Fear not….we DO have 17 special advisors,
a heap of ministers of state,
3 super junior ministers,
2 aide-de-camp,
and a hot swimming pool for the lads from the IFSC🏊♂️🏊♂️
Eamon Ryan just used the n-word in the Dáil. Talking about #BlackLivesMatter he said:
“In the newspaper today there was a young Irishman Sean Gillane giving his experience of being othered. Of being from the age of six given that name – you n****r”
I made a speech in the Dáil today about the scourge of racism in our society. In quoting from an article I read this morning, I repeated a racial slur, and I was completely wrong to do so. I want to apologise for any hurt caused. I know this particular word should never be used.
Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan, a past pupil of Gonzaga College, Dublin
Amazingly insightful commentary from @IrishTimes#InsidePolitics podcast that Eamon Ryan’s ability to cross the political divide stems from “that Gonzaga-type, patrician quality that we will get things done”. pic.twitter.com/rdyrNUJlrO
“It’s just a different style, you know, maybe newer people in the Greens might want him to go in and bang the table and roar at Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael all the time, that is not not his style and it’s just as effective as someone who goes in and roars the odds working with people…
Dermot Ahern… speaks really highly of Eamon Ryan… said he and Trevor Sargent were two of the most effective ministers of the recent decades and a lot of people round that cabinet table they really appreciated he could reach out and work across them…
…with Ryan they saw someone who reached across the table across subjects and was well able to work and, you know…
Someone who knows him a while says it’s kind of like that Gonzaga type, you know, patrician quality you know we will get things done, that himself, Brian Lenihan, Simon Coveney, they kind of have that ‘let’s get along and everything needs to be done’ mentality, but I think his method of working is conciliatory but that doesn’t mean it’s not effective.”
Fiach Kelly, Deputy Political Editor of the irish Times on the ’Inside Politics’ podcast with Hugh Linehan
Four @greenparty_ie cllrs have written to deputy leader and government formation talks team member @cathmartingreen asking her to challenge @EamonRyan‘s leadership.
— Fiachra Ó Cionnaith 😷 (@Ocionnaith) May 19, 2020
This morning.
RTÉ’s Fiachra Ó Cionnaith reports:
Four Green Party councillors have written to deputy leader Catherine Martin “urging” her to challenge Eamon Ryan for the leadership of the party.
Cork City and County Councillors Lorna Bogue, Oliver Moran, Colette Finn and Liam Quaide wrote to Ms Martin yesterday evening, saying they believe she and not Mr Ryan is “prepared to make difficult choices for the greater good”.
“In February, Ireland voted for change. We believe with your style of leadership, your convictions and your work ethic, you are the right person to lead the Green Party,” reads the letter, which has been seen by RTÉ News.
During the debate on the emergency legislation The Health Preservation and other Emergency Measures Bill…
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan addressed the Dáil and spoke about “Temple Of The Bars”, Neil Diamond’s song Sweet Caroline, his mam, anti-viral Olympics, Chinese “limp wimps” and salads ‘to go’.
He said:
“Taoiseach, I would like to commend you for your speech the other night. I think it articulated the desire for our people, for us, to show solidarity and collective action in response to this unprecedented crisis.
“That sense really came home to me I think was it Friday night or Saturday, people watching online, there was that video from The Temple of the Bars, where a good-time crew was singing ‘Sweet Caroline’.
“Hands holding hands, touching me, touching you. Sweet Jesus, you could not make it up for being out of tune with where we all were.
“And in some ways, I felt at that moment, do you know the same way back in the Eighties when ever [inaudible] soccer supporters abroad, ‘well if other people are gonna be hooligans, we’re going to be the number one, best behaved people in the planet’ collectively.
“That same sense there, at that moment, we’re not gonna do that, hands touching hands, we’re going to look after each other. And I know there’s questions, people say ‘well, will we get fatigue’ in terms of our behavioural response.
“Anyone who thinks that, any scientist has yet to meet my mother, Mary Ryan who’s at home, I’m sure, watching this maybe like many a mother and father, grandfather out there.
“If there was an anti-viral Olympics, we’d win gold.”
“She’d make the Chinese communist government look like limp wimps when it comes to the measures that will be taken to hold this threat at bay.
“We’re going to be good at this, we’re gonna take it on. We’re gonna pull together as Taoiseach, you and others, have said.
“It’s interesting, we were chatting at one of our meetings, discussing, I hope I’m not breaking confidence, we’re not breaking confidence here, just this issue. We’re agreed that we’re gonna go the suppression route, not the mitigation. We have to, if things go wrong, we may have to go down the line in mitigation.
“But, for the moment, we’re going to take on the suppression route. Now how we do that, where we maintain the mental health of our people is important.
“And I was cited the example the other day, could be keep our hardware shops open. I know that’s not the most important thing, whatever, but if we kept our hardware shops open and if we have to work from home, or be at home for a period, well let’s paint the back of the house with the paint from that hardware shop.
“Or let’s get every south-facing windowsill in this country and let’s plant our seeds in the next week so that if there is any supply crisis and food in two or three months time when this really hits hard, we’ll have our salads ready to go.
“Everyone’s home, every windowsill. All of us being part of the solution.
“And equally Taoiseach, we were saying this to you yesterday, as leaders we agreed it, we need to come together and get more political involvement and the solutions are great.”
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan (middle) surrounded by Green Party members
This evening.
The Green Party leader Eamon Ryan released a statement calling for a national unity government, his party’s second such call. He said:
“Right now, the country is in the midst of an acute crisis. The kind not seen before. Around the country, communities are standing up together to protect the vulnerable and make sure everyone has what they need.
“We need this cooperation amongst our leaders too.
“We must work together in an unprecedented way to tackle this unprecedented crisis. That is why we are calling for a cross-party unified approach to government to deal with the crisis.
“Tackling the Coronavirus demands an all of government approach. We can see from other countries that stopping the spread of the virus and rebuilding after will take many months and likely more than a year. Other countries have taken this step and we believe that a crisis of this magnitude demands it.
“We are again calling on parties to suspend talks on forming a majority government and come together around a crisis National Unity Government. This would bring together all parties and independents to form a cabinet split proportionately and could be done in a way to minimise the disruption for departments dealing directly with the crisis.
“There is a difficult road ahead of us but we can get through it if we work together.”
