TD: Labour has discredited politics

The public was “played for every vote that could be got” by the Labour Party in the run-up to the election, the Dáil heard last night.

Independent TD Catherine Murphy told Social Protection Minister Joan Burton that her party’s “10-yard walk” from the opposition to government benches “seems to have fundamentally changed your view of the world” and “discredited politics along the way”.

The Kildare TD was speaking in the debate on the Social Welfare Bill, which gives effect to budget measures including a cut in dole payments to under-25s, a cut to maternity benefit, and the abolition of the bereavement grant and telephone allowance.