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Updated 1.45pm
https://vine.co/v/MdXqI7p1bXb
THREE TDS HAVE now confirmed they want to be the deputy leader of Labour.
Junior Minister Alan Kelly confirmed his bid to be the party’s second-in-command earlier, with fellow junior minister Seán Sherlock and Cork South-West TD Michael McCarthy also declaring that they intend to run.
The Tipperary North TD Kelly announced his intentions to enter the race for the position of second-in-command at the portico in Leinster House this morning.
Kelly appeared to throw his support behind the leadership bid of Joan Burton saying she would make an “excellent” and “fantastic” leader although he did not outright endorse her.
The other leadership contender, who hasn’t yet declared, Alex White was described by Kelly as someone with “huge capabilities”
Supporting Kelly are Carlow-Kilkenny deputy Ann Phelan, former junior minister Willie Penrose, Louth TD Ged Nash and Dublin Mid-West TD Robert Dowds. Senators Marie Maloney and John Gilroy are also supporting Kelly’s deputy leadership bid.
Housing minister Jan O’Sullivan has also thrown her support behind Kelly in a tweet this afternoon.
Phelan, who proposed Joan Burton for leader, said a Burton-Kelly partnership would be “the dream ticket”.
During his short speech, Kelly thanked Eamon Gilmore for his services to the party, stating that “history is going to remember him in a very positive way”.
In a statement confirming his intentions this afternoon McCarthy, who chairs the Oireachtas Environment Committee, said: “I see my role as Deputy Party Leader as helping to restore confidence in ourselves, restore confidence in who we are as a party, and provide confidence in ensuring that our vision for Ireland is one of a better, stronger, fairer Ireland. ”
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Speaking at Leinster House this lunchtime, McCarthy declined to say how many members of the Parliamentary Labour Party are supporting his bid saying it was about the overall members.
“This is not about who brings out the most amount of people,” he insisted.
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Meanwhile Sherlock, a TD for Cork East, has re-entered the race having earlier this week ruled himself out of both the leader and deputy leadership contests.
“I want to part of the process of renewal of this party,” he said in a statement.“To do that I feel that the position of deputy leader will allow me to assist to rebuild the organisation.
“I believe I have the energy and the capability to try this agenda with a new party leader and I look forward to the election taking place.”
Also this morning, Arthur Spring indicated that he may throw his hat in the ring for the top position, a job Brendan Howlin has already declined to fight for.
Spring was one of the ‘gang of eight’ who supported a motion of no confidence in Gilmore, forcing his early resignation last week.
The Kerry North-West Limerick TD said he would consider whether he had enough support before making a final decision.
Current frontrunners for the leadership are Social Protection Minister Burton, who announced her candidacy yesterday flanked by a number of members of the Oireachtas, as well as local councillors and other party members, and junior health minister White who is expected to confirm his intentions in the next few days.
Meath East TD Dominic Hannigan has also indicated that he might run either for the leadership or deputy leadership.
Nominations for leader and deputy leader close at noon next Tuesday before a month-long postal ballot process begins with some 5,000 party members eligible to vote. The results of both contests will be announced on 4 July.
- additional reporting from Hugh O’Connell
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Wouldn’t surprise me.
Gaddaffi was a lovely man until he wanted to introduce the gold dinar for the sale of oil.
Then the eu and the usa shat themselves.
The eu/usa murdered tens of thousands of Libyans for oil and is murdering people on a daily basis with the bullshit “arab spring”.
Nothing would surprise me about the eu.
Gadaffi was a lovely man?? Whatever your views on western foreign policy in the region, thats nonsense!
Re Side View Bob.
You are spot on.
Re Mattoid.
Gaddafi was loved by his people.
Libya under Gaddafi was a beacon of light compared to present day and was the envy of the African continent until NATO ransacked and pillaged the country.
