Author Archives: Bodger

This morning/afternoon.

Parnell Square, Dublin 1

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Finance Pearse Doherty talking to the media as he published Sinn Féin’s proposals to ‘put money back in the pockets of workers and families’ including a €1.2bn pledge to exempt anyone earning under €30,000 from paying Universal Social Charge.

Via The Irish Independent:

The party is also proposing to reduce the retirement age from 66 to 65 and increase the State pension by €20.

Combined these two measures will cost over €1.1bn. Sinn Féin is also again pledging to abolish the local property tax in this general election at a cost of nearly €500m.

“That shows the quantum of money that we’re talking about putting back into people’s pockets, but there’s other measures as well,” he said.

Mr Doherty also highlighted Sinn Féiin’s plan to abolish levies on non-life insurance policies at a cost of €630m per year. The party claims this will reduce premiums by around 5pc….

‘It’s up to them to do that’ – Sinn Féin won’t ask retiring TDs to give back some of their pension pots (Independent.ie)

Leah Farrell/Rollingnews

This afternoon,

Terry Jones (top right) directing The Sermon on the Mount scene in ‘Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979) and acting in same (above), has died after a long illness.

RIP.

Palin and Cleese remember ‘strange and silly moments’ with Terry Jones (BBC)

Thanks John Gallen

This afternoon.

RTÉ’s Vincent Kearney tweetz:

No B word: Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar is keen to talk about Brexit but so far travelling across counties Dublin, Longford, Louth, Offaly, Tipperary, Cork and Limerick with David Goldsmith to cover the general election for RTÉ News I’ve yet to hear a single person mention it.

Meanwhile…

 

RTÉ’s Claire Byrne

Next Monday night.

On RTÉ One, at 9.35pm.

Claire Byrne Live Leaders’ Debate.

Laura Fitzgerald writes:

“Next Monday night (27th January) Claire Byrne will host the biggest Election 2020 leaders debate of the campaign so far.

“For the very first time RTÉ will broadcast a special leaders’ debate live from Galway.

“The seven political parties leaders joining Claire on stage for the major two-hour live debate will be: Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn Féin), Leo Varadkar (Fine Gael), Brendan Howlin (Labour), Micheál Martin (Fianna Fáil), Richard Boyd Barrett (Solidarity/People Before Profit), Eamon Ryan (Green Party) and Roísín Shortall (Social Democrats).

“The leaders will also face questions from an audience of over 300 people independently selected by RED C Research polling company.”

Two HOURS?

Thanks Laura

This afternoon.

Online news and social media monitoring company Olytico tweetz:

69,814 tweets, from 14,434 accounts and a potential audience of over 13m. Olytico analysed how Ireland talked about the general election during the first week of campaigning (14th-20th Jan 2020). Here’s what we found.

25% of content during week 1 was original (17,644 tweets), the remaining 75% of content was retweets. #GE2020 is the most popular hashtag (39,513 tweets), followed by #GE20 (9,762) and #GeneralElection2020 (1,219).

Fine Gael were the most talked about political party (8,697 tweets), followed by Fianna Fail (5,749), Sinn Fein (3,036), Labour (2,042) and Green Party (2,005).

Leo Varadkar was the most talked about party leader (4,318 tweets), followed by Michael Martin (748), Mary Lou McDonald (692), Eamon Ryan (378), and Brendan Howlin (222).

Homelessness was the most mentioned non-political term (4,451), followed by Housing (2,783), Health (2,186), and Climate (1,551).

Week 2 data will be released on Tuesday January 28th. Questions or suggestions? Reply or drop us a DM.

Anyone?

Olytico

Where We Live.

From March 11 until 21 at the Project Arts Centre in Temple Bar, Dublin 2.

From THISISPOPBABY who sez:

“From 11-21 March, as part of St Patrick’s Festival, we’re taking over and transforming Project Arts Centre in a red-hot building occupation of new theatre, exhilarating music collaborations, rapid-response performance, playful and evocative visual art installations, an iconic one-off record fair, a town hall of ideas, and of course, a little bit of dancing to top it all off.

