Tag Archives: Fianna Fáil

CLARE Deputy Cathal Crowe has emphasised the importance of the new Programme for Government delivering on regional development in the wake of stinging criticism of the lack of a senior cabinet minister from the West of Ireland. Deputy Crowe admitted he would have loved to have seen a senior minister from the Mid-West appointed to the cabinet. In an interview with the Clare Champion, he acknowledged quite a number of people had contacted him to express their concern about the lack of a senior minister from the region. However, the former Meelick Councillor pointed out he also respected it is the prerogative of the three party leaders to put forward names of deputies to become members of the cabinet. He was optimistic that the perceived geographical imbalance would be addressed by the appointment of junior ministers from the region. “It is always a good thing to have a minister in a county of from a region but we have seen …

Timmy Dooley (FF) and Róisín Garvey (Green Party) are two of the 11 Taoiseach nominees for Seanad Éireann, it has been announced this evening. This brings the total number of Clare senators to three, as Martin Conway (FG) was elected in the recent election. Both Senator Garvey and Senator Dooley were unsuccessful candidates in the February 8 General Election, while Senator Dooley was also unsuccessful in the subsequent Seanad Éireann elections. Clare now has seven Oireachtas members across the political spectrum.

Tony Killeen, who served in several ministerial positions in a Fianna Fáil/ Green Party / Progressive Democrat Party Government is confident that the incoming tri-party coalition administration can succeed. Stating it is time to put 100 years of Civil War politics behind us, he said, “I believe that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party can provide a solid platform for Ireland to recover and grow from the Covid-19 setback. “To have formed a national government would have been disastrous for the country; nothing would be done, and it would probably have lasted 18 months at most. From the outset the partners would have been preparing for an inevitable general election.” Mr Killeen, who served as Minister for Defence for a year up to his retirement from politics in 2011 for health reasons, was also a Minister of State in Forestry and Fisheries, as well as Environment and Energy, so has a good understanding of the Greens stance on …

DEPUTY Michael McNamara is to wait to see how members of the three coalition parties vote on the Programme for Government before making his mind up on whether to support the history-making arrangement. The view of grassroots members of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party, who will be balloted individually by post, are expected to be made public by June 26. In the meantime, the Independent Clare TD said he saw very little in the 126-page document which would benefit the midwestern region. “There would appear to be no input from this region in the document,” he said. “I would have to ask what influence, if any, TDs from Fianna Fáil, the Greens or Fine Gael have. There are lots of details about planned infrastructure for Dublin, but no definite details for many projects outside of it. There’s no reference to Shannon Airport or to balancing aviation policy. When it comes to farming, there seems to be great …

Former Clare TD James Breen has thrown down the gauntlet to Fianna Fail leader, Michael Martin to put the people before power and get a new government in situ. “It’s time for the talking to stop and to get a deal done. We need political stability and a new government, not a caretaker one running the country. We need to get the country back on its feet and our workforce back to work. We need Michael Martin to put people before power,” he declared. Mr Breen, who resigned from the Fianna Fail party and was elected an Independent TD in the 29th Dail from 2002 to 2207, said that it seems national interest has gone out the window given the protracted nature of discussions between Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, The Green Party and now the independents. “At the Clare election count I spoke a lot about national interest. Now, 300 days on from that election it appears national interest has …

A majority of Clare Fine Gael councillors support the current proposed national coalition of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, according to the findings of a Clare Champion survey. Councillor Gabriel Keating said efforts should have been made to form a national government made up of a number of political parties last March. Stressing the need for a new government to be elected as quickly as possible, he is a little reluctant to give his full support for a Fianna Fáil (FF), Fine Gael (FG) and Green Party (GP) coalition as he doesn’t think this will be good for rural Ireland. Instead, he supports a coalition of these parties with Labour and a group of rural Independents like Michael McNamara, which he feels would be better able to deal with these challenging times. Councillor Johnny Flynn said he would not vote for any coalition deal with Fine Gael and Sinn Féin as he disagreed with some of their …

CLARE Independent TD, Michael McNamara has said he doesn’t expect the new Covid-19 Dáil committee, of which be became chairperson this week, to be a star chamber or to make a political football of public health guidelines. Responding to questions from The Clare Champion this week, Deputy McNamara said he expected the high-profile committee to treat witnesses, who will include Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Tony Holohan, with respect and to focus on matters of public interest and information. The committee, which is the only one sitting currently, is made up of four members each from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin, with one seat each for other parties and Independent groups. On Tuesday, it elected Deputy McNamara, by lunchtime, to be its chair, before a longer-than-expected private session which continued into the late afternoon. For reasons of social distancing and to ensure the committee has legal privilege, the meeting took place in the Dáil chamber, with the Scariff-based …

CLARE’S Independent TD has questioned the view that a coalition of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party is the only option when it comes to forming the next government. Deputy Michael McNamara, who has been involved with talks, alongside fellow Independents Michael Fitzmaurice (Rocommon-Galway) and Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim) about supporting such a coalition, said it may be the case that alternatives are viable, if not preferable at this point in time. This week, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party he is confident a government can be formed by June. However, Deputy McNamara said it may still be the case that Fine Gael’s preference was for another General Election. “The prospect of another election might seen attractive to Fine Gael right now,” he told The Champion. “They will have to be seen to exhaust all possibilities for government formation, then to persuade President Higgins to dissolve the Dáil. The president has some discretion in that regard …