If Inda is shafted I’d say he will go for the Park next year. He’ll probably win too.
Enda V Bertie, Kenny would get 75% of the vote bertie needs another hammering BUT I’d prefer Norris myself
Newstalk saying… Unconfirmed reports say FG’s Enda Kenny has dismissed Richard Bruton from the shadow Cabinet
What does that mean? Would it affect Brutons chances of mounting leadership challenge?
Richard Bruton has been sacked as Fine Gael Deputy Leader and Finance Spokesman.
Enda Kenny took the decision in the last hour.
The move means Mr Bruton will not be in a position to table a motion of no confidence in his party leader at tomorrow’s front bench meeting.
It may indicate that Enda Kenny plans to go over the heads of the Fine Gael front bench and put his case to the parliamentary party.
Challenge
Supporters of Richard Bruton are privately confident he can secure a majority of support at tomorrow’s meeting of the party’s front bench.
It is understood that he has requested supporters not to make public statements of support, in an effort to keep the leadership debate within the party, rather than letting it play out in the media.
A number of members of the front bench have not yet made any public statement of support of the party leader, Enda Kenny.
The only member of the front bench to publicly endorse Mr Burton is Transport Spokesman Fergus O’Dowd.
But privately a number of others have indicated they will be backing him tomorrow.
Speaking to reporters outside his home in Dublin this morning, Richard Bruton, who is Fine Gael’s Deputy Leader, said he ‘would be guided by the majority view of his party’.
Pressed on the matter he said: ‘The correct way to deal with any issue about the future of our party is to discuss it with colleagues because we all collectively have to make decisions about how best to proceed with the party, and what sort of changes we need.’
He declined to comment when he was asked if he would join party colleagues who have spoken publicly in support of Mr Kenny.
Supporters of Mr Kenny insist they have the numbers to defeat a challenge, but backers of Mr Bruton said they believe they can carry the day.
Mr Bruton received his first significant public declaration of support this morning from Mr O’Dowd.
Mr O’Dowd said his allegiance will be with Mr Bruton, should he decide to challenge the leadership of the party.
However one of the party’s senior TDs Bernard Allen called any challenge of the leadership ‘ridiculous’, ‘stupid’ and ‘politically suicidal’.
Referring to last week’s poll, he said Fine Gael should not be panicking. He said it is time to ‘hold the nerve politically’.
Mr Allen, who is the Chairman of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee, said he knows Mr Bruton will do the right thing for Ireland and the party.
Members of the Fine Gael organisation in Co Mayo have appealed to Mr Bruton not to challenge Enda Kenny’s leadership - warning that any such move would do ‘serious damage’ to the party.
Basically Kenny has got wind of what Richie is going to do, and obviously it is disloyal so he is sacking him.
That is to be expected really - won’t have any effect on his chances. Bruton would have been expecting it.
It seems the numbers may not be stacking up for Bruton the way he hoped.
Hmmm, well done to Enda on getting wind of it :lol:
I like Bruton and i hope his challenge for the leadership of Fine Gael is successful as we need a credible opposition to the Government and it is clear that Kenny is nothing more than a buffoon.
All we need is the Fine Gael equivalent of Gerry Collins coming on the news now urging Richard to pull back and see that this has the potential to split the party right down the middle.
if only george lee could have held out for another 6 months, he could be deputy leader and finance spokesman now 
Briton being interviewed on News soon - should be interesting.
missed it,but vinnie should be a good show tonight
Surprised that Bruton didn’t lineup more support before making his move. He looks fucked now if the first indications are accurate and that’s a bit of a disaster for him and for the party. I think only O’Dowd has backed Bruton so far, more will no doubt but because Kenny has made his speech about loyalty then anyone who backs him is out on their ear so unless he gets a good critical mass then he could be left with fuck all numbers.
Joan Burton will be loving this. She’ll now have the experience in terms of finance portfolio if there’s a FG/Labour coalition, she was highly likely to lose out to Bruton previously.
This makes a right joke of Cowen’s confidence motion. Could they not have remained united until that was seen through.
dear lord. :blink: will someone think of the economy. maybe sinn fein will become a viable option
That was a stupid motion anyway. Kenny is desparate to beat Gilmore to the punch ever since the John O’Donghue incident so he calls these things way too quickly. Even Labour said there was no momentum or support for it but Kenny just wanted to get in there first.
Ruined now anyway.
I don’t share this perspective. Labour are very much a centrist party, and ultimately they will follow a very similar policy blueprint to that currently guiding Fianna Fail. If the rich can endure a bit of left wing rhetoric things will stay more or less the same.
edit: I agree that Joan Burton is very annoying.
i’m confident enough they could be a part of a goverment at least as competent as ff or fg. however i don’t believe moan burton could come up with a coherent finance mandate,