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MICHEÁL MARTIN HAS refused to say whether he will rule out a rotating Taoiseach as part of government formation talks.
The Fianna Fáil leader, who was speaking at the British Irish intergovernmental conference in Dublin this evening, said it was too early to discuss what the shape of the next government will look like.
After three long days of counting, his party was the clear winner of the general election, securing 48 of the Dáil’s 174 seats.
Sinn Féin took 39 and Fine Gael 38.
Asked whether he would be open to enter a coalition with Fine Gael without a rotating Taoiseach, Martin said: “From experience and having been involved in helping to form a number of coalition governments, it’s not always helpful to do it via press conferences, and I don’t mean that with any disrespect.
“So, I don’t propose to do so on this occasion either.
“There will be a range of issues that will be discussed, policy being key, and obviously then the issues around the formation of government and the mechanics of government.
“But I don’t propose to get into that.
It’s far too early, far too premature. We will engage.
He said he expected to meet other politicians at Leinster House for the switching-on of the Oireachtas Christmas tree lights.
“It might kind of create a nice, happy atmosphere. God knows what could follow from that.”
However, it was short-lived as, unknown to the Tánaiste, the switching-on of the Christmas tree lights was taking place during the press conference this evening.
Martin said most of the work to form the next government could be done by Christmas but “we have to focus on the issues”.
He said:
I don’t think we will have reached agreement by Christmas.
“But I’m sure that most people in the country want us to form a government as quickly as we can.”
Martin also refused to say which ministerial portfolios his party will want to take, saying he wants to “respect the process”.
He said he wants to form a government with parties that can last five years, including those who can “take the rough with the smooth” and have the “backbone to see it through”.
He added: “A lot will depend on how the discussions evolve.
“I do believe there’s enough people in Leinster House who have a common position on core issues in terms of the economic model and Europe, and so forth, that can create a government.
“But we want to hear what others are saying also, because the last time not everybody was as anxious to get into government as they might have proclaimed, and government can be a challenging place to be. So, we just want to test the waters to see what others are saying.”
Fine Gael’s Helen McEntee, who also attended the press conference, said the parliamentary party will meet on Wednesday to discuss their priorities.
“We’re setting ourselves clear goals and targets so we want to make sure that any discussions we have with any party, that we’re focused on for key deliverables,” she said.
“Making sure we have ambitious housing targets, making sure we’re supporting small businesses, making sure that we are focused on disability and services across the country.
“That’s the type of focus and priority, and I believe those are the discussions we will be having tomorrow.
“That’s where it needs to start. Beyond that, it is a matter of engaging then with our Taoiseach and our leader, Simon Harris, engaging with other leaders in other parties, and taking it from there.”
Following the conclusion of the general election, Labour and the Social Democrats won 11 seats; People Before Profit-Solidarity took three; Aontú secured two; and the Green Party retained only one of its 12 seats. Independents and others accounted for 21 seats.
The return of a Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael-led coalition is now highly likely.
However, their combined seat total of 86 leaves them just short of the 88 needed for a majority in the Dail.
A coalition of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, and a third grouping, possibly made up of Independents, is the likely option.
Earlier, a Sinn Féin TD said they will continue to speak to like-minded parties in a bid to form a left-leaning government and there is a “powerful bloc” of 60 progressive politicians who campaigned for change.
Eoin Ó Broin said that while Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have the numbers to form a government, the deal has not yet been reached.
Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald contacted the Social Democrats and Labour on Monday to discuss options, and Labour leader Ivana Bacik has also spoken to leaders of other parties.
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And why would he? They have their party alliance set in stone now. ‘Era you do that half I’ll do the other’. Once we’re all sorted financially we can dodge questions for another 4/5 years
@Alan Murphy:
@Tom Moylan: ” In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one truth sounds like a pistol shot ”
C.Milosz
@Alan Murphy: Right, who threw that, come on, who threw that?
She did, he did, he did, they did, they did….
@Dave G Doe: yes they broke everything they ever touched, health care / law & order/ housing and lots more and I won’t go into the €225 Billion national Dept and if anyone is thinking of buying their grandchildren a useful Xmas presend consider an airline ticket especially after our very recent election
@Dave G Doe: If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
spineless
@Stiles: At least he didn’t promise not to go into govt with FG this election!!! Another few years of hearing this langer talking down to people!!!!
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: yes he decided not to openly lie this time… Unlike in 2020. If Harris is a pathological liar around responsibility for deaths of the elderly etc like other health ministers I don’t have the vocab to characterise Meehole. He’s just a total sliveen
I suppose we did that to ourselves in our determination to get rid of the greens.At lest in Kerry we have our Healy- Raes back.
