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LAST UPDATE | 4 Apr 2020
TIPPERARY TD ALAN Kelly was elected the new leader of the Labour Party after he beat Dublin TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin in the race with the result announced late last night.
This afternoon, the new Labour leader said it’s “up to other parties” to form a government with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil likely to need the support of another party to form a coalition.
The postal ballot poll for the Labour Party leadership closed yesterday.
Out of a ballot of 1,916, Kelly received 1,047 to Ó Ríordáin’s 868 votes. One vote was spoiled.
This translated to Kelly winning by 55% to 45%.
Kelly said on Twitter that it was his “greatest honour” to be elected the 13th leader of the Labour party.
“I know that we will work together to bring our party forward,” he said. “Huge thanks to the members for putting their trust in me.”
Alan Kelly TD / Twitter
Alan Kelly TD / Twitter / Twitter
In a follow-up statement this afternoon, Kelly said his party “will offer constructive support for the national effort” in the coming weeks and months.
“As leader I will of course continue to engage with all parties but when it comes to forming a government we have been very clear since the general election, that it is up to other parties to take their responsibilities seriously and it is up to them to form a stable government,” he said.
It seems that some parties are more interested in playing politics than solving the crisis the people of this country face.
Ó Ríordáin, who conceded via Twitter shortly before 10pm based on early tallies, congratulated Kelly on his imminent election and said “I know Labour’s values are safe in his hands”.
He also thanked outgoing leader Brendan Howlin and thanked his own campaigners and supporters.
Due to the extraordinary circumstances arising from the public health measures in place to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, changes were made to the usual arrangements that would apply for a Labour leadership election count.
Only the appointed returning officer Conor Power SC was allowed to sort and count the ballots in a room in Mazars in Dublin.
A video link from the count room was made available to appointed observers and election agents of each candidate. When the count was completed the returning officer made the result announcement via a live Facebook video feed on the Labour Party page.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin / Twitter
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin / Twitter / Twitter
The leadership contest kicked off last month when Brendan Howlin announced he would resign as leader following the outcome of February’s General Election.
Labour failed to capitalise in an election which saw voters move further to the left and put Sinn Féin out in front as the party with most support.
Howlin’s party secured just six seats with some of its more prominent parliamentary figures, including Joan Bruton and Jan O’Sullivan, losing their seats.
Kelly’s leadership bid centred around rebuilding the party from the ground up and returning to the roots and core values of the party.
“When people work and pay their taxes, they deserve a be able to afford a home, equality across all education services, that if they are sick or a loved on is sick, that the state will look after them.”
Kelly made no secret about his ambitions to be leader of the party in the past, going so far as to putting a timeline on Howlin’s departure.
With reporting from Sean Murray
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So healthcare workers should have to put their lives at risk when there has been a warning for people to stay indoors? I’m sorry, I don’t think so. Why didn’t the person try to organize family to come or else organize to go to a care facility for the said time? I’m sorry but people were instructed to stay indoors.
@Greeneyes17: I’m sorry but who said healthcare workers should put their lives at risk? I’m sorry but that’s a touch of a straw man.
@Greeneyes17: Well this comment shows your level of ignorance on the topic. First of all most of those people with care packages don’t have family or family close by. Second of all what care facility do you suggest ?,These don’t exist. There are nursing homes for elderly people which are usually are full with waiting lists to get in. There are no care facilities that people can just go to. No one expects people to travel when they can’t but measures have to be introduced for national weather emergencies. Temporary live in carers would be an answer but an expensive one. Bottom line is just not as simple as you say and you should stop blaming the disabled for not being able to look after themselves.
@Greeneyes17: you are missing the point care providers can avail of help from the civil defence and defence force to go to there client in a emergency when code red is declared when the weather is bad
@Catherine Sims: excellent Catherine you go and temporarily live in with a vulnerable client juring the next red weather event????????
The health services and army and Gardai did a great job. But the volunteers in the Civil Defence who are volunteers did a fantastic job, on their own time. Often forgotten.
@Porterkev: “volunteers in the civil degence who are volunteers”…. wow thanks for pointing that out
@Porterkev:
One ambulance had to be dug out 6 times
https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/father-son-ambulance-team-praise-14381478
You know what one of the problems was? Too many people didn’t believe it was going to happen. Look back at the Journal comments. This narrative that joe public knew more than the scientists and meteorologists who have studied these things for years, was common.