“Building on the success of the inaugural 2018 edition of the festival, this year is an even deeper investigation into some of the critical matters of the day.

“We’re talking about the evolving city, homelessness, migration, connection, inclusivity, the climate crisis, active citizenship and the power of community.”

Where We Live (THISISPOPBABY)

This morning.

Fianna Fáil General Election HQ, Dublin.

Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Finance Michael McGrath TD (centre), Barry Cowen (right), spokesperson on Public Expenditure and Dublin City Councillor Deirdre Heney (left) at a press briefing on the party’s personal taxation proposals.

To wit:

The party is planning to reduce the 4.5% Universal Social Charge rate to 3.5%.

It is proposing to increase the standard rate of income tax band by €3,000 for an individual, and €6,000 for a couple.

Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath said his party would also increase the so-called rainy day fund from €500,000 to €750,000 per year – bringing the fund to €5.2bn by 2025.

Tax cuts and increased spending.

Apart from bitter experience, why the hell not?

Rollingnews

Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar shakes hands with candidate Peter Casey at the Presidential election count centre at Dublin Castle on November 27, 2018

This afternoon.

Via The Irish Times:

Peter Casey has put his name on the ballot paper in Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s Dublin West constituency as an “obvious protest vote” against the Fine Gael leader, while focusing on winning a seat in the Donegal constituency.

On Wednesday morning Mr Casey, the businessman and former presidential candidate, submitted his papers to contest the Dublin West race, having submitted papers to stand in Donegal on Tuesday. There is no restriction on a candidate running in multiple constituencies.

Peter Casey to stand in both Donegal and Dublin West (Irish Times)

Earlier: A Race Of Angels

Rollingnews

Last night.

On RTÉ One’s Prime Time.

Miriam O’Callaghan hosted a near 25-minute debate on housing and homelessness with People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd Barrett, Labour’s Jan O’Sullivan, Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Bróin, Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy, and Fianna Fáil’s Darragh O’Brien.

The politicians discussed their policies while Ms O’Callaghan had the following exchange with the minister after she recalled how a homeless man suffered life-changing injuries while the tent within which he was sleeping was removed by from along the Grand Canal near Leeson Street Bridge in Dublin last Tuesday…

Eoghan Murphy: “We took over the housing brief in 2016 and we’ve doubled the number of homes built. Now that’s not enough but we’re going to double it again if we’re elected to Government.”

Miriam O’Callaghan: “Just to go back to that homeless man at the canal. I mean your leader’s instinct was first to look for a statement from a Fianna Fáil politician.”

Murphy: “Leo Varadkar’s first instinct was shock and anger and then he was upset about it. And I know this because I work with him. And he expressed sympathy when he was first asked about it. But the best way to help that individual, and other individuals, is actually not the route to emergency accommodation, it’s the route to a home.

“And that’s Housing First. People talk about how they’ve solved homelessness in Finland and some large cities. It’s that Housing First model.

“You build homes for single individuals, you take them from emergency, from the streets, into the home and you wrap the care and supports around them. And we’ve introduced that and we’ve helped more than 300 people…”

O’Callaghan: “But by any measure I suppose, in 2016, young people weren’t able to buy their own homes, rents were escalating, thousands were falling into homelessness. Four years on, that situation is exactly, more or less, the same.”

“By any measure you have failed.”

Murphy: “Well since that period, we’ve been able to help 11,000 people out of homelessness. It’s not enough but those people are in homes now because of the supports that we gave. And what we did start, when we took over the housing brief, was we did focus in, not just on building more private homes, but social homes as well.

“So, in 2016, I think it was less than 1,000 social houses were built. I mean actually new homes built. Last year it was more than 6,000…”

Meanwhile…

During the programme…

Architect Orla Hegarty tweeted:

“Social housing ‘delivered’ in recent years, significant amounts purchased and leased (Research: Killian Woods, of the Business Post)”

And…

Oh.

Yesterday: ‘It’s Not Possible To Make Housing More Affordable By Just Increasing Supply’

Watch Prime Time back in full here