Tag Archives: #ge2020


 

Yesterday.

The Dublin Cycling Campaign and their supporters held a “slow cycle” along the quays of the River Liffey “due to ongoing delays in developing the Liffey Cycle Route”.

They write:

The current official plans for the Liffey Cycle Route wouldn’t see the project implemented until 2024 at the earliest – that would be 13 years after the project was first proposed!

Liffey Cycle Protest (Dublin Cycling Campaign)

Pics: David A Karlström

This afternoon.

Richard Chambers, of Virgin Media One, tweetz:

Taoiseach arrives on Stephen’s Green.

A homeless man looks away.

Familiar sight.

Update…

Um.

Mr Varadkar on Grafton Street.

Rollingnews

Previously: Picture Desk! I Need The IMF Guy In Dublin Walking PAST An Old Irish Homeless Man

UPDATE:

Rollingnews

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…

 

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

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?

Transitional payment for retirees at same rate as State pension to avoid anomaly confirmed (The Irish Independent)

Listen back in full here

Rollingnews

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)

This morning.

Aistear Park in Mountshannon, Co Clare.

Barry O’Donovan tweetz:

Poor old Timmy Dooley must be worried for the general election. Putting up posters in poster-free Mountshannon on ESB poles!

Poster free?

President of Greece Prokopios Pavlopoulos and Vlassia Pavlopoulou with President Michael D Higgins and Sabina Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin

Yesterday

Minister of State Finian McGrath represented the Government during the State visit of the President of Greece to Áras an Uachtaráin as all senior Ministers were unavailable.

Jack Power, in The Irish Times, reports:

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was due to meet Mr Pavlopoulos at Government Buildings on Thursday afternoon, but the meeting was cancelled earlier that morning, with Mr Varadkar attending events on the Fine Gael campaign trail instead.

…Mr McGrath is the only TD who sits at Cabinet who is not standing in the upcoming general election.

One senior Áras source said there was a sense of disappointment that the Government had not sent a senior Minister to attend the welcome ceremony.

‘Sense of disappointment’: Varadkar cancels meeting with Greek president (Jack Power, The Irish Times)

Pics: Irish Foreign Ministry

This morning.

Middle pic from left: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Minister for Business and Enterprise Heather Humphreys, Minister for Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe speaking to the media in Dublin on day two of campaigning for the general election 2020.

Fine Gael in 200,000 jobs pledge at economic plan launch (RTÉ)

Sam Boal/Rollingnews

Meanwhile…


This morning.

Fianna Fáil’s Finance Spokesperson Michael McGrath and Brexit Spokesperson Lisa Chambers at the party’s election headquarters for a press briefing on the economy and Brexit on day two of the general election 2020.

Fianna Fail pledges to ‘do a better job’ with public finances (Belfast Telegraph)

Leah Farrell/RollingNews