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FIANNA FÁIL AND Fine Gael have parked government formation talks for Christmas, planning to meet again in the New Year after making “progress” in meetings today.
The two parties, which secured 48 and 38 seats in November’s election respectively, are angling to get back into Government together with the support of Independents or a smaller party.
After a series of talks over the weeks since the election, the parties have confirmed that they made progress on various issues in talks today and have concluded for the Christmas break.
They plan to meet again in January to resume discussing a potential Programme for Government.
They also intend to continue engaging with the Social Democrats and Independents as they look to gather enough numbers for a majority in the Dáil.
The most likely outcome currently appears to be that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will go back into Government together with the support of a group of Independents after both parties backed Independent TD Verona Murphy as their pick for Ceann Comhairle.
Murphy, a member of a newly-formed grouping of Independents called the Regional Group, was elected as Ceann Comhairle on Wednesday during the 34 Dáil’s first sitting.
The Labour Party had also engaged in discussions but has ruled out entering an agreement with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, citing a “policy gulf”.
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If nobody gets tested I think the numbers will go way down
@eoin carroll: you mean like in Jan-Feb?
The people that share this nonsense stuff on social media are the same people that used to forward chain emails
Did ye’s not just prove it correct? 15-20% positivity rate between March to June despite 3 times less tests. If we had tested what we’re testing now (approx 80,000) with that positivity rate, we would have had between 12,000-17,000 cases. And only 60 of today’s cases were community transmitted, can ye’s do some proper fact check-in and find out how many of our deaths was from nursing homes?
@John Egan: that’s the point…. the more u test the lower the positivity rate (hopefully). our positivity rate going up at the moment even while testing is increasing is a worry.
@Lorraine Mac Rory: positively rate in north is 14.6%.
@Karl Mc Cauley: it’s not. It’s less than 4%
It’s an article I have to admit I find as clear as mud. Can someone please rewrite it with figures and give us a clear answer?
if that’s meant to be done kind of debunk it’s left me even more dubious of their approach to testing… and worse still how they interpret those test results.. strange stuff..
I stopped reading after the headline.
So numbers have surged in the past few weeks. Same across Europe.
Wonder what changed at the start if September??
@ed o brien: schools.
A Noble Spirit Embiggens The Smallest Man.
@Billy Big Baws: Embiggens. Hmm. I never heard that word until I moved to Springfield
Fact check? They are comparing 2 periods were the amount of testing was vastly different, the criteria for getting a test was vastly different and the capability for track and trace was vastly different. Add the amazing assertion that if you think more tests means more positive you think like Donald Trump.
Terrible article, poorly written, impossible to come to any conclusions based on the information given.
No mention of false positive rate, good luck and thanks
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