1. Fianna Fáil leader Micheál
Martin has again rejected
any possibility of his party
forming a post-election coali-
tion with the “mafia-like”
Sinn Féin, despite colleagues
and one senior Sinn Féin TD
insisting a deal could be
struck.
Mr Martin specifically
ruled out an agreement be-
tween the two parties and
claimed that Fianna Fáil can
form a government by itself,
despite an opinion poll yes-
terday showing it could form
a coalition with joint support
available.
Speaking at his party’s an-
nual Wolfe Tone commemor-
ations at Bodenstown cem-
etery, Co Kildare, Mr Martin
said he is not considering
any joining of forces with the
“mafia-like organisation”
Sinn Féin after the election.
While colleagues Éamon Ó
Cuív, John McGuinness, and
Colm Keaveney have all
previously said they would
consider such a coalition, Mr
Martin said Sinn Féin has
“used methods which dis-
honoured the Republic” and
that “its first loyalty has al-
ways been to its own and not
the Irish people”. He added:
“It is a mafia-like organi-
sation.”
Sinn Féin leader Gerry
Adams hit back, saying Fian-
na Fáil is “politically bank-
rupt” and that the comments
are “cynical opportunism”.
Sinn Féin justice spokes-
man Padraig Mac Lochlainn
said a post-election deal
could be struck between the
parties, provided such a co-
alition still had a left-wing
slant.
Sinn Féin’s policy, agreed
at its last ard fheis in Febru-
ary, is for it to only consider
such a coalition if Sinn Féin
is the majority party, a posi-
tion Mr Mac Lochlainn says
is now “foolish”.
“If we are one or two seats
smaller than Fianna Fáil
after the election, we would
be foolish not to look at en-
tering negotiations,” he said.
The latest opinion poll
shows Fine Gael on 24%
(down 3 percentage points),
Fianna Fáil on 19% (down
1pp), Sinn Féin stable on
19%, Labour on 8% (up 2pp),
and a cluster of other parties
on 29% (up 1pp).
The 29% figure is broken
down as Independents on
12%, Socialist Party-Anti
Austerity Alliance-People
before Profit on 7% (up 2pp),
the Independent Alliance on
5% (up 1pp), Renua Ireland
unchanged on 2%, Green
Party on 1% (down 1pp), So-
cial Democrats stable on 1%
and Workers’ Party on 1%
(down 1pp).
Meanwhile, Taoiseach
Enda Kenny has declined to
say if he will add sitting TD
and ex-minister John Perry
to the Fine Gael Sligo-Lei-
trim ticket after he failed to
be selected on Friday night.
While Mr Kenny had said
all sitting TDs will be allow-
ed defend their seat, he said
officials need to “reflect” on
the issue.
Mr Perry lost his junior
minister position last year
after a €2.47m judgment in
2013 over unpaid Danske
Bank loans.
Ex-TD Gerry Reynolds
and sitting TD Tony
McLoughlin have instead
been chosen to run on a two-
person ticket in a constituen-
cy that Fine Gael insiders
say is tightly contested,
meaning a third candidate
may not be possible.
I
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has
vowed to scrap the “savage”
universal social charge
(USC) “in its entirety”, re-
cover all jobs lost during the
crash “by 2018” and help “at
least” 70,000 emigrants come
home — if his party is re-
elected.
The Fine Gael leader out-
lined an ambitious blueprint
to “sustain the recovery”,
which also includes a prom-
ises to bring unemployment
down to a “practically zero
rate” of 6%, at Fine Gael’s an-
nual presidential dinner in
Dublin on Saturday night.
Speaking to party col-
leagues before Fianna Fáil
leader Micheál Martin de-
scribed the plans as the start
of the “most cynical” elec-
tion campaign in history, Mr
Kenny said voters have a
choice between “stability
and economic progress on
one hand, and chaos and un-
certainty on the other”.
The Taoiseach said that, if
re-elected, his party will re-
move the USC “completely”
by 2021, despite the fact that
Fine Gael’s current coalition
partners, Labour, only want
it cancelled for people on less
than €70,000 a year.
He said the move will help
create 200,000 jobs and en-
courage 70,000 emigrants to
come home, and that, by
2018, he expects the Govern-
ment’s policies to have “re-
covered all of the jobs lost in
the recession years” — a fig-
ure he put at 300,000.
