‘We Are Stepping Back’

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From top: A signed statement released this afternoon by 14 Independent TDs; and Dáil proceedings starting with a prayer this afternoon

A statement released by 14 Independent TDs this afternoon states they will not vote for either acting Taoiseach Enda Kenny or Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin later today when the Dáil votes – for a third time – on the nomination of a Taoiseach.

More to follow.

Watch Dáil proceedings live here

Pic: Shane Beatty

UPDATE:
 Screen Shot 2016-04-14 at 15.06.58  Screen Shot 2016-04-14 at 15.11.44

Fine Gael’s Noel Rock (top) nominates Enda Kenny for Taoiseach, for the third time, as Fianna Fáil’s Lisa Chambers (above) nominates Micheál Martin, also for the third time.

Oireachtas.ie

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78 thoughts on “‘We Are Stepping Back’

    1. Vote Rep #1

      I bet the independents wish it were back in the good old days where they went in with their list of demands and got them all as long as the votes with the government.

      1. Vote Rep #1

        No, otherwise they would have written TD after their name. Without the TD, they are just unimportant joe soaps

  1. Kieran NYC

    For cryin’ out loud. So only one party of TDs actually wants to go into government and try and achieve their election promises?

    What a bunch of self-absorbed egotists.

    1. ahjayzis

      Two parties want to go into government,

      But they’re both toxic to each other and to the other ones based on recent performance.

      And no one else has a majority.

      The only miserable answer is an FF/FG coalition.

      1. John

        Talks collapsed last night becasue FF didn’t have a policy document ready (7weeks since the election).
        Nobody has a majority. Its clear the FF has no intention of even trying to get along with FG.

        1. classter

          Enda needs to form a govt to survive.

          Whereas Martin is thinking primarily of FF’s recovery. Sadly, I’m not sure he’ll be punished for it at a re-election.

          1. donal

            I’m not sure. If a second election is held it will be very difficult for FF to argue they did all they can to form a government, especially as they very publicly knocked back FGs offer of partnership (whatever exactly that meant)
            I can see FF losing ground in a second election

      2. Kieran NYC

        FF want to go into government in an ‘I want a pony’ way. Would be nice but ain’t ever going to happen on the deliberately difficult terms they demand.

        1. My Meaty Member

          Bertie Ahern (embarrassed cough) made a salient point the other night

          He said it’s impractical to expect FF to coalesce with Kenny and co after 5 years being battered by them and blamed for everything.

          1. ReproBertie

            Well in fairness, they were to blame for everything. It’s impractical to expect the Irish people to forget that just because it’s convenient for FF.

          2. classter

            For FFS.

            And why are media outlets putting Ahern on. He is a disgraced ex-leader.

            We really need to stop rewarding incompetence & corruption. Or at least, reward it less handsomely.

          3. My Meaty Member

            come on now classter – like him or not you have to admit he was good at negotiating

          4. classter

            This feeds into the whole Ahern myth.

            We were constantly assured by the Irish media that, while it may not be obvious, Ahern was actually very bright & super-competent.

            Somehow that myth still endures despite all evidence to the contrary.

            Irish media outlets should have more self-respect (and a healthy dollop of shame) than to invite Ahern to appear.

  2. Owen

    What. A. Load. Of. Sh1te.

    The Irish political system is just a bunch of attention seeking kids, with poor work ethics, limited dedicated education and blind arrogance (save a few infrequent examples).

    Burton – “My own party does not want me here and the people voted against it, but I want to be Taoiseach”

    Enda = “80% of the population hates me, meaning that the best 20% still want me for Taoiseach, so im going for it”

    Micheál = “I swear guys… this is the LAST chance you have to vote me for Taoiseach or I’m taking my ball and going home”

    Adams = “Despite the fact I’ve lied about m******g, p********a and t*******m, I’m actually looking pretty good now, arn’t I?

    Green Party / Renua / Independents t = “LOUD NOISES”

    Glad I’m over seas. Bunch of useless clowns.

    1. Owen

      I had to censor my own BS comment. I was not sure if it was for cursing or calling Gurry names…. I’ve have the latter censored before. Poor oul Gurry.

    2. Medium Sized C

      Ah, you’re overseas.

      That would explain how you haven’t a bulls notion who is in the Dail and what they are saying.

  3. Rugbyfan

    well one lads, good luck in the next election, there will be fewer of you to balls it up!

  4. Eoin

    I bet we get sent back to the polls. Summer ruined with TD mug shots on every lamp post again. And the idiot parade will STILL come out in droves to cast their votes for FF/FG and no doubt we’ll get the SAME result again.

    1. MoyestWithExcitement

      Yep. Apparently FF have a stack of cash ready to spend on the next one AND they’re projected by some to win 60 seats. This fupping country.

      1. ahjayzis

        That’s the most depressing thing I’ve read all day.

        Like genuinely, Ireland, what the fupp?

        1. MoyestWithExcitement

          It’d nearly make you give up alright. It’s either them or the Shinners, realistically right now though. Just got to hope the SDs build up a solid network in time. Not *100%* sure on Donnelly and Shorthall but I’m convinced Murphy has the right motivations. Reminds me a bit of Sanders.

          1. Rugbyfan

            think we all have to agree that SFPIRA in power would be bad,very bad! Would take FF any day!

          2. ReproBertie

            It’s worth considering that there a lot of young voters who have never known Northern Ireland before the GFA. The SF/PIRA link is as meaningless to them as the FF/FG civil war is to most of us so they would not have the same reluctance to vote for what they’d see as just another party.

          3. My Meaty Member

            I always laugh when I hear jackasses braying that we can’t let the Shinners in. The shinners are in government in Northern Ireland now for years, the world hasn’t come to an end mysteriously.

