General Election 2011

What time is Vincent Browne Show on

FG have now stated that they will support the Finance Bill if it’s fast-tracked through the Dáil by next Friday.

That should be exactly what the Greens are looking for, but they’ll need to manage it carefully to ensure they get credit for pushing for it too, not just the opposition parties.

Yet another government exclusive from TFK though if the Greens push this (and they will).

Hannafin has just announced her intention to run for the FF leadership. Nominated by Pat Carey (her boyfriend) and MĂĄire Hoctor. She has (bizarrely enough) asked that nobody should publicly declare their intention to vote for her.

On and Conor Lenihan has announced he’s considering whether to run or not.

Fucking hell. Is there a more inept politician out there?

Keep the exclusives coming please rocko.

Brian Lenihan announcing his candidacy on RTÉ Radio now.

So that’s Martin, Hannafin, B Lenihan and Ó Cuív. The timing of this does the likes of Lenihan no favours. He has to play the Cumann FF card now which is blatantly not serving the national interest and all of a sudden his supposed ethics and vision for the country go out the window.

Lenihan now stating that it won’t be possible to enact the Finance bill in one week. Hopefully the Greens pull the plug in a few minutes and he won’t have to worry about it one way or the other.

Rocko has just told me government is over. Press confeence at 3.30. Greens pulling

Rocko has just told me government is over. Press confeence at 3.30. Greens pulling

Thanks for posting that Larry, couldn’t get to the web at the time but wanted tfk to have the exclusive.

Was listening to Hannafin on the radio earlier. I was just thinking to myself there couldn’t possibly be a worse candidate and then O’Cuiv came on. Fuck me if thats their options they should just vote to disband the party.

Seems to be a fair bit of public support for Martin, I can’t understand why people have suddenly decided he’s a great man. He’s been hanging around the cabinet for ages without ever really doing anything.

Of those four I think Lenihan is the best man for the job, but I think the party needs to make a complete break from the two Brians.

Martin it is then. FFS.

Would the election be moved forward then?

RTE still speculating what Greens will decide. Peavoy should fill them in.

From 11th March? Yep.

Some fucking hero bitch from RTE asking questions at the Greens announcement as Gaeilge and the only guy in the Greens that can speak it is Sargent.

Greens pulling out of Government. But still supporting it in opposition. So that’s clear then.

[quote=“Fagan O, post: 537499”]
Only supporting the Finance Bill. Not supporting the government.

Cowen now being shown on RTE in an interview at the side of the stand in Portlaoise. Suprised that noone is shouting at him as they pass by

So they hold a presser to announce there’s no change in their position then…

If they had any backbone left they’d have put a definite timescale on the fin bill. The way they left it allows FF to procrastinate and stretch out as much life as possible in this dail. Labour & FG should still be pushing ahead with their motions on Tuesday unless they get assurances on the passage of the bill by the end of the week.

They’ve left government. They don’t have that clout anymore. Their stance wasn’t “have the Bill by next week or we’re out of there” it was “we’re no longer supporting you but, like the opposition parties, we are happy to vote on the Finance Bill if it takes place in a reasonable period of time.”

They’re in the same situation as Labour and FG now except they will vote for the Bill from the opposition benches whereas the other parties may oppose the Bill from the same place. The important point is the timing alright but the Greens aren’t holding a gun to anyone’s head over anything. They’re simply not supporting the government anymore.

If FF hold out and delay the Bill then the next motion of no confidence in the government will see the end of the Dáil as the Greens won’t support the government any longer. What they will do is support the Finance Bill and work with the other opposition parties in bringing forward that Bill and trying to have that vote as the sole priority of the current Dáil. That’s effectively what Labour promised when they suggested they would support moving the Bill forward also. In other words, scrap the other vote and just have that vote.

If the rest of the opposition do decide they’d rather have an irrelevant vote of no confidence in the government instead of going ahead with the other issues then they’re just playing the type of petty party politics that everyone is so upset with FF about. But it seems clear that all the finance representatives will be meeting tomorrow to agree on how to proceed. Interestingly, this isn’t very far removed from the National Unity proposal that the Greens had a couple of months back but everyone seems keener on it now than they were then.

I’d say KIB man wants Mary Hanafin to get the FF leadership so that he’ll see more or her.

The sick fuck.