Mr Kenny further added
that, if elected to a second
term in government, his
party aims to reduced unem-
ployment from 9.6% to 6%
through “sensible, afford-
able steps”.
“I, for one, don’t want to
see Ireland’s hard-won
progress put at risk by those
who wrecked our economy
several times in the past, or
by those whose policies
would surely wreck it in the
future,” he said.
“Fine Gael has a plan to
keep the recovery going. It’s
a plan based on enterprise,
not speculation.”
However, Fianna Fáil
leader Micheal Martin yes-
terday rubbished the Gov-
ernment’s term in office and
its interpretation of what a
real recovery involves.
Speaking at his own party’s
annual Wolfe Tone commem-
orations at Bodenstown cem-
etery, Co Kildare, Mr Martin
said “there is absolutely no
doubt” Ireland needs the rev-
olutionary’s “inclusive” and
“true spirit of Irish republi-
canism now more than
ever”.
“Today we are becoming a
more unfair and divided so-
ciety,” he said. “We are ex-
periencing a two-tier re-
covery which is threatening
to deliver a two-tier economy
and society. It is the direct
result of the unjust and un-
fair policies of this Govern-
ment. Enda Kenny said re-
peatedly during the week
that his Government had
done the job it was elected to
do. He said this with no irony
and no equivocation — they
have done the job the Irish
people elected them to do.
This shows just how out of
touch and arrogant this gov-
ernment has become.”
Pointing to 1,500 children
sleeping in emergency ac-
commodation and an “un-
precedented” rural “crime
wave” Mr Martin said:
“When Enda Kenny says his
Government did the job it
was elected to do, he is yet
again showing that he will
not recognise, let alone ad-
dress, the very real issues
facing our country.
“His effort goes into pro-
moting the fairytale of a Gov-
ernment which supposedly
delivered recovery. This re-
mains a Government of spin
and broken promises.”
homeless people who are not
part of the recovery is laud-
able if genuine, one party
member replied, when asked
for a name, said: “I don’t
think the Taoiseach even has
it.”
Meanwhile, as the Fine
Gael dinner continued with
countless post-election econ-
omic promises, the Simon
Community had its own view
of Mr Kenny’s socialising.
While not questioning
whether the conversation
really happened, the group
asked if any detailed propo-
sal on how to address home-
lessness had been outlined —
other than the longer-term
view that housing supply “is
the real problem here”, it
hadn’t — before noting that
the “situation is getting
worse by the day”, with “140
new people in emergency ac-
commodation in September
alone” and 5,000 in similar
situations overall.
Mr Ahern’s suggestion
that he was a modern-day
Che was believed by few and
mocked by many.
Perhaps if Mr Kenny put
the necessary services in
place to ensure people in
crisis homeless situations
are able — to paraphase Fine
Gael’s new slogan — to se-
cure their own recovery, he
would not have to resort to
conversationswithnameless
people to underline how Ire-
land is better offer keeping
the current coalition in situ.
Two pints man is no doubt
in agreement.
he “sat on a bench for 20 min-
utes” with while strolling
around Merrion Square in
Dublin. Just like Ireland, Mr
Kenny said, the unidentified
man is “coming out of a
trough” and “into a better
place”.
While the Fine Gael
leader’s conversation with
one of the thousands of
nudged forward — again
with no name, description,
or contact details, but coinci-
dentally being just what
was needed to show how
Government policies are
helping everyday people.
As he discussed the econ-
omy, Mr Kenny strayed from
the script to tell the tale of an
unidentified homeless man
During the boom, then taoi-
seach Bertie Ahern was, in
his own eyes, Ireland’s last
socialist, a claim widely
lampooned as unbelievable.
During the recovery, it
seems current incumbent
Enda Kenny has adopted an
equally social outlook,
which, just like his prede-
cessor, is causing more than
a few raised eyebrows from
an unconvinced public.
In recent months, the Fine
Gael leader has peppered his
speeches with references to
conversations he apparently
has had with voters.
Two pints man was —
twice, seemingly — con-
vinced of Irish Water’s value
when the Taoiseach bumped
into him in a bar and ex-
plained his drinks would pay
charges “for 10 weeks”.
A builder was so happy
with the recovery he told Mr
Kenny: “It’s great to hear the
sound of buckets rattling
around again.”
And, at Fine Gael’s presi-
dential dinner on Saturday,
yet another character was
Nicola’s parents as well.
