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FIGHT!
John Waters to run under Anti-Corruption Ireland banner in general election (Independent.ie)
Author Archives: Bodger
When I’m 65
at
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty
Last night.
The Irish Independent reported that public service employees, who joined after April 6, 1995 and who can retire at 63, can access a supplemental pension equal to the State pension until their State pension begins to be paid out at 66.
However, this is not available to private sector workers who are legally obliged to retire at 65.
Instead, they must claim Jobseekers’ Benefit until they reach the age of 66.
The State pension age is due to go to 67 next year and 68 from 2028.
The Jobseekers’ Benefit payment, the Irish Independent reported, is €45 less than the supplemental pension that public service workers can receive.
Later last night, Hugh O’Connell reported that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, on the campaign trail, said “Fine Gael plans to introduce a transition payment at the same rate as the State pension to avoid people having to apply for the dole when they retire”.
The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection Regina Doherty then released a statement saying:
“Tonight, I can confirm that this new transition pension will be paid at a rate equivalent to the Contributory State Pension. This change provides financial certainty to people retiring at 66.”
This morning.
Philip Ryan, of the Irish Independent, told RTÉ’s Seán O’Rourke:
“They’re all scrambling to get around this. Really they’ve been pushed into this corner by the Labour party and Sinn Féin who’ve made commitments. The Labour party not to allow the increase to go next year to 67 and Sinn Féin to go even further and say it will be reduced to 65.
“So both parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been all over the place on this, I think.
“And last night we had, first of all we had the Taoiseach suggesting that it’s transitional payment which would match the State pension would be introduced for people who are retiring from 65 onwards.
“Then the statement came out from Social Protection, Minister Regina Doherty, seemed to be suggesting that this transitional payment will only kick in next year when the State pension goes up to 67.
“So we’re a little bit, still unclear on where the parties stand on this.
“And then you also have Fianna Fáil, Micheál Martin, at one point saying that, he seemed to be deferring the increase, pending a review. But now they seem to be going for the transitional payment as well.”
Anyone?
Listen back in full here
This morning.
In the past 25 minutes.
Former Fine Gael TD Maria Bailey released a statement to say she will not be seeking re-election on February 8th, 2020.
It follows the party’s National Executive Council deselecting her as a candidate for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown constituency in November.
Previously: ‘I Found Myself On The Floor’
Via Maria Bailey
UPDATE:
Tommy Broughan after he was elected to the Dáil in 2011
Tommy Broughan, a long-time public representative for the constituency of Dublin Bay North (previously Dublin North East) has today announced that he will not be contesting the upcoming General Election.
Mr Broughan was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 1992 as a Labour Deputy, became an Independent in 2011 and successfully contested the 2016 election.
…Mr Broughan says “I’d like to sincerely thank all my friends and my constituents of Dublin Bay North (and Dublin North East) for their support over the years.
“After lengthy discussions with my family, staff and long deliberations, I decided not to contest the upcoming General Election.
“It was a very difficult decision since I have been a public representative for almost 29 years.
“I wish my former Technical Group colleagues, Catherine Connolly, Joan Collins and Thomas Pringle all the very best on February 8th next.”
Broughan decides not to contest the general election 2020 (Tommy Broughan)
Gerard tweetz:
What famous (or infamous) FG recently retired TD/Minister of State still has one of his election signs (must be 10 years old) lying around tourist spot Monsktown, County Cork?
Previously: Cheating Us All
Glossy
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Ferg writes:
Never mind leaflets, why am I getting full blown magazines through the letterbox? Straight into the recycling…
Kathleen Lawlor
Kathleen Lawlor, aged 58, has been missing from her home in Bennekerry, Co Carlow since yesterday morning.
Darren Hasset, in Carlow Live, reports:
“Kathleen was last seen in Carlow Town centre at around 9.50am. She is approximately 5′ 1” in height, of slim build with grey hair which is shoulder length and has blue eyes.
