Tag Archives: Mary Lou McDonald

This afternoon.

The Dáil at the Convention Centre, Dublin.

Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald arrives ahead of a no-confidence motion against Tanaiste Leo Varadkar for leaking confidential GP contract documents.

Watch live here.

Earlier: All Behind Him

RollingNews

Earlier: Leo’s High Standards 

Tonight.

In fairness.

Meanwhile…

Ah here.

Meanwhile…

Tioc or treat?

Meanwhile…

Stop that.

This morning/afternoon.

Henry Street, Dublin 1.

Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald (above centre) with Debenhams workers ahead of a High Court hearing tomorrow where the store’s liquidators KPMG is seeking an injuction to stop picketing at the stores. The workers, who were made redundant in April, have still not received their promised redundancy payments.

Previously: Behind You

RollingNews

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald

This afternoon.

Meanwhile…

…Catherine Murphy, co-leader of the Social Democrats, said:

“The resignation of Minister Calleary is symptomatic of the contradictory messaging and widespread confusion that has followed Tuesday’s announcement of new restrictions.

The days following the announcement have been characterised by a bizarre television appearance by the Minister for Health and clarification after clarification from various Government departments.

“Since the Dáil went into recess at the end of July, the Government has lurched from one crisis to the next. We have had three counties in lockdown for the past fortnight and it now looks likely that the Cabinet will act on NPHET’s recommendation to extend localised restrictions in Kildare for another two weeks.

“The events of the past 24 hours highlight the need for all relevant Government ministers to come into the Dáil and clearly explain what the strategy is for dealing with this crisis.”

Earlier: Par For The Course

 Resigned [Updated]

“An Unintended But Serious Lapse Of Judgment”

Put Your Dukes Up

Rollingnews

Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald

This morning.

Meanwhile…

Anyone?

Rollingnews

This afternoon.

The Convention Centre, Dublin.

Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald arrives for a Dáil session sporting a perspex balaclava face shield….

Meanwhile….

This afternoon.

Convention Centre, Dublin.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin arriving for a sitting of the Dail wearing a bespoke face mask featuring his name alongside a tiny defiant tricolour for added protection.

Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews

Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald

This morning.

On RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Sarah McInerney.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said that tourists should be told “don’t come this season” and that anyone arriving in the country should face mandatory 14-day quarantine.

The island of Ireland cannot be left exposed and it was not enough to accept “on a wing and prayer” that people were self-quarantining.

Ms McDonald said that experts need to come up with alternatives and she accepted that tests produced false negatives. “I was that person myself,” she said.

For epidemiological purposes the island of Ireland was a single unit, she said.

FIGHT!

Mary Lou McDonald suggests telling tourists ‘don’t come this season’ (Irish Examiner)

Rollingnews

Mary Lou McDonald addressing the Dáil this afternoon

This afternoon.

Leinster House, Dublin 2.

Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald asked Taoiseach Leo Varadkar if the State pandemic employment payments would be extended in June, following ‘ominous’ comments made yesterday by Minister For Finance Paschal Donohoe yesterday.

Ms McDonald said cutting or tapering off these would be “wrong” and said even the idea being floated suggests that Fine Gael is “out of touch” with the lives of workers and families and those bearing the burnt of this “economic shock”.

She also added that “in the last economic crisis”, FG and FF “chose to protect the banks and the wealthy”, “that you chose to punish ordinary workers and families instead” and “they lived with the minimum wage being slashed” and “numerous cuts to child benefit”.

She referred the moves to “slash and burn policies aimed to service a debt that did not belong to the people“.

During his response,, Mr Varadkar said the payments would need to continue until people can return to their jobs and, for the vast majority of people, returning to work won’t happen by June.

“So yes, it will need to be extended beyond mid-June,” he said.

He then went on to say:

“I am sorry though that Deputy McDonald chose to become some party political in her contributions because what you said was so two-faced and so fundamentally dishonest.

My party, Fine Gael, never cut the minimum wage. Working with Labour and then Independents, we increased it by 25%, one of the highest in the world.

What is the minimum wage in Northern Ireland where Sinn Fein is in power. In this jurisdiction, a Government led by my party, introduced a pandemic unemployment payment of €350 a week. So that people who lost their jobs had some financial security.

What happened in Northern Ireland where Sinn Fein is in office? A hundred pounds a week. Nothing for the self-employed until June. And Sinn Féin ministers on their Facebook site promote the fact that they hand out food parcels to the poor.

Reminiscent to me of Donald Trump handing out toilet roll after the hurricane hit the islands in the Caribbean.”

Later

Varadkar: “…you can’t hide the fact that she’s also leader of an All-Ireland party, a party that’s in power in Northern Ireland where the minimum wage is lower than here, where you don’t give people 350 pounds a week. You hand out food parcels and boast about it on Facebook. I’d be ashamed to do something like that.

“And don’t blame it on the Tories, and don’t blame it on London. If it wasn’t for their money, it would even be worse.”

Later

Ms McDonald said she was glad to hear the Taoiseach confirm that the payments would be extended beyond June. She then asked if he’d indicate how long they would be extended and if payment amount would remain the same.

She also said that grants of 10,000 or 25,000 pounds are being made available to businesses across all sectors in the North and added:

“What has been dedicated to those efforts in the six counties is far greater than the entire 250million which is pretty miserly that’s been set out here…”

She also said she’s proud of the community work that Sinn Féin activists do across Ireland.

During his response, Mr Varadkar said no decision has yet been made on the rate of pay or the timeline of the extended payments and indicated it may be something for the next Government to decide.

He added:

“I think it’s a great thing by the way that people do provide food banks and hand out food parcels. And this Government actually funds food banks and we’ve done that for a very long time. What we don’t do is post on Facebook pictures of our ministers visiting them and handing out food to the poor…”

Fight!

More to follow.

Earlier: Origin Story

UPDATE:

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald has confirmed that she learned yesterday that she tested positive for Covid-19, after getting tested 16 days previous, on March 28.

More as they get it.

Previously: “Hidden From View”

The Wait Debate

Rollingnews

UPDATE:

In fairness.