Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
CHILDREN’S MINISTER RODERIC O’Gorman will not propose any shake ups to Cabinet if he wins the Green Party leadership contest.
Except if there is “a very strong reason”, he told The Journal this week.
O’Gorman and Minister of State Senator Pippa Hackett are both contesting to be the next leader of the Green Party.
On Thursday they answered questions from delegates on their vision for the party, with a second husting due to take place on Sunday.
When asked by The Journal if he would he remain as Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he becomes leader and would Eamon Ryan remain Minister for Transport and Climate?
“Barring a very strong reason, I wouldn’t be looking to make major changes across our ministerial offerings,” O’Gorman said.
He added that he is not proposing that he move out of his own department as there are still some “major pieces of work to get done”.
Among these, ratifying the optional protocol to the UN CRPD, extending the national childcare scheme to child minders and increasing provisions for children with disabilities.
“So I’m not planning on that on going anywhere,” he said.
Despite O’Gorman arguing that the coalition has worked well, almost all of his time at the helm of the Department of Integration has been spent responding to crisis after crisis.
This week, over 2,100 asylum seekers are without accommodation in the state and many have been forced to pitch tents on the streets of Dublin City which are then later removed and dumped by Government agencies.
Barricades now stretch along much of the Grand Canal to prevent tents from being erected, with Waterways Ireland saying this week they are likely to be in place until October and that the organisation is trying to “redesign” the area to prevents tents being pitched in the future.
When it was put to O’Gorman that none of this, which is happening on his watch, aligns with the vision he has outlined for his leadership of the Green Party, his response was:
“I’ve been very clear, where we’re not able to accommodate people. That’s a failure. That’s a failure by the state. But we are taking steps and very significant steps to address that.”
He added that in the last six weeks over 1,000 unaccommodated male international protection seekers have been offered accommodation.
“The problem with the system as I inherited it, was it is entirely based on commercial accommodation, and I’m redesigning it but I’m having to do that in real-time,” O’Gorman said.
Members will vote online from 4-7 July. The results announced on Monday 8 July.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Taken far too soon!
@Frank Mc Carthy: sadly missed by small number of relatives.
@Frank Mc Carthy: good enough for him frankie
Poor aul divil RIP
@Tired Jim: your next if you keep posting that drivel
@Phillip Smyth: me think he has passed away already.
Struck down in the prime of his life! RIP
@John K: you waited til he died to say that, knowing he would absolutely batter you at 111 years old if you said it then.
@Maximilian Kolbe: my reply where I jokingly claimed to beat this gentleman up when he was 110 was obviously deemed toxic and removed! Just to clarify for the staff at the Journal, I did not assault the former oldest man in the world.
@John K: you’re a dangerous man.
Some milestone. Rest in peace sir.
I’m just here for the comments & my God I’m not disappointed.
@Matt D: I’m waiting for the comment… sure he smoked 40 a day and drank whiskey, and it did no harm..
@Matt D: some very very sad people around not every person gets to that age
@Matt D: Very toxic
@Clare Power: 40 fags a day!? You’d better get your facts right: it was a hundred a day & didn’t knock a feather out of him. He had just finished re-roofing his house 2 days earlier & his great great great granddaughter said she had never seen him looking so alert and sprightly.
@Patrice Ahern: lol
Thoughts and prayers.
@Jack Hayes: Prayers. That’ll help.
I will live to that age if it kills me.
This constant back and forth accusations of people being multi account trolls is getting extremely tiresome and is ruining every comments section. Please stop – on both sides!
@Soundy Sound: I think it would be more accurate to say that one individual, a multi-account troll, is ruining every comments section, and has been doing so for a long time. Of course there are false accusations in the other direction, but I do think this person needs to be challenged.
@Soundy Sound: Especially as The Journal does nothing about the problem.
@Brendan O’Brien: deflection as usual brenny…..all to get more £€$ …. despicable what you’re doing to this valued site
@Brendan O’Brien: I’ll NEVER TAKE THE BAIT—- you won’t score €€€ from me!!!!!, but keep trying, lol
@Frank Mc Carthy: You can keep reporting the comments Multi ID troll but it’s not gonna save you.. times up Ken,Buster, Frank Kevvy … lol
@Soundy Sound: That’s all well and good Soundy sound.. but we literally have one guy assuming Multi IDs and often other usernames IDs to spam this comments section for over a year now. As he’s called out on it, he ramps up his account numbers and starts attacking genuine posters. He has a serious issue.. and you’re right he is ruining this comments section. I suggest you look at the proof.. as if it were needed.. and act accordingly..
@Brian: you ruin it Brenda you filthy slag
@Soundy Sound: There is no back n forth,it’s people pointing out the one gobdaw that is multi account spamming. The Journal has completely failed in its duties so direct your anger at them.
Fair play he seen it all
Rip what he must has seen and lived throughout his life, unlike the trools here
@The Gate Florist: yes indeed the mind boggles what tales he could tell and monumental events in history over a century.
Rip great age got too. Got to see so much change
As Joe (so to speak) Duffy would say, “A young man” and he might, just might, add “so to speak”, so to speak.
If that was in Ireland chances are he passed 20 years ago and the family still pulling the pension each week.
At what age do you start looking over your shoulder for Conor McCloud?
have your say