“When last seen she was wearing a purple coat, dark trousers, black footwear and carrying a handbag. Gardaí and Kathleen’s family are concerned for her.”
Picture via Denise
Free Friday?
at
On Friday.
A protest against homelessness will be held in Dublin city with supporters meeting at the Garden of Remembrance at 1pm.
The group behind the protest call themselves The People’s Movement.
They write:
“We have an opportunity here and if we don’t take it then it will be another four years before we get this same opportunity again
“Our beautiful island is being run into the ground and our people treated inhumanely by those elected to do right by us.
“Every day they hurt people in some form, wether it’s being made homeless because people can’t afford the rent or from being evicted and people left to die on trolleys.
“Our hospitals are overcrowded and understaffed and not sufficiently equipped. Children are queuing at soup runs to eat and take home packed lunches so they can eat in school the next day, childhood memories tainted by the damp walls of uninhabitable B&Bs and squashed hotel rooms with parents who cry themselves to sleep.
“They are selling our public lands, denying our people social housing and privatising our most vital services, crippling families through extortionate rents and taxes, selling off our gas and oil resources, all while lining their already heavy pockets, the list goes on and on.
“And if I continued to name how much they hurt people you all know that I would be here all day. Haven’t you had enough?”
The People’s Movement (Facebook)
Meanwhile…
This morning Daniel McConnell, of The Irish Examiner, reports:
As many as one in four children in some of the most disadvantaged primary schools in the country are homeless, with principals warning that the real figures could be even higher.
Schools are reporting that the number of children aged between five and 12 presenting as homeless have increased significantly in the past three years.
Rise in pupils without proper homes (Daniel McConnell, The Irish Examiner)
‘Sup?
Dunmore East, Waterford
Carlosfandango writes:
Mr Hugh had the beach all to himself at the weekend. It took a while to convince him to leave. Run Lurcher run.
Mark Hennessy (top) and the scene of his fatal shooting in Cherrywood, County Dublinin May, 2018
This afternoon.
Via RTÉ:
James Magee [a Civil Defence volunteer] told the inquest how he followed Hennessy’s car into a car park at the Cherrywood Industrial Estate near Shankill in Dublin.
Mr Magee said he saw that when Mark Hennessy stopped his car, he had his hands on the steering wheel and he made a shrugging gesture as garda cars pulled up in the car park.
He said he saw a box cutter or Stanley knife in Mark Hennessy’s hand, and looked away as he thought Hennessy was going to harm himself with the knife. When he looked back, Hennessy was harming himself.
He saw a plain clothes garda approach the car and draw his revolver. He saw Mark Hennessy appearing to reach down into the passenger footwell for something and then the garda firing a shot through the passenger window.
He then heard a garda say “urgent, assistance required, shot fired by garda” and saw a garda break the driver’s window of Mark Hennessy’s car with a baton.
Meanwhile..
The inquest at Dublin Coroner’s Court also heard from Christina Connelly, who saw the Nissan Qashqai as she was driving home from work that Sunday evening.
…She told the dispatcher there were two men in the front of the car wearing baseball caps. She followed the car to the Cherrywood Industrial Estate and very soon afterward a marked Civil Defence vehicle and two unmarked garda cars arrived.
Inquest told how garda shot Jastine Valdez’s killer (RTÉ)
Previously: Jastine Valdez on Broadsheet
Dark Horse
at
‘sup?
This afternoon.
Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin 2.
A traditional arrival to Sinn Féin’s General Election candidate launch in the Round Room of the Mansion House on the 101st anniversary of the meeting of the First Dáil.
Top from left: Connor Murphy, Sinn Féin politician from Northern Ireland, Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin Leader, actress Fionnula Flanagan, Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Fein leader in Northern Ireland and Pearse Doherty TD for Donegal.
Earlier: “If All [Sinn Féin Candidates] Were Elected They Still Wouldn’t Be In Government”