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AMID INCREASING SPECULATION that the general election will take place next year, Fianna Fáil is to begin its selection of candidates next week.
The main opposition party will begin holding selection conventions in the south-west and in Dublin over the next fortnight as it steps up its plans for the next election.
The Taoiseach has maintained that the government will go to full term and the election will not take place until spring 2016, but opposition parties believe an autumn 2015 vote is now likely.
Speaking to Newstalk earlier, Limerick City TD Willie O’Dea said that the party would begin selecting candidates in the coming weeks and roll out detailed manifesto policies in the new year.
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TheJournal.ie has learned that Limerick TD and justice spokesperson Niall Collins will be putting his name forward for selection at a convention in his constituency on Thursday, 11 December.
The following evening party leader Micheál Martin and finance spokesperson Michael McGrath will be putting their names forward for selection as the party’s candidates in Cork South-Central where they are both currently sitting TDs.
On Monday, 15 December, the party’s health spokesperson Billy Kelleher will be putting his name forward for selection in Cork North-Central where he is the incumbent TD.
The following evening, Tuesday, 16 December, the Fianna Fáil’s leader in the Seanad, Darragh O’Brien will be putting his name forward as the candidate for the Dublin-Fingal constituency. He is a former TD for Dublin North but lost his seat in 2011.
Fianna Fáil is aiming to have all of its general election candidates selected by May of next year at the latest.
Meanwhile Sinn Féin is aiming to have its candidates selected within the coming weeks.
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@Rebecca Kinsella: In all main varieties of English, the use of an as the article preceding historic (an historic) is an unnecessary affectation. The rule for the indefinite article is that we use a before words beginning with a consonant sound, and an before words beginning with a vowel sound. The h at the beginning of historic is a consonant sound, soft though it may be. As far as we know, there are no modern English dialects in which the h in historic is silent (please correct us if we’re wrong), so there’s no reason for anyone to use an instead of a before the word.
Ok, I guess I’ll be the ‘bah humbug’ type to say it …
This is absolutely pointless. How many pupils are actually going to benefit from this? Surely it would be far better to put the resources into improving the english sign language services and teaching availability?
@Dara O’Brien: really?? Irish sign language is a separate language used for deaf people and it’s not conducted in Irish. The signs are all for English except it’s called Irish sign language!
@Dara O’Brien: it doesn’t work like that – you’re thinking of *signed* langauges, not *sign* langauges. Sign languages are not signed versions of spoken languages – they are separate entities in their own right. Different morphology, different syntax etc. Case in point – the USA and UK are both English-speaking, but their Deaf communities cannot understand each other. Irish Sign Language and American Sign Language both have more in common with French Sign Language than they do with British Sign Language.
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