B Lowe I didnt know you knew what people in Libya thought of Gaddafi. Actually you dont my familyare Libyan and they live in Libya (fought in the uprising as well) and they will tell you it was know shining light it hardly had lights let alone enough food. Yes the U.k France and America wantedhim out for the oil but the people wanted him out because he was an evil dictator
Jamie,
“uprisng”
no Libyan could call what happened in Libya an “uprising” the brits/yanks used bastardized forces to gain control of the oil.
The brits/yanks will tell you that al Qaeda/taliban are there evil enemies but they have no problem arming them when it suits them.
Libya was a beacon of light.
You Jamie, are a bullshytter
The awkward moment when someone makes a derisive comment citing someone else’s spelling mistake and then makes a silly grammar mistake..
Their their, it’s not so bad! :-)
So your’e saying my father isnt Libyan,and didn’t fight? You are talking about somethimg you know nothing about, Im left wing mate but just because the west got involved doesnt mean it was all a western plan. Yeah they did jump on board and took advantage of it for there own personal gain. But Libya was no beacon of hope. Libya is in a awful way at the moment whatever notion of calm and government control in the media is lies it lawless my father has compared to Somalia where the warlords roamed in the 90s
Gadaffi may have had great intentions for the people of Libya and his economic policies certainly benefited all but power does eventually corrupt. Everything else is pretty spot on thou.
jamie,
i know more about libya than you or your father.
your use of british isms tells me a lot about you.
is jamie david thompson?
Under the al-Gaddafi government the Libyan people were denied fundamental human rights, abused, oppressed, imprisoned, tortured and silenced. Many of the abuses being used by armed militias in Libya today are replicating the abuses carried out by the former Libyan government. Amnesty International has decades of reports and evidence of documented human rights abuses by the former Libyan government on an appalling scale.
Human rights is not about picking a side, being pro al-Gaddafi or being anti western or supporting rebels or NATO’s intervention. It’s about condemning human rights abuses regardless of which side carries them out. Both sides during the conflict in Libya carried out human rights abuses that in some cases would be tantamount to war crimes.
The current Libyan government is not doing enough to protect the human rights of its people, and armed militias involved in the conflict have refused to disband and are engaged in widespread torture. As our report today shows, refugees and migrants to Libya are being treated appalling. Those are the issues we should be trying to address.
Re Amnesty.
Your first paragraph could be applied to the US. Change Libya under Gaddafi to America under Bush/Obama and it’s hard not to see striking similarities.
Both countries have engaged in what you described in your piece.
I don’t disagree with that. The use of torture by the US is something Amnesty International has frequently highlighted, along with the use of drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Criticising the human rights record of one ‘side’, doesn’t mean anyone should turn a blind eye to the violations committed by the other.
“Under ff/lab/fg governments the irish people are being denied fundamental human rights, abused, oppressed, imprisoned, tortured and silenced”.
Where was amnesty when donegal/sligo people were being framed, tortured and imprisoned?
Where is/was amnesty international when the families of those murdered by the british in dublin and monaghan need/ needed them?
What’s amnesty’s stance on state controlled media?
i could go on.
Amnesty are sickening hypocrites
@Blowe
“Both sides have engaged in what you described in your piece”
So you do acknowledge that Gaddafi wasn’t the benign “beacon of light” you portrayed in your earlier comment?
@Amnesty
Unfortunately it appears that no matter what human rights abuses are documented and how compelling the evidence, there will always be those who will choose to disregard it if it doesn’t fit with their chosen ideological viewpoint.
“Under ff/lab/fg governments the irish people are being denied fundamental human rights, abused, oppressed, imprisoned, tortured and silenced”.
Where was amnesty when donegal/sligo people were being framed, tortured and imprisoned?
Where is/was amnesty international when the families of those murdered by the british in dublin and monaghan need/ needed them?
What’s amnesty’s stance on state controlled media?
i could go on.
Amnesty are sickening hypocrites
sorry, that was meant to go with amnestys bullshit, see below.
The Janus faced Troll known as Side View Bob aka Thomond Park & Aviva Park (caught out claiming false journalistic credentials resurfaces as Limerick Boy and now appears in his current form. No doubt this muppet has also many other guises.
have your say