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ARE THE HEALY-Raes credible partners when it comes to government formation?
Tánaiste Micheál Martin says they are.
Asked in Dublin at the opening of a new outpatient facility for the Rotunda Hospital if the two Kerry TDs are indeed credible partners, Martin responded, stating:
“Yes, I have had substantive discussions with Michael and Danny Healy-Rae on policy issues, with a view to enabling a government that can sustain for five years”.
Martin met privately with Michael Healy-Rae before Christmas followed by a second meeting where he met the two brothers together, along with three other Healy-Rae Kerry councillors.
The Irish Independent has reported that the two TDs “come as a package” and that the pair have already submitted their constituency priorities to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
The Journal understands that it is the view of some senior party sources in both parties that the Healy-Raes will “fall away” as government formation talks move forward.
Sources stated that the Healy-Raes were damaged and hurt at local level in previous government formation talks and will want to be seen to not “walk away too early” in the talks and be seen to give serious consideration to entering into government.
Ultimately, those The Journal spoke to said they didn’t believe the two Kerry TDs will get enough for the county to merit them supporting the next government.
They added that there is the added issue of already having two Fianna Fáil Kerry TDs in place, Norma Foley and Michael Cahill. Allowing the Healy-Raes to take credit for wins in the county at the detriment of the party TDs might be a step too far.
The Dáil resumes on 22 January, however, as reported yesterday by this publication, the date is increasingly being viewed as unrealistic to get a government up and running by then.
Taoiseach Simon Harris said yesterday that he wants a government formed this month, stating that they are continuing to work towards the 22 January date, while Martin said today that he is “hopeful” it can be achieved.
“I think we should do everything we possibly can. We have a presidential inauguration on the 20th in the US, and it would be nice for us to be up and running as well in and around that time,” said the Tánaiste.
Harris confirmed yesterday that a rotating Taoiseach model will be repeated in the next government, but when asked what the breakdown will be in terms of years, and whether Martin will be Taoiseach for at least three of the five years, he told the media they can speculate, but “nothing has been finally agreed on this”.
“There’s been fairly significant progress made in the last number of days, on top of what was done before Christmas, in respect of a number of the policy items. We’re also meeting in terms of the structure of government and parallel meetings, and those will continue when I get back Government Buildings,” he said.
“I’m not preempting anything,” said the Tánaiste, stating that there has to be a Dáil vote and agreement between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and a group of Independents.
Martin confirmed that a meeting with members of Independent Ireland will be held tomorrow.
“We will do everything we can to bring this to a conclusion as quickly as we can,” said the Fianna Fáil leader.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland earlier, Michael Collins, the leader of Independent Ireland, said his party is available for talks and are willing to enter into government. He said many his party will do this “based on the policies of Independent Ireland, not on parish politics”.
He said a strong programme for government is needed so it can deliver for people.
Outlining what is important to his group of TDs are housing, delivering for farmers, fisheries, health, the cost of living, transport and supports for small businesses.
“These are the areas that our policies focused on,” said Collins.
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Why do they have to wait until the busiest weekends to do the work on the train lines? Could they not do that work at night during the week days and have it ready to bring people here and there during bank holidays?
@David Corrigan: They already do a lot of work at night, but for some work a 6 hour window is just not long enough, I presume. If it takes 2 hours to replace a gearbox you can’t do it in 4 separate bursts of 30 minutes.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: But they try and fit all the repairs into a 3 day weekend instead of doing it on a 5 day week. Kinda blows your theory out the window, eh?
@David Corrigan: No, they frequently work around the clock. A few years ago a small bridge needed replacing near my brother’s house. August bank holiday, they started at about 7.00pm on Friday and worked through, with floodlights, and finished about 4.00pm on the bank holiday Monday. Virtually 60 hours continuous work, in shifts. The bridge soan itself was gone for about 36 hours as the replaced the anchorage and supports. This type if work needs a large and continuous chunk of time, and can’t be done in a standard 9 to 5 day. So a decision us taken to disrupt ‘leisure’ traffic over a bank holiday rather than the working hours of 10s of 1000s of commuters during a working week. Some people may not like that decision, but you can’t please everybody. A shorter time disrupting fewer people.
