I will not be supporting the nomination of Leo Varadkar for Taoiseach in the Dail on Tuesday because a number of important issues that were agreed in the Programme for Government have not been delivered upon and the Government are now over a year in office.
I want to stress that this is nothing personal and I wish Deputy Varadkar the best of luck in his new job. I would have taken the same decision whether it was Simon Coveney or Leo Varadkar was the nominee for Taoiseach. The facts are that the Government have not delivered on many of the undertakings made in the Programme for Government. Issues such as the imbalance in farmer payments and the request to put a cap on maximum payments, the Forgotten Farmer issue, rural broadband and increased mobile phone coverage in rural areas, the lack of a proper transport budget for the regions and reductions in the spending on rural roads. The planning issues with regard to the bogs that were a matter of concern the time of the formation of the Government have not been resolved either.
There are also major ongoing issues in health, mental health services locally, housing, and lack of Foreign Direct Investment in rural areas and in the West of Ireland in particular. There are so many issues that have not been tackled which were agreed in the Programme for Government and have yet to be implimented. The time we have spent in the Dail since the formation of this Government has been a waste such is the lack of delivery by the Government and by extension their supporters in Fianna Fail over the past 12 months. That is why I cannot support Deputy Varadkar’s nomination on Tuesday next.