They’re locals, they are good
people and such hard work-
ing people.
“It’s just such a terrible as-
sault on who they are as
peacekeepers. I think it’s all
the more difficult when you
look at what Tony was doing.
He was defending a woman
who had been exploited by
somebody else.”
Meanwhile, Taoiseach
Enda Kenny has expressed
his dismay following revel-
ation that a book of condol-
ences for Garda Golden was
defaced in Drogheda Garda
Station. The book has since
been removed. Speaking be-
fore the Fine Gael presiden-
tial dinner at the Doubletree
Hilton hotel in Dublin, he
said: “I’m dismayed at what I
heard from the news bull-
etins from the desecration of
the book of condolence of
Garda Tony Golden.”
all the others there.”
He said that while Garda
Golden’s family were dis-
traught, his death has had an
impact on the wider garda
community.
“It was the force that was
really battered with the
death of Tony,” said Fr Cus-
ack. “Nicola clearly, and the
three children, have this in-
credible cross to bear and
Tony’s parents and our sym-
pathies go to them, and to
“These are local people
that we know and love and
associate with every day,
and to see them broken once
again, within only three
years since Adrian’s death,
and just the depth of sorrow,
and I think there was an
underlying thing of anger
there as well going on.
“I was very privileged to
be there with them in the
station and to stand with
the garda commissioner and
the funeral mass for Garda
Donohoe, who was the last
garda to have been killed in
the line of duty prior to
Garda Golden’s death. Garda
Donohoe died as a result of a
gunshot wound he received
during the armed robbery of
a credit union in Bellurgan,
Co Louth in January 2013.
“It was just such a diffi-
cult, difficult thing to wit-
ness,” Fr Cusack told Marian
Finucane on RTÉ Radio 1.
Fr Michael Cusack said
gardaí in Dundalk has faced
a “terrible assault” last week
when father of three Garda
Golden was shot dead as he
helped a woman who was the
victim of domestic violence.
Fr Cusack, whose father
and grandfather were both
gardaí, attended a special
prayer service this week
with local gardaí and Garda
Commissioner Noirin O’Sul-
livan. He had presided over
An extra 25 gardaí have been
deployed to Dundalk follow-
ing last week’s killing of
Garda Tony Golden.
The allocation comes as
the priest who presided over
the funeral of Garda Adrian
Donohoe almost three years
ago said the killing of Garda
Golden has “battered” the
garda force in Louth.
briefing last week alongside
Mr Noonan, Labour’s Public
Expenditure and Reform
Minister Brendan Howlin
twice failed to say he con-
tinues to support rent cer-
tainty and instead refer-
enced the need to address
longer-term housing supply
issues — a point consistently
raised by Fine Gael.
meeting between Mr Kenny
and Mr Kelly is planned, and
dismissed linking rent prices
to the consumer price index
in favour of tax incentives
for landlords to take in social
tenants and other matters
Fine Gael believes will not
negatively impact on the
market.
At a post-budget media
continuing to publicly say
they are working towards an
extensive housing policy
document expected within
the next three weeks — a
position likely to be repeated
when the duo take part in a
media event in Limerick
later today — privately there
has been no progress on
any form of rent certainty,
despite the measure being
widely backed by voters.
Labour officials yesterday
said talks will continue on
the matter, with Taoiseach
Enda Kenny expected to
meet Mr Kelly after
Tuesday’s cabinet briefing
as rent certainty remains a
possibility.
However, Fine Gael
sources last night denied any
addressing the market crisis.
In measures repeatedly
outlined for more than a
year, Mr Kelly wants to im-
pose a system whereby land-
lords cannot ramp up rents
by linking any increases to
the consumer price index.
Mr Kelly had intended
to agree a package with
Finance Minister Michael
Noonan before last week’s
budget in a bid to address the
rental bubble problem and
the homelessness crisis.
However, despite negoti-
ations continuing until 24
hours before the budget was
formally revealed last Tues-
day, he was unable to con-
vince his Coalition colleague
of the merits of the plan.
While both ministers are
The Coalition ‘rent certain-
ty’ row shows no signs of cal-
ming after Fine Gael
figures said Taoiseach Enda
Kenny is not planning a
meeting with Environment
Minister Alan Kelly to
negotiate a truce and dis-
missed any cap on prices out
of hand.
