Simon Harris, the leader of Fine Gael, defended Helen McEntee as a “smart, savvy, and able politician” in response to criticism of her as Minister for Justice, reports RTE.
As the General Election campaign enters its second week, justice has been the primary emphasis, and Fianna Fáil has questioned Ms. McEntee’s tenure in office.
Fine Gael can no longer claim to be the party of law and order, according to Fianna Fáil’s Jim O’Callaghan, who also noted that the Justice brief has been in place for 14 years and that this is the one area where no progress has been achieved.
The head of Fine Gael also charged that Fianna Fáil was unable to accept joint accountability for the coalition government’s choices, reports RTE.
Helen McEntee doesn’t need to be taking anyone else’s ideas. She’s a very smart, savvy and able politician and I’m very proud of her,” Mr Harris said while on the campaign trail in Co Clare.
“The government parties have worked well together. We worked well together for four-and-a-half years, we’ve delivered five budgets, we haven’t gotten everything right, but we’ve gotten many things right. We can’t have a situation now where people who were in the government – sitting around the cabinet table – who had effectively a veto on any decision, are now saying, ‘that department, that wasn’t under our control,” reports RTE.
“That’s not collective cabinet responsibility works,” Mr Harris said, reports RTE.
Ms. McEntee has before denied Fianna Fáil’s criticism of her performance as Justice Minister.
The subject, which has been a source of conflict between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in government since the Dublin riots last year, was the focus of the bigger parties this morning, reports RTE.
5,000 additional gardaÃ, body cameras, and face recognition technology are all part of Fianna Fáil’s zero-tolerance attitude to crime.
Fianna Fáil unveiled its party’s proposals to combat crime, one of which was to add 5,000 more personnel to An Garda SÃochána.
Plans to introduce garda body cameras, electronically tag sexual criminals, and hire 6,000 additional gardaà are all part of Fine Gael’s crime and security program, reports RTE.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
