Tag archive for "fine gael"
Kenny was on Newstalk’s Breakfast with Claire and Ivan and got sucker punched on the issue of water charges.
Kenny was on a roll talking up Fine Gael’s successive opinion poll numbers until he was asked by a listener if he was in favour of water charges. After falling over his words, Kenny admitted that Fine Gael hasn’t a position on the reintroduction of water charges yet.
The water charges chatter comes about five minutes into this snippet from the show.
Photo: Dreamstime
First up the Sunday Tribune.
Northern Editor Suzanne Breen interviews Gerry Adams’ niece, Aine Tyrell. Tyrell claims that Adams is lying when he says he couldn’t tell party colleagues that his brother was a suspected paedophile because she demanded anonymity from Adams.
Breen writes:
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Tribune, Tyrell was scathing of both the Sinn Féin president and the PSNI over their handling of the case.
She said: “I didn’t know Liam was in Sinn Féin but had Gerry bothered to tell me, I would have waived my anonymity without hesistation. I’d have accompanied Gerry to meet his colleagues in Sinn Féin, to talk to the ard chomhairle about what Liam had done so they could expel him from the party. But Gerry never gave that option.”
The piece continues with Tyrell saying that she never asked Adams to protect her anonymity and had asked him to address the fact that Liam Adams working on youth projects over and over again to no avail.
Under the fold of the Tribune frontpage, Conor McMorrow reports on Fine Gael’s plans to reshape the electorial system. McMorrow writes:
The Sunday Tribune understands that key figures in the party are finalising an audacious plan to have a ‘Mixed Electoral System’, where 12 TDs will be elected from four regions based on the constituencies used for the European elections. They would be elected on the basis of a list system, which would be a break away from the PR-STV system which has been used in elections since the foundation of the state.
He continues:
A further 134 TDs would be elected in the traditional constituency-based elections and the new slimmed-down Dáil would have 20 less TDs than the current 16 deputies. The party hopes to implement the mammoth changes for the general election after the next one.
The Sunday Business Post leads with a story by Cliff Taylor and Ian Kehoe on the banks and Nama. Titled “State to pay banks less for transferring loans to NAMA”, their piece claims that the state’s bill to transfer loans to Nama will be “considerably lower than the expected €54 billion”.
They write:
Detailed investigation of the first loans to be transferred from the banks to the new agency shows the loans are worth less than previously estimated. The initial Nama plan had said that loads were likely to be transferred at 30 per cent below their original worth, but the indications are that the final discount will now be higher.
Under the Post lead comes a small but interesting piece by Ian Kehoe on how the government plans to tighten up the rules governing the artists’ exemption.
He writes:
The Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism is working with the Revenue Commissioners and the Arts Council on a major review of the scheme, particularly who can qualify for tax relief.
Oh yes and I got the Sindo, but it’s all gangs and Brendan O’Connor has a piece called “Stokes twins: pillars of hope”, so we’ll just grab a pic and leave it there!
Links to follow when the pieces go live on the web!
Yesterday came the news that the team of politicians lost a total of seven stone in a week for RTÉ’s Operation Transformation. And damn are they obsessed with the show. It’s like those people hunched in health farms every morning sharing colonic irrigation war scars.
And they are tweeting obsessively. Well, mostly the Fine Gaelers’ to be fair!
Fine Gael’s Fergus O’Dowd waves buh-bye to the bread sambo.
Senator Jerry Buttimer notches up his loss.
The odd Fianna Fáiler gets into the action too. Here comes Wexford’s Sean Connick.
Even the new Tweeters are eschewing the chance of talking policy to tweet on their weight loss.
Fine Gael’s Tom Sheahan of Kerry South.
Fine Gael’s Senator Phil Prendergast of Tipperary South. All Operation Transformation tweets!
The Defence Forces shows us how it’s done!
And a lil shoutout from the Defence Forces official account.
Is there a mini-competition happening do you think? Perhaps a bet?
Liberatas cold-calling the opposition’s mammy
The Kilkenny’s People’s Insider highlights how Libertas seem to be cold-calling IFA members to bolster Raymond O’Malley’s run for Ireland East. They even decided to give opposing runner, Senator John Paul Phelan’s mammy a call:
The voice at the other end of the phone asked if she had a moment and the man said he was ringing on behalf of Raymond O’Malley who is running for the controversial – and it seems unpopular – Libertas group.
She explained that she had a man running herself, but didn’t actually say that her son was a candidate. She laughed at the good of it and thought it was strange that she should receive an unsolicited phone call from the Libertas group.
In a past life, O’Malley was an IFA rep holding posts like the Chairman in Louth. Can he mention that in meetings?
Not on my patch
Staying with Senator Phelan, is the campaigning really hotting up with stable-mate Mairead McGuinness? The Wexford Echo was quick off the mark. Seems the McGuinness camp has been setting up posters in the home constituency of Senator Phelan:
Under party rules, Sen. John Paul Phelan can canvass in South Kildare, Laois, Wexford, Wicklow, Carlow and Kilkenny; while Ms. McGuinness has the Dáil hinterland of North Kildare, Offaly, Meath and Louth.
Sen. Phelan said he was he was surprised to learn that Ms. McGuinness had stepped into his territory, not just two weeks ago, but on other occasions recently.
Robbed of a gem?
As a complete aside and filed under Coulda Shoulda Woulda, The Dundalk Democrat notes the antsy feet of our favourite local politikhead:
The Corrs guitarist Jim Corr has admitted that he misses ‘life on the road’ with his siblings.
Maybe that’s one glorious Ireland East campaign we’ve lost. The tour bus might outgun even Fine Gael’s panzer section!
Tonight’s liveblog for RTÉ 1’s The Week in Politics over Liveblog.ie.
The upcoming elections were on the menu with Martin Cullen and Brian Hayes. Closeup on the Dublin Central byelection smackdown with Maureen O’Sullivan, Ivana Bacik, Maurice Ahern and Paschal Donoghue.
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