@Dermot Lane: The cold bite was always coming but there was an admitted real possibility of Storm Emma changing course a few days before coming to Ireland and diverting from the course of going over any part of Ireland at all.
@Shane Corry: people were saying met E had it wrong the evening it hit because it didn’t come at 4pm On the button
Plans should be put in place for those needing care like mentioned above and halls made available to those who need it.
Spending millions yearly on ploughs etc is not viable once in a decade weather.
@Pilib O Muiregan: Dont agree. A snow plough is just a truck that can be used for other purposes. Just bracket on front 2 hold v shaped piece os steel. snow tires not v expensive.
@gregory: in Warsaw they put ploughs on the front of the bin lorries when it’s snowing.
Im supported by clarecare twice a day. Clarecare told their workers to just go to emergency cases on thurs morning but many workets chose to stay at home. All services in Ennis and surrounding areas were fine up til about 6/7pm that eve. No one checked in on thursday no one checked in on friday Saturday or Sunday ie even a phone call.
There was no contingency plans what would have been really useful was phone contact with people who were vulnerable. Many had no one from Wed to Monday.
Conditions were too bad to travel on friday or Saturday but Alternative plans to check in with people would have been better.
The National Standard, even if this exists…, for burying water pipes underground needs to have the depth increased.
@gregory: there is a national standard but it was ignored during the boom. But it never got cold enough for pipes to freeze, this time.
I think the publicity for the emergency services is over done during the storm. There’s very good stories of great work no doubt but if you’re working in this area it’s just part of the job we don’t need to heap praise in them just pay them more where they should be.
1/2 What will become of people like my brother when they are forced out of their residential centres into dispersed housing in rural communities (where many roads were not even treated during this weather event)? Unlike the people with disabilities who were able to pick up the phone and ring Tom Clonan, my brother now 41, cannot speak, pick up a phone, dial a number, call for help, walk, feed or get himself a drink or change his own nappies – his intellectual age is 6 months to 1 year. Yet ‘disability advocates’ gung ho on independent living and wiping out ‘institutions’ insist even those with severe and profound needs should live an ‘ordinary life’ in an ‘ordinary place’ with ‘no special treatment’ – just because that’s what the majority of people with disabilities want for themselves.
A formal buddy system needs to be set up by HSE for all vulnerable persons where a designated person such as a neighbour can volunteer to check up if a carer doesn’t turn up it. It might simply mean making a quick phone call during the crisis or looking in for 10 minutes.
2/2 Once the HSE’s Time to Move On from Congregated Settings policy is fully implemented, the 76 residents who occupy ten houses (mainly large chalets) on my brother’s beautiful campus will be scattered here, there and everywhere in small houses of 3 or 4 with agency staff coming and going. Whereas during this storm they had a continuation of care thanks to a well staffed campus where nurses and carers could stay with them, in the future they will be in the very position those who contacted Tom Clonan were in this time around. Only unlike them, they won’t be able to call him or anyone. There are people with disabilities who fully rely on others for their survival – leaving cold food & drinks next to my brother’s bed would not work for the same reason it wouldn’t work with an infant.
No mention of other voluntary agencies that have been doing great work, the likes of Order of Malta, St Johns and Red cross, who mobilised vehicles and personnel all over the country during the bad weather! IT’s not just the civil defence you know!
Global warming causing Sudden Stratospheric Warming’s hasn’t really kicked off yet and when it does then these things will get more common and WORSE.
@Alois Irlmaier:
Please define “Global warming causing Sudden Stratospheric Warming’s” as even google struggle with that one.
I fully expect that the Gestapo will issue a curfew for a future weather event.
This will be the inaguration of the new Irish Communist State.
It is up to the government to make sure that there is enough of a supply of crack, mack, cocaine, heroin, alcohol etc for those who refuse shelter.
What a kip of a country, we are great for meddling in other peoples business but cant mind our own, I’m a pensioner &recently got a bill from my electric company for almost a thousand euros? I know I don’t owe that money as I live in a one bed apt & i’m seldom home, the bill was for eighty four days, The company are saying that I do owe the money so I asked them to prove to me that I owe them the money but they haven’t come back to me, My point is that there are a lot of unqualified people in jobs that they are not qualified to be in, In other words they are chancers, God help us & save us from the vultures
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