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Updated 1.20pm
TALKS BETWEEN TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar and Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin will continue this evening in a bid to avoid a general election.
The pair spoke through the weekend but no deal has yet been forthcoming. A meeting between them last night has been described as constructive.
Varadkar is due to meet with Martin again in Dublin this evening.
Speaking to RTÉ Radio One this lunch time, the Taoiseach said no resolution has been reached “at this stage”.
He said it is fair to say that neither Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil want an election, with the Taoiseach stating that he and his party are not trying to protect anybody in this situation, but called for due process.
Fianna Fáil has sought to force Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald into stepping down after it was revealed that she ignored an email sent to her in May 2015 regarding garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe.
Varadkar has stood firm on his support of Fitzgerald. On Saturday he said that she has “done nothing wrong”, while on Friday, he said that he would not throw Fitzgerald under the bus. Today he stood by his previous remarks.
The Taoiseach said both parties are “trying to find a way” to avoid the people having to go to the polls in late December.
“I’ll do everything I can to come to a resolution,” he added.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Sean O’Rourke show this morning, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney struck a more conciliatory tone, stating:
“Fianna Fáil do have genuine concerns.”
He said he understood the party wanted political accountability, stating that the talks between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are attempting to figure out a way that this can be achieved.
Avoiding an election
It’s understood some progress was made during the crunch talks yesterday, with reports that solutions are on the table. These include a possible commitment from government that a major overhaul of the Department of Justice will take place in the new year, with the possibility of the department being split in two between home affairs and policing and security.
However, when this idea was floated over the weekend it was ruled out by Fianna Fáil.
Other solutions could see Frances Fitzgerald answering further questions in the Dáil while also offering an apology.
However, it is unclear whether this would be enough for Fianna Fáil to row back from their position of calling on the Tánaiste step aside.
Coveney called for “cool heads” and reiterated the point that a general election did not make sense. He also said Fitzgerald has been “unfairly treated”.
He said discussions are ongoing today, but said Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have failed to “finalise a package of proposals” that would avoid an election.
“There is no attempt here to hide anything or protect France Fitzgerald from the exposure of truth – quite the opposite,” he said.
The minister said the Charleton tribunal will begin assessing the matter in early January.
While serious issues are at play today – there was one gaffe on Twitter that had people in a spin.
Richard Chambers🎙 / Twitter
Richard Chambers🎙 / Twitter / Twitter
John Concannon, the head of the Taoiseach’s Strategic Communications Unit, sent out a cryptic tweet – “#GE17″.
He quickly issued a correction, stating that he had hit the wrong button in error.
Political accountability
Speaking earlier today on Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1, Fianna Fáil’s Finance Spokesperson Michael McGrath said Fianna Fáil does not want an election but that there must be political accountability.
He the situation has arisen because of a “catastrophic failure of judgement by the Tánaiste”.
Minister of State Damien English said, “A general election is not what we want in this point in time.”
We’re trying to keep a government together. I believe Michael Martin and Leo Varadkar are making every effort to keep this government together because it’s quite clear from anyone you talk to, no matter who they support, they do not want a general election.
Explaining Varadkar’s point of view, he said: “He believes it would be wrong for Frances Fitzgerald to resign over this because she didn’t do anything wrong.”
Meanwhile Labour leader Brendan Howlin said: ”When she was Minister for Justice she failed in her ministerial responsibility on this crucial issue of protecting a whistleblower when it was public policy that Maurice McCabe needed to be protected.
There was an underhand under the radar move by the Garda Commissioner to destroy that man that was made known, we now know, to the department and the Minister and she didn’t act.
If the vote goes before the Dáil tomorrow, Howlin said the Labour Party will support the motion of no confidence.
Fianna Fail’s motion of no confidence is scheduled for tomorrow night and if a solution is not found before then, a Christmas election is inevitable.
Documents
Over the weekend, the Taoiseach handed over documents to Micheál Martin in an attempt to convince him that Fitzgerald had acted appropriately.
Opposition parties are calling for the documents which outline Department of Justice correspondence in relation to Fitzgerald’s knowledge of a garda legal strategy against McCabe to be made available to all parties.
Labour’s Alan Kelly has said that it’s vital that the documents are given to opposition parties. He has put forward numerous Parliamentary Questions requesting correspondence with Department of Justice in relation to the legal strategy, but his requests have all come to no avail.
