Gormley equates no confidence motion with vote for election

From todays Irish Times ...

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"Green Party leader John Gormley said that Fine Gael’s motion of no confidence in the Taoiseach was akin to asking the Dáil to vote for a general election.

“The question I must ask the Fine Gael party is: why should we want to do that?” he added.

Mr Gormley said the Opposition parties had described his progressive planning legislation as “Stalinist’’ and would like to undo it. They also wanted to repeal his animal welfare legislation.

He accused the Opposition parties of failing to be interested “in protecting 32 raised bogs or in habitats”.

They were opposed to a landscape conservation area, and he had heard mutterings about civil partnership.

“Sometimes I believe the Fine Gael party, in particular some of its newer members, is much more comfortable with the politics of Mrs Sarah Palin than those of President Barack Obama,” he added.

Mr Gormley said he wanted to continue with the Government’s reform agenda.

“We have managed to reform the expenses regime, a long overdue measure, cap the number of junior ministers and reduce the number of civil servants working in Ministers’ offices,” he added.

The Government, he said, wanted to go further by banning corporate donations and having a register of lobbyists.

It had made two very good appointments in Prof Patrick Honohan as governor of the Central Bank and Matthew Elderfield as Financial Regulator."

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