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Within weeks, this man could be Fianna Fáil's new leader... or unemployed

Micheal McGrath dropped by TheJournal.ie this week for a chat about his own future and that of his party.

mcgrath sup

MICHAEL MCGRATH loves politics but he knows it’s a precarious occupation.

The Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson is frequently linked with the leadership of the party and is the bookies’ favourite. But at this moment he’s just focussed on retaining his seat in Cork South-Central in an election that could be as early as next month.

Ironically McGrath shares a constituency with the current incumbent Micheál Martin, and he is certain the leader will be re-elected.

But on his own prospects, McGrath told TheJournal.ie this week that there’s only a 50-50 chance he’ll still be a TD after the next election:

Quinton O'Reilly / TheJournal.ie

I’d be a pretty foolish boy to be speculating about the leadership of the party when I am faced with that scenario. I could be looking for a different job in a few weeks or a few months, not the leadership of the party.

Speaking of foolish, McGrath is not too impressed by the behaviour of some TDs in the Dáil chamber.

In a wide-ranging interview he hits out at the macho environment in Leinster House and says that gender quotas are necessary even though he has mixed views about them.

“It’s the kick up the backside we needed on the issue of gender balance,” he said of his own party’s efforts to ensure 30% of its Dáil hopefuls are female.

Quinton O'Reilly / TheJournal.ie

On the upcoming election, McGrath believes the Taoiseach may now find it very hard to stop a November election happening given all the speculation this week.

“If he does go with that option it kind of throws the whole stability argument out the window because Labour have made it very clear they don’t want a November election,” the Fianna Fáil TD observes. 

Another frustration is that the banking inquiry will become void if an election is called, and all those hours he spent sitting in the bunker-like committee room will have been wasted.

McGrath says he’s “bursting with ideas” for the committee’s final report but they will, frustratingly, never see the light of day if the election is called before the end of the year.

That frustration aside, McGrath sees a life beyond politics and he told us what that might involve:

Quinton O'Reilly / TheJournal.ie

WATCH: ‘Fine Gael don’t care too much about ordinary people’

WATCH: Why Pearse Doherty eventually wants to sell sweets in Donegal

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38 Comments
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    Mute Keith DArcy
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 10:10 AM

    I half expected to find out how Gangnam Style changed YouTube forever. Should have known better, yet another click phishing article.

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    Mute Leopold Dedalus
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 10:19 AM

    Do you know what phishing is?

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    Mute Keith DArcy
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 12:07 PM

    I do, thanks for asking. It’s a means to acquire information by deception.

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    Mute Leopold Dedalus
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 12:55 PM

    And what information has this article acquired from you by you clicking into it?

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    Mute Colin C
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 1:03 PM

    Someone give him back his click, please.

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    Mute Andy Patton
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 1:07 PM

    This isn’t phishing, Leopold – it’s click-baiting.

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    Mute Leopold Dedalus
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 1:11 PM

    That’s what I was getting at Andy. I was just appreciating the irony of someone using deceptive wording to complain about an article using deceptive wording.

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    Mute Tom Red
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 9:22 AM

    Joan Burton getting pegged with the water balloon must be catching up by now????….

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    Mute JJ O Riordan
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 9:33 AM

    Cam we have one story on the journal without some gobsh!te mentioning the government, or Irish water, or protests in the comments?

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    Mute JJ O Riordan
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 9:34 AM

    Can* the joys of spellchecker on a phone.

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    Mute Tap Solny
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 9:42 AM

    The small mind can only try to focus on one issue at a time. The small mind cannot even comprehend the one issue that it is trying to focus on.

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    Mute Andy Lane
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 9:48 AM

    I blame the liberal, neo-socialist lefty media. And the feminazis.

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    Mute JJ O Riordan
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 9:55 AM

    For the comments or the spellchecker haha

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    Mute dstaffx
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 10:28 AM

    Remember when Garth Brooks was mentioned in every article comment section. Oh the pain.

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    Mute ChocSaltyBallz
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 11:55 AM

    Not so smart phone

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    Mute J. Dunn
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 10:35 AM

    Here’s how Facebook helped catch a thug.
    Here’s how Gangnam Style changed Youtube.
    I know the Journal tend toward spells of thematic saturation. Is this to be a week/month of website articles containing ~150 words unrelated to the title’s claim?

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    Mute Andrew Doyle
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 10:30 AM

    By change YouTube forever do they mean increase the number of advertisements??

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    Mute John Horan
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 11:40 AM

    2^32 is 4 billion, so they must be using signed ints, just in case a video is watched a negative number of times?

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    Mute Colin C
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 1:05 PM

    If even 50% of journal commentators knew what a signed int was, the world would be a better place.

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    Mute J. Dunn
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 4:26 PM

    I don’t know what it is but I know what you can do with it.

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    Mute Colin C
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 5:26 PM

    There there.

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    Mute J
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 11:31 AM

    “640k ought to be enough for anybody”
    -Bill Gates

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    Mute Leopold Dedalus
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 12:00 PM

    “I’ve said some stupid things and some wrong things, but not that. No one involved in computers would ever say that a certain amount of memory is enough for all time … I keep bumping into that silly quotation attributed to me that says 640 K of memory is enough. There’s never a citation; the quotation just floats like a rumor, repeated again and again. ”

    - Bill Gates.

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    Mute J
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 12:23 PM

    “Yes I know he never said that”
    -J

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    Mute Spoddgy
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 11:18 AM

    What did we all learn? That young people are idiots and that people that are hitting past 35 or more should know better than try impress them! Turk out!

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    Mute Lastpost
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    Dec 3rd 2014, 2:32 PM

    South Korean tripe, maybe they think we have a problem with drinking, but we all know they have a problem with music, no talent

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