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GE2024electorateSINN FÉIN PRESIDENT Mary Lou McDonald has accused Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil of treating her party’s voters as second-class citizens.
McDonald suggested her rivals’ outright dismissal of Sinn Féin as a potential coalition partner demonstrated a lack of respect for the party’s supporters.
Her comments came amid increasing focus on coalition permutations post the General Election on 29 November.
Launching her party’s proposals on housing at an event in west Dublin today, McDonald accused the lead parties in the last government of showing a lack of humility.
If I was to listen to the coalition parties, I wouldn’t get up out of bed in the morning.
“They can’t pass a microphone without stating how appalled they are, and how they will never ever, ever speak to Sinn Féin,” she said.
“They were at that in the last election as well.
“Let me just on that make this point – a lot of people vote for Sinn Fein, rely on us to represent them. I would ask Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to try and muster at least a little bit of respect for the communities and the voters who vote for us.
“They’re not second-class citizens, they are equal voters, just like everybody else, and I think they should demonstrate a little bit of humility and a little bit of respect towards those citizens too.”
Asked about the Sinn Féin leader’s comments, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said that McDonald had made similar comments about Fianna Fail.
“Mary Lou has said to voters that they shouldn’t go into government with Fianna Fáil,” he said speaking in Dublin.
“Sinn Féin has said that the last party they should go into government (with) is Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
“If that’s the case I don’t understand how Mary Lou can say … it’s an insult if you say that Sinn Féin can’t be in government but it’s not an insult if you say Fianna Fáil shouldn’t be in government.”
He said that Sinn Féin’s opposition to the current economic model that Ireland has and what he called a Eurosceptic party “at their core” meant the parties were not compatible.
He has said the party would not be happy to go into government with Sinn Féin, but added that, as with any government formation talks, it will come down to policies and principles.
“I always respect the electorate, always, people are entitled to different perspectives.”
While McDonald has said the “best outcome” of the election would be a government without Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, she has stopped short of ruling out entering into a partnership with her long-term rivals.
“Our position of wanting to have a government beyond Fianna Fail and Fine Gael is now a long-standing one, there’s nothing new in it,” she told reporters on Tuesday.
“We believe after a century of those two parties dominating and running government that the time is right now for a change, that is the answer, that is the way in which we can make the changes that will benefit our society.”
At the launch of his party’s manifesto in Dublin, Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman was asked about the prospect of re-entering government after the Greens served as a junior partner in the last administration.
“First of all, I haven’t heard anybody rule us out,” he said.
“What I’ve heard is an attempt, I think, by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail to get the numbers themselves that they won’t need any support, but if there’s a need for additional parties, I think those negotiations will take place.
“We’ve demonstrated that we can negotiate hard. We’ve demonstrated that we can create a really effective programme for government, but we’re making it very clear today that increased investment, 10 billion into public transport, is a key issue for us in those programme for government negotiations.”
Meanwhile, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said the government parties were acting as if the election is “sewn up”.
“I see them even talking about which ministries they want, who might go first as taoiseach, eyeing up their coalition partners – all of these kind of things is astounding to see,” she said.
“If there’s anything I learned from the last election, a lot can change in three weeks.”
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I bet they wished they had paid the additional oxygen fee, now!
Imagine taking a coach to your destination from the airport after a Ryanair flight?
@Dave Thomas: it is a two hour coach or train transfer from a lot of their airports.
@David Dickson: I think that’s what he was getting at
@Pauliebhoy: I’m having a slow Sunday.
“A few passengers” = 30 ?
What about Ryanair Rooms. Not enough accommodation in the city of Frankfort . I think not
@Euro is Dead: it was Frankfurt-Hahn, 125 kilometres to Frankfurt.
@Euro is Dead: try finding accommodation for a plane full of passengers at 11pm on a Friday night in Dublin, shannon or cork Plus for operational reasons they’d try to keep passengers together.
@Dara Smith: my sentiments exactly, you wouldn’t get a tent in Dublin or anywhere else at that hour of night
@Euro is Dead: Frankfurt Hahn is closer to Luxembourg city than it is to Frankfurt
The comments here are a bit insensitive this was a terrifying ordeal I don’t think a lovely but if compensation is the issue .
@Deborah McKenna: why not, a proper investigation into it and a penalty to make sure it never reoccurs 30 x 40k more like
Lovely bit of compensation. €400 per pax minimum :)
@kevinhunt101: I think burst eardrums, the embarrassment of involuntary bowel purging, near suffocation and the fear of your impending death must be worth more than €400.
@Paraic: so…..€425?
@Paraic: Fear of Death? Would you get a grip! It was a controlled descent due to cabin depressurisation not a hole in the aircraft! Not once during that flight was there a risk of fatality. The media are making this out to be much worse than it is, slow news week it would seem
@Jordan Dunne: Lots of people already have fear of flying before boarding. Do you think they were unfazed when there was a sudden and rapid decompression event, the oxygen masks popped down, they began bleeding from their ears and nose and shat their pants involuntarily? Not to mention the fact that rapid decompression has often been catastrophic to flights historically. The plane descended from 36,000ft to about 10,000 in mere seconds. Irrespective of whether it was in control of the pilot, it was terrifying for the passengers. You’re the one who needs to get a grip!
@Jordan Dunne: lol, have you ever been on a plane? Or met people? Somehow I really doubt the latter.
@Paraic: 36000 to 10000 feet in seconds ? Well thats just a blatant lie. Id say you must be terrified of flying.
De pressurisation is not unusual, and it is trained for by the crew – how frequest? there can one a day or one a week worldwide, in fact one study suggested two depressurisation a day based on the number of hours flown, but that data could be a little out of date, just it is not a rare event and almost all pass without incident or media coverage.
When it happens and an aircraft springs a leak, which essentially what depressurisation is, a few things happen.. as the internal air pressure falls owing to air leaking out, the oxygen masks will be ploy automatically, however the crew may deploy them in advance too. The crew try to descend around 12,000 feet where most people can breathe with no difficulty, and the aircraft could continue safely, and with no more need for oxgyen or masks, to it;s destination, as happens if this happens over water. However, unless there is a known reason for the depressurisation, the aircraft may choose to land.
We all know the effects on our ears of normal flight operations and depressurisation make this worse if sudden, Most decompressions on aircraft are slow enough so that the emergency descent operated by the crew avoids serious issues, but if the depressurisation is rapid enough then the issue becomes more serious.
One can think of a balloon which can leak air slowly and slowing deflating and the balloon that goes pop – both are burst but one is slow and the other destructive. This really does seem to have been a quite serious decompression if passengers were unfit to fly afterwards, even if just “playing it safe”.
We should hope they all recover with no lasting issues, but also not fear decompressisation as it is a well trained for procedure.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: the Cabin pressure controller failed. The masks deployed automatically and pilots followed standard procedure by making a controlled rapid descent . Aircraft landed safely with some minor injuries. Not that big a deal
@Jordan Dunne: Is your real name Michael O Leary?
@Paraic: hehe you got me
think they continue by air ambulance
have your say