THE SPOTLIGHT should have been on an “appalling Fianna Fáil-led Government” but the pressure had been taken off one set of “incompetents” by the “political ineptitude of another set of incompetents – Fine Gael”, said Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin.

He told the Dáil the “Irish people now know all too well where the political leadership of Fianna Fáil has brought the State and the economy. Where would the political leadership of Fine Gael bring us? With the Fianna Fáil Government on the ropes, Fine Gael has managed to deliver a knockout punch – to itself.”

He said: “We have no confidence in either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael. However, the motion before us today is about the Taoiseach, Deputy Brian Cowen, and the Fianna Fáil and Green Party Government, and we have no hesitation in opposing this motion of confidence in them.” During the debate he said the public was being made to pay the price for the disastrous failures of successive Fianna Fáil-led governments.

He said there was a myth being peddled by Fianna Fáil that “all political parties in the Dáil were part of this collective self-delusion and encouraged the economic policies pursued between 1997 and 2007”. Sinn Féin “repeatedly advocated a radically different direction for the economy. In the 2007 general election itself we were the only party not promoting a policy of tax-cutting”.

He said that Sinn Féin had consistently advocated alternative policies and warned against the direction being taken by finance ministers McCreevy, Cowen and Brian Lenihan. “Fianna Fáil has shaped this economy in a way that no previous government could have shaped it because of their length of time in office and the massive resources at their disposal. Clearly, there is not a shred of credibility in their effort to shirk responsibility for what has happened to the Irish economy.”

The people paying the price of a “bankrupt Government” were families “living in poverty and debt because they are saddled with huge mortgages, legacies of the Fianna Fáil property bubble”.

Finian McGrath (Ind, Dublin North-Central) said that “when someone cocks up they have to take responsibility, accept the consequences, apologise, make amends and then we try to get on with it”.

But this was lacking and “using terms like I regret or I take full responsibility does not go down well with me or the rest of our people”. He said “people don’t mind taking hits so long as it’s fair and just” but he highlighted a number of cases including a young man with a severe disability who had to go into hospital. He was now ready for release but his disability service could not take him back because they were short of one staff member. “And then we look and see the extra funding going into the banks.”

Maureen O’Sullivan (Ind, Dublin Central) said she could not vote confidence in the Government. She had asked if justice was being served by the Government under the stewardship of Brian Cowen in the areas of health, education and housing and highlighting cases, she said social inequality was not being addressed.