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TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said Sinn Féin’s plan to hold a series of public rallies is “an unwelcome development”, while Pearse Doherty has said criticism of the rallies is “hysterics”.
Leader of Sinn Féin’s negotiation team Pearse Doherty said the public meetings across the country are about democracy and meeting voters.
On Saturday, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald announced the party would host a number of public rallies over the coming weeks to “bring the conversation about a government for change to the people”.
Leo Varadkar said earlier today: “I think they are an unwelcome development, generally what happens in a democracy is that people vote, the votes are counted and then parties try to form a government.
“What is happening here it seems that Sinn Féin, having won less than a quarter of the vote, are behaving as though as they have won a majority.”
Pearse Doherty said this afternoon: “I think the hysterics from Leo and Micheál [Martin] are nothing but that, it’s hysterics to tell you the truth.”
Doherty added that he had heard “some of the comments about intimidation” and reiterated that the meetings would be held in public.
“No amount of hysterics from Micheál Martin or Leo Varadkar will stop us talking to our great people who elected us in,” he said.
Last week, Micheál Martin said his party does not believe “Sinn Féin operates to the same democratic standards held to by every other party”.
“This is not simply about the past,” he said. “It is about practices which any party which shares government with Sinn Féin must accept as normal.”
Dominic McGrath / TwitterSinn Féin’s negotiation team is giving update at Leinster House today - the party has been talking to the Greens pic.twitter.com/h868KXZP5N
— Dominic McGrath (@McGrathDominic) February 24, 2020
Formation talks
Sinn Féin’s negotiation team met today with the Green Party.
Doherty rejected the idea that a carbon tax, which Sinn Féin opposes, could be a sticking point with the Green Party in government formation talks. Doherty said the tax “just makes people poorer”.
Leader of the Greens Eamon Ryan has previously said carbon tax is ”an important part of the jigsaw” but might not be the biggest stumbling block when it comes to discussions with Sinn Féin.
Discussions between the Greens and Sinn Féin are set to continue “for a period of time”.
“We believe there can be significant progress on the core issues that will form a programme for government for change,” said Doherty.
What we have in common with the Green Party is that we need to take the climate agenda very serious, we need to invest seriously.
Doherty said his party’s talks with other parties and independents are “intensifying this week”.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said today that his party’s plan remains for opposition, and not at this stage, forming a coalition government with Fianna Fáil.
“What I would say is that the onus really still falls with Sinn Fein to form a government, they on the left believe they won the election, they have an opportunity to prove that now by forming a government and if they can’t form a government well then they should fess up and say they didn’t actually win the election, and if they had, they disagree with each other so much that they wouldn’t have been able to form a government anyway,” he said.
With reporting from Dominic McGrath and Press Association.
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Great! The resulting 0.002% reduction in the live register as a result will show we’ve broken the back of this recession. Not too sound to negative about the development of cloud computing, data centres etc. in Ireland, but they’re not really labour intensive enough to make any real impact on our unemployment crisis are they?
These jobs bring money into the country and keep well educated people here. It’s not really the case that hog tech jobs like these aren’t labour I tensive enough, it’s more the case that most job seekers aren’t well educated enough for jobs like these.
Fergal it’s not a matter of not being ‘well educated enough’ it is a matter of having the right set of skills and capabilities for the job. It is pretty much common knowledge that people differ in this respect. You can hardly suggest that a person with qualifications in accountancy or law, isn’t well educated enough. They are just well educated in a different area. Similarly the lab scientist with a PhD…
“Not too sound to negative…”. Well, I’m afraid it does sound negative.
This post is really frustrating: there is a small company out there trying hard to create employment (on any scale), and the first response of some people is just begrudery. This company could be the next Google, or it may not: either way, at least they’re trying, and making jobs in the process.
Great! Just not “news”.
While job creation is a big priority, the micro level reporting of every job lost or created in the country is plain daft. If anything it has the opposite impact on the intention behind the announcements as they often reduce morale. How about the jobs are created and everyone just gets on with it?
The Argos announcement earlier this week of “800 jobs” was ridiculous as well – if they were 800 permanent jobs, then maybe a worthy news item. But most of these jobs will be for a few weeks, then announced again as new jobs next year.
The only time, even in the local or regional press, in the UK that I read about jobs lost or created or the really big eye-catching projects or closures of very large factories. These stories smack of politicians desperate for votes and pats on the back. When mostly it is nothing to do with their actions.
There is a difference between between sceptism and begrudgery. Am all for keeping well educated and skilled people working and spending in this country and fair play to this company in particular. However, at a macro level, I just wonder how many jobs in reality will be created by the latest wave of IT industry developments, which in simple terms appears to be based around innovative ways for storing and managing data. Compare it to the early 90s when the arrival of Intel, Dell, Microsft etc created tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs. Not all rocket science positions, granted, but employment at a serious scale. Correct me if i’m wrong, but the employment potential from cloud computing, data centre devleopment etc appears to be only a fraction of this.
You stand corrected ;) cloud computing isn’t just data management and storage; its everything that the web is based on nowadays – look at Youtube and Facebook, Google Apps, and Salesforce – there are thousands of jobs that rotate around cloud computing in Ireland and new jobs becoming available every day.
The jobs and employment are there, the skills can be learned and as this is the way that technology is moving towards with more and more systems in the cloud, the jobs will continue to grow.
10 jobs is probably only on the hardware/infrastructure level. A well managed DC has a ratio of 250 to 500 servers to 1 staff. Of course if the end “customers” of those 250 servers are in Ireland, then there could – potentially – be a knock on creation of jobs if the customers choose to use Irish developers.
On the flip side, a badly designed and managed infrastructure would need as many as 1 support person for every 30 servers. These are mostly blades by the way, with attached storage – would require a highly disciplined support person rather than just high skill. There are numerous companies now providing such services from Ireland, including Amazon and IBM.
Well, I might no live or work in Ireland, I’m an IT freelance professional though and I would like to express this single question: How many local IT freelancers or small IT service companies will be out of business given the expansion of cloud computing service providers and their services being sold even broader than their country of installation?
How many of those 10 job places will be held next year, given that growing competition will enforce cloud computing service providers to reduce job seats rather than increasing them?
I have just created ten jobs by driving my car into the front of a supermarket.
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