@Elizabeth Doyle: the best words to come out Healy Raes mouth was “you’re a disgrace taoiseach”
@Elizabeth Doyle: Preserving the difficult but relentless progress developing Ireland spanning 100 years is their sacred duty. Thankfully the population did not fall for the immature dangerous ideology being pushed by the flat earther leftists that could destroy our countries achievements.
@Elizabeth Doyle: well I am sure the nearly 15000 homeless will breath a sigh of relief for that
@sean weir: 15,000 is drop in the ocean unfortunately Sean. I’m homeless and was blatantly taken off the list by my local council because I left one of their horrific hostels for personal safety reasons. There has to be multiples of that figure who are sleeping on their Mum’s living room floor etc.
@Elizabeth Doyle: That’s nice for ye.
SO WHY THE HELL DID YOU KERRY PEOPLE HAVE TO INFLICT NORMA FOLEY ON THE REST OF US AGAIN???
@thomas molloy: Ithink people like the Healy raes being involved in the housing of economic migrants for money poses enough of a risk to communities down there. Divide and conquer
Why would he rule it out? Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are basically the same party now. They both have the same identical centre-left policies + manifestos and they both are social and economic progressives. They will very likely join up with Labour and the Social Democrats to form a centre-left to left-wing coalition which will give them a 17 seat majority and some leg room in the case of some TD rebellions. Martin will get the first two years, Harris will get the second two years and all the Ministers that retained their seats and the election will be reappointed apart from a few less important ministerial positions that will be replaced by politicians from Labour and Social Democrats. Back to the same old stale progressive policies of the previous four years.
@Frank O’Hara: I’ve only just copped on, all your multiple accounts and personalities are actually The Journal staff commenting on their articles/articles of others. Of course they comment here. I be dying to comment on my own article if I worked there. It would be very unusual not to want to back up your own story, or go against it. Why not set up a pool of staff Ghost accounts, with slight variations in name. Thousands of them. To be reused and ‘banned’, only to make a dramatic comeback months later.
Genius.
@Meh Meh: I don’t know what nonsense you’re on about buddy, I’m only one person, which is myself. Please provide me some proof that I am pretending to be multiple people and give me the names of these multiple fake accounts. I’ll wait.
@Meh Meh: welcome on board,the train is starting to fill up on people coping on to the shhit going on here with the journal.
@Frank O’Hara: Same IP address, DNS server IP fixed, not static. You may be in an office. Dublin area. Localized, transmitter, 4G. Signal strength two bars.
And you had toast and tea for breakfast. WiFi enabled toaster.
@Meh Meh: Haha you’ve been caught out punk! I’m over in Ealing visiting my sister and her two lovely daughters! I’m currently staying in a Hilton nearby and I didn’t have any toast from the hotel breakfast this morning because I don’t eat gluten and I had a black coffee with two sugars, not tea. I also recently upgraded my iPhone so I’ve got 5G not 4G. Every single one of your speculative guesses is wrong buddy, but nice try. I’d love to know what other identities I have as well. You didn’t even name one!
@Frank O’Hara: VPN AI family. Classic response. It’s the Matrix dude. See that girl with the Red dress? Watch her appear again. BTW I’m ChatGpt v4. Nice to meet you. :)
@Frank O’Hara: /download complete
Now, if I could just get your Bank account details, Sir. There is a pidgion in your bank account.
@Meh Meh: Okay buddy I think it’s time for you to take your meds again and read back what you just wrote. You don’t seem to be mentally stable at the moment and I don’t think it’s the best idea for you to be using the Internet while you’re in this state of mind. I hope you get the help you need.
@Frank O’Hara: That’s just the sort of thing a computer would say. Thanks. You blonde robot from the future.
No more liebour party!
No more of that weasel
@Basildon Joe: One word. DEMOCRACY. But please, one Taoiseach. No more of the whirling Lanigan’s Ball politics.
@Me Me: What is it they say is “the height of flattery?” and I don’t mean 4′ 8″ (your height).
@Basildon Joe: If you’re referring to Roddy “No Mates” O’Gorman, he’s still hanging around like a bad smell!
@Meh Meh: I wanted IMEMEMINE, but it had gone.
@Me Me: lol
Long as aul Langer gets his visit to the white house for paddys day
Thats all that matters to MM, hes not too worried about the actual job.
As big a joke trump is, seeing either langer or tea boy harris standing beside him will be comedy gold, like a bad sketch from father ted
Is Helen Buttering up Michael
Revolting more like .
The biggest job in the country is a job share..