@David Corrigan: One line closure over the weekend by Iarnrod Eireann on the Belfast line. And one closure by NIR (makes sense to do both works at the same time).
Being a regular traveller on that line, I can tell you it is a lot busier during the week than it will ever be on any weekend.
People complain these lines should be electrified and upgraded. But when a push comes to shove they don’t want the inconvenience. I’d say expect a lot more of this over the next couple of years as electrification and infrastructure upgrades are brought in.
@David Corrigan: It’s three days where it’s not busy with commuter traffic. Disrupting the majority of people on days off is better than disrupting them and businesses for work commutes I assume is the logic
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: why do all these repairs specifically this weekend? These problems didn’t arise overnight, if they checked as they should, they should have prevented any possible fault before the fault happened, it’s called prevention.
You don’t wait until an airplane engine fails for you to repair it, it has mandatory service and diagnosis after a certain amount of time. the same goes for rail infrastructure. The fact that they had to repair them after they broke means that they didn’t check and keep track of them before so they can do a planned repair maintenance instead of a reactionary repair. That’s the problem
@J Ven: The bridge hadn’t broken. It hadn’t fallen. It was checked and deemed to need replacing. The continual repairs over the previous 100+ years were not enough anymore. So…… it was replaced. And it was decided to cause minimum disruption be doing it at a weekend where fewest people use it. (Am I correct in saying that every track is ‘walked’ and checked at least once a week??).
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: how do other countries with 24/7 public transport manage their infrastructure maintenance without huge interruptions? Why is public transport here in Ireland treated as the ugly stepchild and not given adequate priority and funding? It’s beyond a joke that there’s only one North-South line on the east coast of this Ireland. It seems the motto is “Ah sure, it’s grand, who’d need alternatives, they have one railway, they should be happy”
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: Entire London tube lines are closed periodically. Entire stations closed.
@David Corrigan: The figures show that the least amount of customers are affected if they use weekends including bank holidays.
@J Ven: These are upgrades to the lines. As part of Dart + and the new Enterprise services to and from Belfast.
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: They do exactly the same as Irish Rail and close likes and stations at weekends particularly bank holiday weekends.
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: Cities like London have multiple lines going to most areas the way the web of lines are built. So closing one section isn’t as big a deal as here. Iarnrod Eireann and their contractors can only manage what they have. If you need extra lines and major upgrades well then that’s government infrastructure nation development plans, etc. So talk to your local TD. I’m sure he/she will oblige.
That’s like saying the Road Haulage truck driver people should be building new motorways.
It’s obvious from some of the comments here that project management and logistics are not strong points of some journal readers.
@Fr. Fintan Stack: Neither are they strong points amongst the people who manage public transport here in Ireland. Or it wouldn’t be the misery it is
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: hmmm. I’d be interested to hear how you would manage say a piece of work that requires 40 hours work, like replacing track sections or upgrading or replacing singling infrastructure.
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: They are very effective in Irish Rail considering the hoops they have to jump through.
That would be two easy to do day are brain dead in this country full stop ✋️
@Alan Moloney: says the man who can’t spell….
@Alan Moloney: says the lad who cant even spell correctly…..prime example of the brain dead here folks!
@Tom Newell: your one yourself
@6gRrQtLn: we are very funny today
@Alan Moloney: “You’re” or “you are” not “your”.
@Tom Newell: your one of them
@Eamon: what
Fair enough that works need to be done, but then provide viable alternatives and not a “limited” bus service
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: A limited bus service in conjunction which the regular bus service.
having had to do bus transfers before, there are enough buses for all the passengers.
Sadly the transfers by bus were caused by sad events and had nothing to do with Irish Rail.
Typical and typically.
We apologize for the convenience caused, due to technical difficulties…
God , I remember that deadly statement at least twice a week a decade ago… I bet that did not change.
Why are we not allowed comment on the contraversal issues?
Car share to minimise emissions, at an air display, PC BS. All the Best.
I hope they have a stealth fighter jet
This seems to happen regularly over bank holiday weekends, nearly yearly, massive overtime for all involved, Do we have an emergency Bus network reserved for these occurrences, or are buses taken from regular routes, depriving, regular bus passenger’s of their services.
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