SINN FÉIN LEADER Gerry Adams has dismissed today’s vote for the office of Taoiseach as a “charade” and said that he will not be putting himself forward for office this time around.
At a press conference at the Leinster House plinth this afternoon Adams said that he and his party would likewise be voting against both Micheál Martin and Enda Kenny as the next Taoiseach.
The party will abstain in the vote for the Anti-Austerity Alliance’s Ruth Coppinger. Coppinger is the first woman to ever be nominated for the nation’s highest office.
“This vote is absolutely pointless, Enda Kenny can’t be elected, neither can Micheál Martin, neither can I, it’s a charade,” Adams said.
I will not be putting my name forward.
The Sinn Féin president said that his party “have put forward a number of motions” for discussion by the Dáil, including the scrapping of water charges, and the creation of an Oireachtas committee “along the lines of the Dáil reform committee” to deal with the “emergency in homelessness”.
“We have urgent proposals to tackle this issue, at the same time we have over 500 citizens on hospital trollies,” he said.
Outside the Dáil bubble there is a crisis in living – these are the matters that we should be discussing.
41 days
It’s now 41 days since the general election, and this afternoon Ireland’s 158 TDs will attempt to elect a Taoiseach for a second time.
Realistically, no one is expected to receive the 79 votes required to be elected to the position.
After today’s vote are Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil – the two parties with the biggest share of seats – expected to sit down and start working on how they might cooperate to allow a government to be formed.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Fine Gael’s acting minister of state for skills, research and innovation Damien English said that the aim of any talks will be to “find an arrangement that works”.
“We want a government that can last three, four, five years,” he said, emphasising that its most important roll would be to make it through the next two budgets.
Both major parties have been holding discussions with independents and smaller parties in efforts to secure their support for a minority government.
Along with 15 independent TDs Fine Gael have created a ‘foundation document’, which focuses on areas of agreement.
Speaking earlier this morning independent Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae, who has held discussions with both parties, said that the process had been “long and drawn out”.
Speaking about the differences in policy between the two, Healy-Rae said:
You know what, there isn’t a whole pile between them.
He has also issued a statement this morning saying that support of the Post Office network is a major issue in him giving his support to any government.
This followed letters being issued by the Department of Social Protection last month to social welfare recipients asking that they chose to be paid by electronic transfer – a move that was seen as a blow to the country’s post offices.
In his statement Healy-Rae says that he “would find it very hard to support any party, or future Government, which will not give concrete assurances that these letters will be quickly withdrawn”.
Deputy Healy-Rae is the postmaster for the An Post Office in Kilgarvan.
Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are expected to put forward Enda Kenny, Micheál Martin and Gerry Adams for the position of Taoiseach.
The Anti-Austerity Alliance/ People Before Profit grouping will be nominating Ruth Coppinger, making her the first woman ever to be nominated for the position.
Additional reporting Cianan Brennan
Originally published 10.09am
Read more about what is expected to happen today in the State of the Nation.
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