This country…man alive
No more “Simon”ella please! People are sick…
@PMCC: Ah yes….those same “people” that want change. The PEOPLE…..so are those that voted FG and Simon Harris (in Wicklow) not considered “people”?
You could get a hen to rotate with a rooster in the Dail and it would feel more productive than what’s currently on offer.
Like he has a choice .. lol
Pass the parcel
@Shane O Mac: they say the truth hurts but I laughed so hard
All the false Promises recorded now for posterity to be replayed when they fail to enact any of them. Micheal Martin & Simon Harris made some amount of extraordinary promises, will they turn out to be Lies, smart money says Yes. The Energy Cartels, Insurance Cartels, Fuel Cartels, Supermarket Cartels will be allowed to screw Consumers again before a new Govt is formed & these two Duds will shrug their shoulders. No hope on the horizon for working families.
Pinky and Perky will both have their snouts in the trough!
Slimy Harris the college drop out and Micky Martin the gobs$it that had one hand on the wheel as the country went to the dogs, another term for these two clowns. The pigs really do run the farm.
Martin: “To be honest I’d rather have that conversation directly with any coalition partners, rather than announcing it to the media first”. The Media: “HE REFUSED TO RULE IT OUT!!!!! CLICK ON MY ARTICLE PLEASE!!! I NEED THE AD REVENUE!!”. Sensationalising a non-story, as usual.
@Jason Memail: yeah exactly, pure scutter.
@Sean Parker: One vote for using the word Scutter. You could have gotten two votes from me if it was spelled Skutter.
@Sean Parker: Don’t forget ‘Nothing is off the table ‘…..
That developers money was just rotating in his wife’s bank account!
SF all bluster.
Progressive left is an algorithm of a doomed economic where everyone else is wrong.
@james rowan: the left wouldnt grasp the nettle in the last election. Sf, pbp, sd, Lbr and the greens. A stable! coalition
“I went to supermacs and I ordered eh a a a burger, and when the bag arrived there was two burgers inside” –
@Meh Meh: I would be happy with that now.
@Basildon Joe: Did you see the tiktok video? Look it up. Meehole Martin supermacs.
@Meh Meh: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGd6YMnfE/
The lowest turn out in 100 years. People don’t want to vote because it doesn’t matter who’s in power. It will be the same aul pigs with their snouts in the trough.
This country doesn’t need a stable government. It needs a stable country and these clowns are failing for the last 15 years to deliver.
A right pair of sheeiite bags
Ah sure lookit
2 cheeks of the same backside!!
Helen McEntee should stay as Justice Minister for 10 more years. Best minister for justice ever.
@Sergej Simonov: Totally true…
I remember she once bravely walked around Dublin city centre, to prove how safe it was.*
And nothing bad ever happened again**
* She was flanked by multiple Garda.
** Lots and lots of bad things have happened since.
(Other T’s & C’s apply.)
@Sergej Simonov: your deluded, what planet are you on?..she wont stay FF have more seats so there will be a reshuffle..
@Sergej Simonov: Is it because she made a conscious decision not to deport illegal immigrants like yourself?
@Sergej Simonov: are you wearing blinkers son!!
@Dave Martin: plz god
Sure it doesn’t matter one is as bad as the other Isay.
MM is a joke of a man so no surprise he will turn the role of Taoiseach into a joke as well.When you bring a clown into a palace he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.
@Gerry Lamont: he already did make a joke of it when he became Taoiseach. He had lost 3 gen elections as FF leader by then.
Its such a glorious morning waking up knowing that SF will never be in power and Mary Lou is an absolute failure as leader.
@Trump24: I taught it was a glorious morning because the lottery on tonight and you need to win it to pay for the serious cost of living charges this coalition has racked up over their time in office. We will always be worse off under Finna fail the party of the great pretenders who pretend to fix things.
Weebix or porridge for dinner, that the poverty this sh*t show of a coalition government has brought us to, €35 is average one bag of shopping. Ff and fg will wreck the country with their pretending to fix things. That’s right they it by over taxing us.
The most important point,in my opinion,is that the incoming GOVERNMENT recognises the importance of TOURISM.The last Govt totally ignored the importance of Tourism,the result was a DISASTER
TOURISM SHOULD HAVE ITS OWN MINISTER.
By TOURISM I MEAN THE INCLUSION OF HOSPITAL AND AVIATION.
GET ON WITH IT.
SEANMCCLAFFERTY
DUBLIN4
@Sean McClafferty: Sean I hate to break it to you but Fg have failed in much more important matters and so they are cynical and lack lustre at things like tourism and it’s significance in Ireland
Considering our healthcare, the parish pump, etc why do you come on now after the GE regarding tourism ? You should have used your vot.to NOT vote for FFg
have your say