A trawl of documents at the Department of Justice will continue this morning, with any further evidence set to be delivered to the Disclosures Tribunal.
Yesterday afternoon a government spokesperson confirmed to TheJournal.ie that Fitzgerald will allow her name to go forward for the Dublin Mid West general election convention on Tuesday.
With reporting by Christina Finn
Hard to blame him with FF going back to the Cowen era for their bi-election candidate. No wonder they stuck at 17%.
Who are the 17% of people with serious lapses in their memories?
People that are FF party diehard supporters. They do exist, after all.
Everybody wants change so change who you normally vote for stop voting ff fg lb or god forbid the greens, remember they have all been part of the reasons the country is on its knees
Clearly not everyone; if that was the case, FG/FF support would have collapsed by now.
@Richard, who is there left to vote for?
Whilst admiring the energy of the young ( remember what being 26 was like) not sure though that we should be electing TD’s with little of life/ commercial experience to draw on. Surely we are just creating another ‘Enda Kenny’ Syndrome of clueless, careerist, political numpties in years to come no offense meant, but we do have the evidence scattered in front of us.
Poached him? Any chance that they would spit roast the rest? Spit roast in the culinary sense obviously. The other alternative would be too extreme for our stomachs.
“Defacation” nach ea? A thiarna ach níl siad in ann fiú litriú i gceart!
So @aidankelly,everyone at YFG meetings tells you they are voting for FG?.Did it occur to you that they might be a little biased?
How is it any different to judging dissatisfaction with the government by looking at the water protests? Obviously anyone protesting against the government isn’t happy with the government!
My elderly parents don’t go out protesting at this government as they’re not physically able to go ..They will do their protesting at the ballot box,though :)
You have to give it to aidan Kelly he gives us our Daly laugh ‘s spouting his Daly crap about FG.
Aidan
I am not so sure that all protesters are not happy with the government. Yes there are genuine people who want to express their feelings and opinions but there is a lot of people that just want to protest for the sake of protesting and going out to run a muck.
you have a fantastic knack of collecting red thumbs aidan.
“a muck” what? Savage is it? That’s not nice ;-)
Why would anyone vote FF when they persist in the same old guard
Hes a former TD for a reason..the people said no.
Another FF politician who has no clue about where FF is on the political spectrum. Didn’t Bertie say FF was left wing! ReNua certainly isn’t.
Bertie declared Ireland a socialist country circa 2006. He also claimed that he won his.money on a horse and that he didn’t have a bank account while serving as Minister for Finance of this country.
Moral of the story: if Bertie Ahern told me the sky was blue, I’d look up to make sure.
Please, no more. I despise these guys already and they’re only around a wet week.
I was going to post that the by-election should serve as a dipstick for the real level of support for Lucindas new party, but I’m worried people might start associating the words ‘Lucinda’ and ‘dipstick’ with each other.
That’s where your party is heading too Spammin. SF/IRA will be lucky to cobble together 6 seats at the next election. A 7% drop in one week! You guys are done. LOL.
It could be worse I suppose. The party leader could be associated globally with the word “terrorist”.
Well Lucinda is associated with the word “religion” which is pretty much an instant vote killer for anybody with half a brain and the ability to think freely,
Aidan kelly your a stepford wife from edna.middle class boy who probably went to private school who wouldn’t know the real world.come into the working class areas of dublin no lift there no extra money in their pockets ff=fg.same failed policies.
I worked hard and now plan to make a lot of money. There’s no excuse for laziness.
How’s Kenneth this weather ,Alan ?
Does it matter that I called you Alan ?
Aiden I so enjoy people like yourself.
So full of passion for what you believe to be right and true.
So determine.
So idealistic.
SOòooo yet to meet the harsh reality of the real world.
I hope they bring him up to speed on policies before any radio interviews!
Not one vote for them or ff ,fg,labour or suffering will continue.
What a wonderful addition to their basket of rejects. Just another reason this party will not be going anywhere in the polls.
Defection of Defecation?
Very interesting development. Were Bobby Aylward to be elected there would be no Kilkenny FF vacancy on the ticket for years. SO makes some sense. Here’s one of his Local Election leaflets
http://irishelectionliterature.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/leaflet-from-patrick-mckee-fianna-fail-kilkenny-city-west-2014-local-elections/
They are (no doubt) welcome to this ambitious young man.