            Above all what is encapsulated in this comment is the smug, fetid assumption that somehow continuing with the inbred parish pump incumbents power-wielding parties is inherently more stable

            Where were you guys when the last few governments waged economic war on the people of this country, then blamed, inter alia, world markets, the Germans, Tim Geithner, bondholders, the people themselves, and finally, each other?

            Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid.

            Give up the rugby it’s causing irreversible brain damage buddy

          4. classter

            ‘The shinners are in government in Northern Ireland now for years, the world hasn’t come to an end mysteriously.’

            The administration in the north is hardly a model of good governance for us to follow.

        2. Deluded

          I think that independents and protest candidates will lose out with a greater return for FFG and no change for SF or Labour.

          1. ahjayzis

            FF will do best alright, they were cautious in not running two candidates in a good few constituencies, had they done they’d have gotten an even bigger seat bounce.

            Uggggggghhhhhhhhh >_<

            I blame Labour for all of this.

      2. classter

        I don’t understand how anybody could cast a vote for FF.

        FG/Labour/SF etc. all have black marks against them but FF have proven conclusively, over a long & sustained period of time, that they are short-sighted, incompetent, & ill-inclined to consider the best needs of the country. And they’ll allow rampant corruption to go on at the same time.

    2. John

      If FF and FG lose more seats the next time the situation will be worse!
      More independents and no two parties having enough to make a majority even if they wanted to which it would seem right now they don’t.

    3. Vote Rep #1

      SF are as bad. Refuse to go into government if they are not the main party then castigate FF/FG for the same, demand that FF/FG form a government then state yesterday that they are going to vote against either of them anyway.

      FF, FG & SF only care about the party, nothing else. Everything that has happened since the election has shown that they put what is best for themselves over what is good for everyone while then also complaining about the other parties doing the same.

      1. Steph Pinker

        + 1
        … and SF never ran enough candidates in the first place, so they were well aware of what they were doing – it’s cynicism at its best – yet, they’re still castigating FF & FG. They’ll never have a go at the alphabet parties or the Independent TDs though, because they’ll need them in the future.

  5. Kieran NYC

    Turns out this election is the best argument ever made against removing the whip system.

    Imagine having to do this week in, week out?

    Unending paralysis.

    1. Barry the Hatchet

      Are those the same Culchies who make up the vast majority of TDs in the Dail..?

        1. ahjayzis

          Gutted yer wan who was having phone fornication with her African lover didn’t get re-elected. I hope eircom do her a good deal.

          1. My Meaty Member

            I think it was kind of endearing. It’s the ones who deny their sexuality altogether that you need to worry about.

            I met a total madman outside UCD there one night he told me he wanted to fight me when I ventured I supported the pro choice position.

            I was thinking yea mate you haven’t got any for a while

    2. classter

      The same culchies who currently vote for Lowry, Mattie McGrath, Healey-Rays, and the FF party?

      Thank you ‘culchies’ and your bizarre, ignorant, local tribalism & your backward disdain for your own capital & worse, your own democracy.

      1. ahjayzis

        Someone should write a book about what’d happen to Ballygorideyourcousin if Dublin disappeared one day.

        They could call it “D4 Shrugged”

  6. Owen C

    Independents are the least motivated of all to see another election – most of them simply can’t afford it. Ultimately, they’ll back some sort of government rather than face the alternative.

  7. Jake38

    How many Lisa Chambers would it take to make the FF parliamentary party not look like a collection of paunchy, badly dressed, middle aged, colourless, comb-overed, bog-trotting gombeen men? 27, 68, 627,439? Answers on a postcard……..

    1. classter

      Sure she may look a little bit different from the median FF TD but she is a standard FF loyalist, practiced as a barrister for about ten minutes, plays the usual bullsh!t anti-Dublin card.

      Improving the Dail needs to be about more than merely reducing the number of pot bellies.

  8. ReproBertie

    If they do make us vote again we should avoid voting for anyone that got elected this time round. If the people elected to the 32nd Dáil can’t form a government of some sort then we should give someone else a go.

  9. DubLoony

    Step up or step out!

    I have never witnessed so many people being interviewed for a job they got, turned up at the office and then didn’t want to do the job.

    Farce.

  10. Spaghetti Hoop

    So what were they knocking on doors two months ago for?

    This is like watching the slow implosion of Irish politics. When does the Prez step in and call the shots?

  11. The florist

    “ok now what’s going on here then?” to be said in you mother’s voice for full effect.

  12. Kieran NYC

    Anyone think FG will give Kenny the heave before the second election? Would it make them more appealing and improve their chances or make them seem like infighting, panicked headless chickens?

    1. Owen C

      100%. Kenny’s last chance at ensuring his legacy comes via the current negotiations, not via another election.

      1. Steph Pinker

        Exactly Kieran, he doesn’t have the wiles of Adams, but Enda’s tenacious and he’ll hang on like a nit on a fine-tooth comb.

  13. Joe Small

    If we could only pass a law that meant the Dáil would shrink by 5 seats with every election until it reaches 100, we would have a string of stable 5-year governments.

    1. Kieran NYC

      I think you start to hit some ‘1 TD per X number of people’ limit in the Constitution from what I remember.

        1. My Meaty Member

          I’d personally prefer outsourcing the Dáil to a call centre with a few lawyers and teachers in it
          Turn Leinster house into a homeless shelter

          Kill two birds with one stone

  14. some old queen

    Now if there was any class of independent thinking among the media they would be asking very straight questions to them both like.

    “What exactly is your problem with going into Government with FF?”

    “What exactly is your problem with going into Government with FG?”

Comments are closed.

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