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LAST UPDATE | 10 Jul 2022
IRELAND’S EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER Mairead McGuinness has said she hopes Northern Ireland will be “front and centre” in the race to replace Boris Johnson as UK prime minister.
Nine Conservative MPs have announced their bid to replace Boris Johnson, but none have diverged from the party’s stance on overriding the Northern Ireland Protocol through a bill which is currently before the House of Commons.
Speaking on RTÉ News at One, McGuinness said: “What has been difficult for us to understand is this idea that unilateral action will solve those difficulties with the legislation that is halfway through the process in the House of Commons.
“But we will be looking to see what comes of the change at leadership level in the Conservative party.
“I hope that Northern Ireland will be front and center of the election campaign in the Conservative party, to good effect – in other words, that there will be an understanding of the benefits that accrue to Northern Ireland, by its access to the single market.”
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said she does not believe a “sea change” on the Protocol would come with a new Prime Minister.
Speaking on Newstalk this morning, McDonald said: “I’m not one bit naive about the Tories … Are the Tories going to change their mind as regards Ireland? Do leopards change their spots?”
But she said “this could prove to be a moment where things are at least partially reset”, with “big diplomatic pressure” from Ireland and elsewhere.
“The Irish state needs to leverage all of the diplomatic clout that it has.”
But the government is striking a more optimistic note.
Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics, junior minister Pippa Hackett said that “we have to be hopeful at this stage.
“[We have to] hope whoever does replace Boris Johnson will give us all the opportunity to reset our relationship with the UK, the UK’s relationship with Northern Ireland’s, and maybe most importantly, the UK’s relationship with the EU.
But she said “a lot of this will come down to whoever leads the Conservative Party.”
On the same programme, Matthew O’Toole, a Stormont MLA for the SDLP and a former Downing St civil servant, said he did not believe the new prime minister would “take a more rational, balanced approach to dealing with Ireland.
“I wouldn’t assume that whoever replaces [Johnson] will somehow be a more enlightened or more responsible actor.”
Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the News at One that recent government members in the UK had little interest in Northern Ireland because of Boris Johnson.
He said the governments of David Cameron, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were invested in Northern Ireland “because the Prime Minister took a personal interest in the issue.
Johnson did not, Ahern said. “So we now have to try and work really, really hard to get a good relationship with the next crew.”
– With reporting from Lauren Boland
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Is there a chance the track would bend?
@Barry Goodwin: if ya have nothing good to say just say nothing!
@Barry Goodwin: haha Barry. Now I have that song stuck in my head.
@Barry Goodwin: Not on your life my Mancunian friend.
@Elrond Rivendell: what about us brain dead slobs?
@Stephen Boland: you’ll be given cushy jobs
@Stephen Boland: you’ll be given cushy jobs!
@Thomas McDonnell: were you sent here by the devil?!
@Fergal O’Hagan: Not unless you’re Gary Neville!
@Fergal O’Hagan: No good sir I’m on the level
Any chance of some public transport on the Northside? Sick of sitting ages in traffic AT 6am! Whats happening with Metro North? Or are we going to be constantly vilified for having to use the car? I have osteoarthritis before anyone mentioning cycling!
@Lisa Jones: traffic at 6am, where?
@Dublin days: From Crossguns bridge right through Phibsboro and over the 2 luas lines and right up as far as the quays. Lights stay red longer, lanes have been reduced to one lane. I have been working the whole last year starting work at 6.30am and traffic is getting mental. Yes even that early, most likely by people trying to avoid getting caught up in rush hour traffic.
@Lisa Jones: Metrolink – Metro North was the old plan – is still going ahead.
Is the electrification of the line to Maynooth included as was suggested last year? I don’t see it mentioned here but it has been on the table for years. Let’s hope this isn’t another endless pipe dream consultative process that will cost the taxpayer millions without a single sod turned like Metro North, the Royal Canal Greenway deep sinking project, the DART extension to Maynooth. Consultants and engineers making money left, right and centre for flashy drawings and brochures of fictitious, never to be built infrastructure.
https://www.newstalk.com/news/irish-rail-reveals-details-plan-extend-dart-maynooth-1066555
Extension from Heuston…does the dart go to Heuston??
@dreiglaser: Not sure if you missed it but it says in the article a feasibility study and concept design would be undertaken for a future station at “Heuston West” (I assume that is within walking distance from the main Heuston station and it is a change stop), that line would run from Hazelhatch to Connolly via the Phoenix Park Tunnel
Well I hope they have better success than reopening the current line to navan, wasn’t even a priority for the greens
@Hugh Mc Donnell:
Public transport in Ireland is for the fairies.
@iohanx: there must be an election coming up, the usual empty promises and grand plans. Do politicians really think we believe this nonsense. It’s going on years now, metro North an underground Harcourt line to Bray navan rail line
But there’s a train
@Sazzle: if you have nothing good to say just say nothing
@Mark Dit: Nothing
@Mark Dit: sometimes saying nothing is good. I enjoyed Paul’s saying nothing, brightened up my day no end did that.
@This time its personable!: this applies to you more than Paul
With the money in all of these reports and consultation over the years, they would have the price to pay for metro-north and the extension to the Dart line
Should be extended to Sallins/Naas. What a wasted opportunity.
@Tomo: it should be all the way at to Portlaoise
So as per usual with the semi state and the department of wasting money. This will take years. Cost millions more than it should and be over loaded before it launches.
Needs to include a revamp of Hazelhatch Station. Secure bicycle parking, quicker access to platforms, hourly shuttle bus into Celbridge, go-car spaces.
Stations and commuters. Need I say more
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