Sinn Féin is to put down a motion of no confidence in Minister for Justice Helen McEntee as confirmed by leader, Mary Lou McDonald on Friday.
The Opposition party had encouraged the Government to act against Ms McEntee and Mr Harris in the Dáil throughout the week.
In a post on X, Ms McDonald said: “We cannot have a Justice Minister who refuses to acknowledge the political failures that allowed our communities to become unsafe.
We cannot have a Justice Minister who refuses to acknowledge the political failures that allowed our communities to become unsafe.
Sinn Féin has been forced to put down a motion of no confidence in the Minister for Justice because this government is not listening. pic.twitter.com/8Lsgd9W74P
— Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) December 1, 2023
“Sinn Féin has been forced to put down a motion of no confidence in the Minister for Justice because this Government is not listening.”
Outside Leinster House Ms. McDonald repeated how last week’s riots greatly impacted the city and the public.
“It’s very clear that on the evening and night of Thursday, 23rd November, control was lost in the city centre of Dublin for a number of hours. It’s clear that the riots, this violence, this public disorder could have been foreseen, should have been foreseen, could have been prevented or contained through earlier action on the day had there been any leadership from the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice.
“It is very, very clear that we do not have a leadership with determination nor the resourcing necessary to ensure public safety”.
“What happened on 23rd November on Thursday last was shocking … and was unacceptable and there has to be accountability for that catastrophic failure in policing and a catastrophic failure to keep people safe.”
Considering the Government have the numbers to offset the motion easily, an unmoved Ms McDonald said anyone voting confidence in the Minister need to get a grip.
“If there are members of Fianna Fáil, on the Independent benches, in the Green Party, who believe that what happened on Thursday can be explained away, who believe that actually the Minister for Justice has done a good job then I think they are going to have to go and face their communities, their constituencies and make that point. And I think they will find themselves in grave difficulty in so doing.”
The Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has already expressed “full confidence” in Ms McEntee, the Garda Commissioner and Garda management.
Mr Varadkar said Ms McEntee had been “leading” and “extremely active” on the issues of law and order and criminal justice during her term in office.
