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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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Ireland’s foreign policy is to import the entire world.
@common sense: 2050 were easily a minority. Lefties will come at you for saying this, calling you all sort of names, but they will never say you’re wrong. Look at the trajectory of the decline of the share in population of ethnic Irish. Down and down and down year on year.
@Cole Palmer: I say you’re wrong. So I call on you to back up your prediction of being outnumbered by 2050 – what exactly is your starting point? what are your assumptions about the future? Highlight the variables? Any risks to your forecast that you might want to highlight. I look forward to your response
@Cole Palmer: You’re wrong!
@Kevin Kerr:” Irish could be minority ethnic group here by 2050 – professor
Ireland’s native population could be in a minority by the middle of this century”
That was an Irish Times headline in 2006, when the % of immigrants in Ireland was a lot lower. Now, I fully expect you to spin that into some shixx that sounds good in your own head, seeing as you’re a fan of young male migrants.
@Finian McG: ah yes, a prediction based on unpublished UK research which states that people of Chinese origin will be the largest group. Nearly 20 years later, let me know how this prediction is going
@Kevin Kerr: did you miss the ’2050′ bit you thick eejit?
@Finian McG: no, dopey, my point is that, 20 years into this 44 year prediction, how has the mix changed? Are ethnic Irish on track to become a minority by 2050? No they’re not. There are 60,000 Chinese nationals living in Ireland – 87% of our population is either Irish (77%) or other white (10%)
@Kevin Kerr: we could have 400000 Ukrainians next year
@Kevin Kerr: I never said white, I said ethnic Irish. Our share of the population is dropping year on year. Check the consensus over the past 2 decades. It is a FACT that immigrants of East Asia and Africa breathe at a far higher rate than we do. Are you going to deny this now? The majority of our immigrants are from East Asia and Africa. Therefore if immigration continues the way it is, we will be a minority by the absolute maximum 2050. As soon as you lefties give up on debating this non-debate, you will say ‘so what ?’. I’ve seen it over and over. If you don’t see that as a problem, then I don’t know what to tell you, I give up. You will then go and contradict yourself saying Palestinians should have a right to there own land, which they certainly should.
@Kevin Kerr: ‘How has it changed?’ Are you being serious? According to CSO.ie, 150,000 immigrants came in 2024. That is 3% of the population. I said if immigration continues the way it does, so 150,000 a year until 2050 is 26 x 150,000, which equals 3,900,000. We are not reaching the 2.1 birthdate needed to PRESERVE our population size. So our share of the population will actually decline from 3.85 million. So 3,900,000 immigrants (not including children they have) is higher than our 77% share which will, according to our birthdate, decline from 3,850,000. Just like Japan, who’s Japanese population continues to drop every year from a lower than 2.1 birthrate per woman. Since 2008, Japans population has being decreasing every year. Can’t wait for your reply.
@Cole Palmer: Plus, we had 50,000 immigrants year ending April 2004, we had 89,000 year ending April 2022, we had 141,000 year ending April 2023, 150,000 year ending April 2024. I wonder what the figures will be in April of 2025? I would bet my house that’s its higher than 150,000. In 5 years I would bet my house it will be higher than 200,000…….
@Cole Palmer: so you have picked the year with the record number of immigrants to Ireland and assumed that this will continue until 2050. And of course, you haven’t factored in emigration to give an accurate net migration number. And of course, the emigration and immigration numbers are a mix of ethnic Irish people, and those who are not. So, in summary, your analysis is so full of holes that it makes no sense
@Cole Palmer: and yes, of course I accept that the proportion of “indigenous Irish” has dropped. It is the rate of future drop that I dispute. Sure, even in the UK, where people have been emigrating to since the 1950’s, “white British” make up 76% of the England and Wales population. You’re deluded
@Kevin Kerr: I chose 2024, because it is literally the year we’re in. I didn’t ‘choose the year with highest immigration level’. April, 2025 is on track to be even higher. 10s of thousands of Palestinians will be coming here very soon after they’re forced to evacuate from the atrocity Israel is committing. They know that Irish will mostly accept them because we go around waving their flag. They will want to coke here and nobody will stop them, as they have ‘the right to seek international protection’ anywhere. Palestinians though have a history of being very dangerous wherever they go. They launched a coup on Jordan’s monarchy, they attacked the Lebanon Christian front after Lebanon gave them refuge in 1948, effectively taking over Lebanon which was once majority Christian. Now 70% Muslim.
@Cole Palmer: it was majority Christian in 1975
@Cole Palmer: generally speaking, net inward migration will reflect economic activity, not asylum seeker numbers. So if our economy is booming, workers will come – if it isn’t, they won’t. So to assume that this 150k number will not only be maintained, but will increase over the next 26 years makes no sense. You clearly have no idea how population demographics work
We are tiny open country dependent on foreign investment. By all means work away in the background but we should not be taking unilateral decisions that will damage our economy. Ask yourself, how much extra tax are you willing to pay so we can take a stand over some conflict that has been going on for decades and will continue regardless of Irelands position on the matter. We are full of our own self importance.
@The next small thing: We even have pro Hamas politicians going up for election.
@thomas molloy: lads we need brits again to help us with that’s iner issues…
@A W: Say what?
@thomas molloy: No no we don’t. Why spread lies?
@Ger Whelan: Yes we do.
@Alex: which politician running has been “pro hamas”. I’ve never seen hamas mentioned by any of them in their election manifestos.
When it comes to global matters Ireland is as helpless as a plastic duck bobbing in an ocean .
@Jim Ryan: Ireland’s third-level education system is churning out graduates for US tech and pharma multinationals for years. At this stage we should be asking why Ireland doesn’t have it’s own thriving indigenous tech and pharma industries. It would make us a lot more independent and less prone to whoever happens in US politics. We need to invest in Innovation.
@Finian McG: *whatever happens*
@Jim Ryan: We seem to want to endlessly meddle but without any means of self defence. It’s an interesting approach.
@Finian McG: stay under stone buddies…
@Derick R M: lord help us with historical bs and no actions…
When it comes to defending our own waters we seem to have to depend on the Bantry Fishermen.what is all this chest puffing Unifil troops in Leabanon.,its an utter joke.!!!!!
@Elizabeth Doyle: unifil makes EU news , protecting Irish waters won’t. We sold the sea to save the farmers
@Elizabeth Doyle: What did the Bantry fishermen do to defend our waters?
Bad opinion, vast majority of people couldn’t care less about foreign policy when it comes down to it. Highly unadvisable for a party to centre it’s campaign on Foreign Policy rather than issues people actually care about.
It’s pretty simple. We need a party which has an explicitly pro-West foreign policy. One which is strongly pro-Ukraine, pro-Israel, anti-China and anti-Iran. One which has the hunger to join NATO and one which supports abolishing neutrality and increasing military spending to 3% of our GDP. Unfortunately, every party in Ireland seems to be bone-headed on foreign policy. Either they are pro-Russia, pro-Hamas or both. Every party wants to suck up to China and every party seems to be obsessed with neutrality. What a joke! Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Fein and all the other small left-wing parties have terrible foreign policy positions.
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