Daily Fix: Friday

Michaéal Martin says no to Golden Handshakes; Leo Vardakar ruffles some feathers; and John Gormley just wants the simple things in life – like rewriting the Constitution.

EVERY evening, TheJournal.iebrings your Daily Fix: our pick of the highlights (and some of the lows) of today’s campaign trail.

GOOD DAY FOR:

Brian Lenihan – who was backed by the boys in Brussels today when the European Commission said that it understood Ireland’s delay in recapitalising its banks was “temporary”… There has been no comment as yet from Fine Gael’s finance spokesman Michael Noonan, who had challenged Lenihan on whether the ECB, EU and IMF knew of the decision to delay.
The Knights of the Round Table – in the name of citizen empowerment, Green Party leader John Gormely believes 40 people should be entrusted with rewriting the Constitution of Ireland. This directly-elected assembly would put together a set of new laws for the state – and then the public would vote in a referendum to back it. Sounds simple.
Mannix Flynn – who has been crowned High King of Election Rap by TheJournal.ie users.

BAD DAY FOR:

Golden handshakes – Fianna Fáil leader Michaél Martin has informed the six members of the cabinet fighting to retain their seats in the election that they will be forced to waive their ministerial severance payments. The payments are not peanuts, either, at a cool €90,000 each.
Leo Varadkar – who was trending on our Twitter Tracker for all the wrong reasons over the past day. During an appearance on Vincent Browne’s TV3 programme, he suggested that Ireland should pay unemployed migrants to go home (eh, maybe he should trade stories with Sarko on that one?) and was also accused of displaying a general lack of empathy.

ELECTION HIATUS OF THE DAY:

Richard Bruton and John Perry skipped off the election trail earlier today to grab some much-needed cake therapy – although neither of them managed to lose the ties. Sharing is caring, guys…

Image: Maxwell Photography

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