Despite weekend reports
suggesting Labour’s deputy
leader may water down his
plan to link rent prices to the
consumer price index from
four years to two to win over
the coalition partner, Fine
Gael is thought to still hold
that the potential policy
should not play any part in
related cases taken to the
Employment Appeals Tribu-
nal under the Unfair Dismis-
sals Acts between June 2013
and September 2015, in
which bullying is referenced
by claimants.
The findings show while
there is an even gender bal-
ance in claims, men are more
likely to bully. It also finds
that male employees are less
likely to take a case against a
female colleague.
The study highlights the
importance for employers to
have robust procedures in
place. It also reveals that
claimants were less success-
ful in obtaining awards
where responding employers
were found to have devel-
oped policies.
Men are the most likely to
bully in the workplace, new
research shows.
On average, employers are
having to fork out €20,000 per
work-related claim, while
half of companies surveyed
(53%) do not have appropri-
ate bullying policies in place
or appropriate mediation
process to prevent such
cases escalating.
A study carried out by the
National Anti-Bullying Re-
search and Resource Centre
in Dublin City University
(DCU) found bullying in the
workplace is the cause of one
in ten dismissals.
The study looks at profiles
and outcomes of 99 work-
Daniel voted off
BBC’s ‘Strictly’
Daniel O’Donnell has been
voted off BBC’s Strictly Come
Dancing.
Daniel admitted nerves had got
to him in his most recent per-
formance. The Donegal singer
and his partner, Kristina Riha-
noff, faced sports presenter
Kirsty Gallacher and Brendan
Cole in the dance-off.
“I’ve done shows for so many
years and have been on stage,
it kind of took me by surprise,
but I suppose I was out of my
comfort zone and that’s why I
felt so nervous,” he said.
The audience for the show
peaked at 10.6m viewers and
Daniel said: “I’ve had a great
time.”
Man quizzed after
seizure of drugs
Gardaí in Dublin have seized
cocaine and cannabis with an
estimated value of €750,000.
The seizure was made on
Saturday following the planned
search of a property and
vehicles in the Irishtown area of
Dublin.
A man in his late 40s was ar-
rested at the scene and taken
for questioning to Pearse St
Garda Station. He was re-
leased without charge on
Saturday night and a file is
being prepared for the DPP.
The seizure was part of an
ongoing operation into the
illegal sale and supply of con-
trolled drugs in Dublin’s south
city, with gardaí stating that
advanced analytical and intelli-
gence methods were used.
Banking Inquiry
‘minority report’
A number of Oireachtas bank
inquiry members are con-
sidered drawing up an alter-
native version of the group’s
findings, as they fear the official
final report will be “toothless”
and fail to hold anyone respon-
sible for what happened.
While a small handful of TDs
and Senators may publish a
“minority report”, the bank in-
quiry’s report into the financial
crash is expected to be pub-
lished in early January.
Gardaí investigate
fatal car crash
Gardaí in Birr, Co Offaly, are
investigating after a man was
killed in a car crash early
yesterday morning.
The single-vehicle crash
occurred in the townland of
Clonlee near Kinnity at about
2.30am on Sunday.
The male driver of the 4x4, who
was aged in his early twenties,
was fatally injured when the
vehicle left the road. He was
the sole occupant of the
vehicle and his body was re-
moved to Tullamore Regional
Hospital where an autopsy will
take place.
The road was closed for a time
as Garda Forensic Collision
investigators examined the
scene.
Industrial action at
Shell terminal
Siptu members working as
security guards at the Shell gas
terminal in Bellanaboy in Co
Mayo will hold a 12-hour work
stoppage today over what the
union said was the unilateral
implementation of job losses
and reduced hours by the
security contractor Senaca
Group.
Security guards at the site will
conduct their work stoppage
between 6am and 6pm, with
official pickets to be placed on
the entrances to the Bellan-
aboy gas terminal.
Siptu said it had sought a
negotiated settlement and
warned that industrial action
would “intensify” if required.
Medics help with
M50 baby birth
Paramedics have helped to
deliver a baby on the side of
one of the country’s busiest
roads.
The birth took place at about
3.30am yesterday when an
ambulance that had been
called to Junction 4 south-
bound near Ballymun found
a woman in her 30s in
labour.
Dublin City Fire Brigade staff
helped with the delivery.
The Dublin Fire, Rescue and
Ambulance Service said later
that both mother and baby
were doing well.