Fianna Fáil split on candidate for Presidential election
A split is developing within Fianna Fáil over whether they should run a Presidential candidate in November.
In the wake of the decision of Barry Andrews to rule himself out, the party is struggling to find a viable candidate – unless they choose former party leader Bertie Ahern.
In the wake of the departure of Mr Andrews from the reckoning, Minister of State Niall Collins bluntly told Extra.ie: 'My view is that if we do not have a viable candidate, we should not run.' A split is developing within Fianna Fáil over whether they should run a Presidential candidate in November. Pic: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie
He added: 'Without Micheál Martin, we do not have a candidate, currently, who can win it, and Micheál Martin is committed to remaining as Taoiseach.'
Mr Collins was articulating a growing view within the party. A senior party figure said: 'Are we really serious about spending €500,000 so Cynthia ní Mhurchú can become transfer fodder for Fine Gael's Mairéad McGuinness?'
Commenting on the increasingly volatile political situation, they said: 'November could be very difficult. We will have enough to be doing with a budget, Trump, Ukraine, Gaza and the economy without becoming embroiled in some Presidential fracas we can't win.' President Mary McAleese and her husband Martin. Pic:After dominating the office for the first 90 years of the State, Fianna Fáil has effectively been excised from the office since Mary McAleese ended her second term in 2011.
In 2011, Mr Martin sat out the election after RTÉ broadcaster Gay Byrne snubbed FF's attempt to secure the candidacy. The campaign of the party's proxy candidate, Seán Gallagher, then collapsed in flames in the final week before the election.
In a decision both would regret in 2018, both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael backed the return of Michael D Higgins to office. Currently, those who are believed to be at the top of the party list include MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú and retired former ministers Mary Hanafin and Éamon Ó Cuív. Cynthia Ní Mhurchú. Pc: Leah Farrell/© RollingNews.ie
One source noted: 'They would at a pinch do for a by-election but no, not a Presidential odyssey.'
Some residual support exists for the former Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, who has, for the last three years, been circumspectly flirting with the prospect of a run.
It is believed the current leader is hostile to such a move, given concerns over the role of Mr Ahern in the economic crash and the findings of the Mahon Tribunal. Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Pic: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin
Sources within Fianna Fáil remain supportive, with one TD noting: 'We should not just hand the Aras over to Fine Gael like some second-tier Coalition partner.
'Should Bertie run, there is a very good chance he would retain the party's core vote of 20%. Yes, there is the Tribunal, but all that is old history. It is worth noting that the Mahon Tribunal report is seriously discredited by the courts.'
Another TD said: 'Don't forget Bertie has huge charisma, no one else has ever had a closer relationship with the voters, and he is the clever statesman we need more than ever in a dangerous world. Is there one more run in him? We think so.
'For sure, if Micheál is not running, it is Bertie or no one.'
The decision on whether to run a candidate – and if so, who – will be taken by 71 TDs, senators and MEPs making up the parliamentary party.
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The Irish Sun
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New larger Child Benefit payments plan with extra top-up rate on €140 cash for families with three or more kids
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Irish Times
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‘We've dropped the ball': Ireland's housing targets will be missed because the water, electricity and roads required can't be delivered
When Bertie Ahern was taoiseach, he invited the chief of the Madrid metro to Merrion Street to discuss underground rail for Dublin . The late Prof Manuel Melis Maynar had built the Spanish system in record time at minimal cost. At a meeting in Government Buildings , he said the limestone beneath Dublin was ideal for tunnelling. Ahern replied: 'When can you start?' That was in 2003. Two decades later, the perennial wait for a Dublin metro goes on. The saga is but one tale of Irish infrastructure woe among many. But if the metro is something of a national joke, other stalled projects do not invite laughter. The Republic's water and electricity networks are increasingly overstretched, prompting sharp questions about the response to the worsening housing crisis. The need to accelerate housing output has never been greater but utilities are stuck in the slow lane. These are the pipes and wires that keep water and electricity flowing. 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As the Government struggles to boost construction, all of this means privileged State bodies responsible for critical services can't guarantee timely delivery. So what are the reasons for the crunch? What can be done about it? And what about the ever-rising cost of building such infrastructure? 