I remember talking to Lucinda last year at a YFG conference and she came across as intelligent, well informed and kind hearted, She could have become FG leader if she didn’t vote against our abortion bill. Sad that she’s now sucking up the dregs of FF. If the worst comes to the worst and FG only gets 78 seats at the next election (more likely 85) then we can always use some of her TDs to form a government.
Wow, a meeting of minds alright. What was that quote? Great minds think alike, but then fools seldom differ. Fitting
What’s your role in FG, Alan?
Campaign manager at Trinity College YFG
With 16 Twitter followers and a handful of fawning tweets you might want to spend more time in that role than on here then…
@Aidan: How does somebody that you’re already minded to like (you’re an FG activist) come across as “kind hearted”? Surely that was just your bias?
85 seats!? You’re living in dreamland. FG will most likely have 40-50 seats after the next election. A FG/FF/Renua coalition is the most likely government after the next GE.
Aidan – Did I read that FG voted in an “Abortion Bill” ??????
Aiden I’ll freely admit I voted Fg and Lab. I have pretty much never expected much from any government. Maybe the efford to try and keep at least one promise. Hell even the pretents would do.
But this present coalition have out done themselves. Never again will I. Give a single preference to either. FG have lost all the ethics they had under Gareth. And labour has lost the balls to stand up to them.
Funny that, cos I asked the young blueshirts on their FB page if they’d ever heard of you and they said no.
Oh Eoin, they have such short memories then…according to Aidan he spent ALL day yesterday with them…at a YFG conference…ALL day, sure he didnt get home until after 8 o clock lastnight!!
Aidan,
If she gets elected she will be the Irish version of Thacher
Aidan is far too enthusiastic to be real. And quite obnoxiously arrogant too. Has to be a shinner bot pretending to be a blueshirt bot – is any other explanation believable?
A bot within a bot within a bot. Watching inception recently by any chance?
Aidan has no one told you that the best way to stop someone listening to you is to tell them that they are wrong and the best way to communicate is from listening?
To be in politics you have to be sly, cunning and pretend to care, you could end up reducing your red thumbs if you say something like I respect your view but my belief is… etc etc, little things like that Aidan?
That is Enda lol.
Renua.. me arse
Pat McKee’s family are Sinn Fein. Rumour has it he tried to get Sinn Fein nomination from By-election candidate Kathleen Funchion and now has joined Renua. As an openly gay man in a party with Christian Right Wing social policies is this a bit of a paradox? He was hugely involved with Yes Kilkenny marriage equality group as a cynical vote getting exercise? Think this guy is very confused to say the least.
He seems to be an opportunist. Certainly with his courting of SF prior to this leap to Renua, polar opposites and as you say a strange home for an openly gay man. Has probably killed his career stone dead which may be no bad thing if his idealism is tempered by what’s politically suitable for him at the time.
Defiantly going from the frying pan into the fire, going to get roasted in time to come.
Or from a sewer to a septic tank?
Have Fianna Fail teamed up with the Looney Left. Heard Sean Fleming on the radio this morning. Couldn’t believe my ears. What he seemed to be saying – Fianna Fail will introduce a bill to make it illegal for landlords or local authorities to give the names of tenants to Irish Water. If I heard right then a landlord or local authority will end up paying the bill. Like all “we won’t pay” – TV licence, motor tax etc the tax paying public will end up footing the bill.
Some conversion, on the road to Laois / Offaly, from a man who was treasurer of Fianna Fail during the heyday of the Galway tent.
Bandwagon job he’s not worth thinking about
So he joined FF and now he has joined Renua. Ok….I trust that guy’s judgment.
Strikes me as odd that the new party is Renua while Denis O Briens new stores are Re.store. Re…… seems to be popular in Ireland at the moment.
Yes, Mary! ‘Renege, Repress” – and at the next election, ‘Reap’ :)
Reposess – a very popular word
MM needs to go to make room for the new generation of Fianna Fáil politicians.
Not much room needed there.
Thought he was going to be good candidate. Thought it was strange he steeped a side for bobby without a fight. Whiff of old school politics off this , bobbys old Fianna Fáil dynasty so he has first dibs
Sinking ships and all that…
Yep, jump ship as FF is goin’ down. Renua is Re-new-a Fianna Fail!! SSDD…
Renua is the ultra conservative FG lite. Not anywhere near FF.
have your say