Leader of Fianna Fáil Micheál Martin has lashed out Ireland’s ruling party Fine Gael and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in his address to Fianna Fáil’s Ard Fheis this Saturday.
In a speech to Fianna Fáil party members, Martin lambasted Varadkar’s media profile, saying that “[Varadkar] has appointed no expert to advise on health or housing […] but he has an entire team to shoot videos to sell his image.”
This reflected the overall theme of the Fianna Fáil leader’s speech, which is that the current Fine Gael-led government isn’t doing enough to help Irish people as a whole, and is overly preoccupied with its image.
He added that Fine Gael’s ministers, including Varadkar and Health Minister Simon Harris “go into hiding every time bad news appears, but if they can claim credit for someone else’s work they want to be there.”
Martin also took Varadkar to task over his infamous “the party of people who get up early” quote, by saying that there are “far too many people who get up at all hours of the day to make ends meet.”
MM: "There are far too many people who get up at all hours of the day who find it hard to make ends meet." (Those who get up early, etc…)
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) October 14, 2017
MM wrapping up. "We will never accept the attempt to divide our society into winners and losers – into the deserving and the dependent"
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) October 14, 2017
The Cork man, who has been leader of his party for six years, also claimed that Fine Gael were moving further to the right. The pronouncement came just hours after his own party voted resoundingly against a motion to allow Irish women the right to choose, and for a separate motion to keep the eighth amendment as it is in the Irish Constitution.
Fianna Fáil currently have 44 seats in Dáil Éireann, six fewer than Fine Gael.
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