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LAST UPDATE | 3 Nov 2024
TÁNAISTE MICHEÁL MARTIN has hit back at unattributed briefings he claims are coming from Fine Gael headquarters that refer to him as tetchy and grumpy.
Speaking to reporters in Bodenstown today at the annual Fianna Fáil Wolfetone Commemoration, Martin said he was seeing a pattern of briefings emerging, stating:
“It’s quite amusing at one level, but I would say to people to cop on a bit. It’s silly… and it’s not something that makes any sense.”
With an election expected to be called next week, tensions are appearing between the three coalition parties.
Martin referred to ageism in some of the Fine Gael sources being cited in some media articles recently, which referred to him as a grumpy old man.
He said there is no truth in such remarks, pointing to his interview in The Sunday Independent today, in which he refers to himself as a “pleasant and good-humoured guy”.
In the same interview he said those briefings are a “political strategy by the mandarins in Fine Gael headquarters”.
In his speech today, the Tánaiste laid out some of his party’s election ambitions, particularly on housing.
In doing so, Martin seized on the new book by a former Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy called ‘Running from Office’.
The former minister recounts how former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe and the Attorney General at the time appeared to block some of the housing policy changes he wanted to achieve.
“As the former Fine Gael Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy bravely said, in the previous Government radical reforms were blocked in favour of a narrow focus on smaller actions,” said Martin, adding:
“Well, we changed when we took over responsibility for housing,” said Martin today, referring Fianna Fáil taking over the housing brief after Murphy’s departure.
“Over the past four and a half years we have implemented a relentless programme of reforms and developing new actions,” he said.
Speaking more about the book in his interview with The Sunday Independent today, Martin said:
It told me about that [Fine Gael-led] government’s lack of radicalism and prioritisation on housing. That is the big reveal.
He went on to outline one housing policy measure contained in the Fianna Fáil election manifesto.
The party pledges to expand the government’s home equity programme, called the First Home Scheme, to second hand homes. Currently the scheme is only available for new builds.
The First Home Scheme provides first-time buyers an option for the government and certain banks to pay up to 30% of the cost of a new home in return for a stake in the property.
Martin said today that housing remains one of the defining issues of this generation.
“A rising population and other factors mean that demand for housing is and will remain high – so we have to deliver a permanent acceleration of homebuilding. This is what we will do. Ireland missed years because of past failures,” he said.
He pledged to reduce construction costs through investment in critical infrastructure stating Fianna Fáil will “directly help people who want a home to buy or rent”.
Speaking in Monaghan this evening, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil “need to grow-up and cop-on”.
“The truth is Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are now the same,” she said, adding that “sham rows” on the eve of the general election are “not fooling anyone”.
McDonald said that both parties’ five years in government have “wasted” the opportunity to make a “lasting difference” in people’s lives.
“The sharpest example of this is Micheál Martin’s claim that they’ve turned the corner on housing when they built fewer homes this year than last year,” she said. “We are now asking voters to call time on the cosy club. To finally end the dominance of Irish politics by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.”
Includes reporting by Emma Hickey.
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This was hilarious
@J B: hahaha boo poxy hoo
@J B: blame the parents
So something on the internet wasn’t true?! By golly.
It’d be easy to weaponise this, start a riot, let off a bomb or something. If you think about it, it’s scary how easy it was to manipulate thousands of people. Thought it was hilarious myself until now, knowing it wasn’t just some donkey having a laugh.
@Fionn Bohane: I’m honestly not having a go at you, but what you just posted about “thousands of people” from an article saying “hundreds of people” is how this false information gathers legs.
It’s so easy for any of us to unwittingly add fuel to these cons.
@Aidan Boland: Ya I noticed that after I posted in fairness. I’ve see thousands reported else where, including a comment on here last night from someone who said they were there. So unless someone was on the ground counting we won’t really know will we?
@Fionn Bohane: even with “only” hundreds of people, if a bomb had been set off it would have been carnage, what with no adequate garda presence. One just hopes it wasn’t a trial run for more sinister things.
@Jerry LeFrog: now there’s a scary thought
@Aidan Boland: You can see that it’s definitely thousands rather than hundreds by simply looking at the pictures and footage. You’d fit 100 people in the porch of the GPO ffs.
@Fionn Bohane: yes the government did the same with COVID.
More like April 1st prank.
@Wood Jackson: you got it in one my friend.
There was another false rumour spread that there would be a great big bake off competition,those attending would be given free slices of cake! Apparently there was hundreds and thousands there
If that’s not a dry-run for a terrorist attack I’ll be very surprised. How easy was it for them to gather hundreds of people in one place with no security or Garda presence? I’d be delving into that one if I were in a position of power. Take note.
Sheeple with the inability to read.
@Nemethon: Oh they can read but they believe what they read on social media!
Why is the article headlined with ‘ Pakistan ‘???
@Frank Mc Carthy: read it and you will discover. It’s called learning
@Kevin Kerr: you GO stalker!!!!
@Kevvy kerrr: You should go, Stephen. Who do you think you’re fooling?
@Frank Mc Carthy: were you one that was at the fake parade last night or just have the inability to read detail.
I’ve heard they have planned another one for 17th of march….be careful out there… there are some terrible scams going around!
At first, I thought it funny as this crowd might’ve been the same folk that tried “free money” from the boi atms last yr. (& I’m genuinely sorry if you did bring along your kids last night).
I’d rather these folk were at the whim of a human generated prank. Not the ominous AI spawned reason.
Change “his” birth certificate
Apparently, someone saw the usual crowd of city centre zombies, witches, Hamas terrorist costumes and dodgy looking east Europeans Africans and Afgans so they mistakenly thought that it was a special event for Halloween.
Don’t worry if you missed it – it can be seen any night.
It was an AI generated event then which is incredible really, “a slop site”. For anyone curious look up the dead internet theory. Unfortunately the internet is bøllixed.
Quite scary how this happened???
Hey, but it was announced on social media, it must be true!
Did Dublin city centre have a Halloween Parade? Seems like the public were keen to come into the city for a parade and spend some time and money in the city. Has the Nighttime Tzar already given up?
@Mickey Quinlan: we used to not sure if there was this year
@Wood Jackson: also threatened to rxpe a prison officer
Gullible Dublin Sheep !
@Lulu: As if boggers wouldn’t have been taken in if this was advertised as happening in some cow shit smelling culchie town. LOL
Apparently the internet says that vaccines are safe too…
@Ciaran O Donoghue: they are
@Ciaran O Donoghue: So do the doctors and medical experts!
@Wood Jackson: one nutjob person does NOT a whole trans community represent.
Because they have zero intelligence. The future is bleak with this lot….
It was on TikTok so it must’ve been true.
Halloween horror as Kerry village terrorised by rampaging youths.
Locals under siege; terrified children wet themselves; violent youths in balaclavas as gardaí make arrests.
You can con some of the people ,some of the time,more of the people most od the time,but not all of the people all of the time.!!!!!
@Elizabeth Doyle: de Valera conned all of the people for most of his life
So basically like a regular Dublin Bus experience.
Are people for real
Is it because they aren’t that bright
The Pooka of mischief strikes at Halloween. Hahahahahaha!
It’ll be up there with the ‘Spaghetti Trees’ ‘War of the Worlds’ and ‘Whale Pearl Regurgitation’ pranks in media history!
Things like this definitely don’t affect elections. Definitely not.
Lemmings
Sheep, proven more and more each day.
NPCs doing what NPCs do!
NPC side quest!
have your say