a merry-go-round. It identifies properties but will not sell them for the price offered by decent people as it is keeping them to sell them at a knock-down price to friends and contacts. NAMA stinks and is rotten to the core. What it is doing to ordinary families is disgusting. I am very disappointed about that.
So unless the Taoiseach comes to grips with this reality and comes out of his political cocoon there is no way that any of us can have the kind of confidence in him that should be expected as the norm,” concluded Deputy McGrath.