'There has been a mood change in that there's a recognition now that because of infrastructure we can't deliver housing,' says a senior industrial figure who grapples daily with the utilities deficit. 'We have dropped the ball. We had spare capacity but now we're running on fumes.' The roots of the problem lie in the huge expansion of the State's population and economy, which was not matched by a corresponding increase in critical infrastructure. The population is estimated to have reached 5.38 million in 2024, compared with 3.79 million in 2000, a 1.59 million increase in a quarter-century. 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We found that Ireland's infrastructure is about 25 per cent lower than what you find in other high-income European countries — Niall Conroy, Irish Fiscal Advisory Council Another speaks of a mind-numbing culture of 'reviews of reviews' under crash-era measures to control public spending: 'This approval process has people review the business case and assess projects at a level of detail that has already been assessed by experts.' A third individual refers to 'significant heartache', saying measures seem designed more to make it more difficult to bring forward projects than clear the way for building. 'People become beaten down and jaded by it,' he says. 'The density of our bureaucratic process is a major factor.' Outgoing Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) chief executive Peter Walsh, whose office is in charge of the latest metro plan, says project timelines have doubled since the early 2000s. 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[ Ireland falls further behind on emissions targets making billions in fines more likely Opens in new window ] Another concern is the pressing need to cut carbon emissions to meet climate targets. The electricity shortage has already led to curbs on power-hungry data centres, which dominate demand, and emergency power generation from non-renewable sources. This is not good for environmental goals set down in law. Research by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) , the official budget watchdog, shows the challenge is stark. 'We found that Ireland's infrastructure is about 25 per cent lower than what you find in other high-income European countries,' says Niall Conroy, acting chief economist. The main areas of deficiency were in housing, healthcare, transport and electricity. Water systems were 'about average' by European standards, but Ireland needs more water services because of high demand from pharmaceutical, information technology and semiconductor industries. 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'So we are running down our reserves of drinking water during the week and we're catching up at the weekend,' says Laffey. The solution for Uisce Éireann lies in a project to bring treated Shannon water to Dublin through a 170km pipeline from the Parteen Basin in Co Tipperary. The authority will seek planning permission at the end of 2025, but Laffey is conscious of the risk of legal challenge. 'In Ireland one person anywhere on the island can take a judicial review,' he says. 'Given the vociferous opposition we have to the pipe in certain areas down in Tipperary, we probably would expect it.' [ Project to pipe water from river Shannon to Dublin could cost €10bn Opens in new window ] The body's wastewater plans have already hit a legal wall. Uisce Éireann went to An Bord Pleanála in 2018 seeking permission for a new Greater Dublin Drainage (GDD) scheme to supplement the major Dublin plant at Ringsend that is near capacity. 'We've seen four years' worth capacity used up in Ringsend in the last 18 months,' says Laffey. Permission for the GDD scheme was granted in 2019 but the High Court quashed it in 2020 after a case taken by a daily sea swimmer. The ruling found the decision 'legally flawed' because the planning board failed to seek certain EPA observations. The matter went back to An Bord Pleanála, with a new decision still awaited. 'We're still in the planning process seven years on and Ringsend is running out of capacity,' Laffey says, warning that Ringsend could reach its limits by 2028. 'Ultimately we either continue and allow the treatment plant to become overloaded to some extent. Or we just stop connections.' The whole of Dublin is dependent on this to be able to flush the toilet in five years — Developer Has Laffey told the Government of this threat to new housing? 'Yes.' How far away is the risk of a halt to housing connections? 'We are saying at the moment that the crunch will come in 2028,' he says, adding that a new GDD planning decision is expected in months but that 'interim measures' will be needed. 'If we don't go to judicial review again, we anticipate that plant will be in place in 2032,' he says. 'We should make it. It will be squeaky.' [ 'Constrained' water supply jeopardises new Dublin suburb with 6,000 planned homes Opens in new window ] Complicating matters further is that project costs have shot up. When the original GDD scheme went to tender, the price was €630 million. Now the estimate is €1.3 billion. 'That cost has increased by €700 million. No one's talking about it,' Laffey says. The LDA faces similar pressure. Coleman told an Oireachtas committee that a Judicial Review against permission for 1,000 homes at the former Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, Dublin, delayed the plans by two years. This added 'at least €30 million' to the €400 million project cost. So what is the solution to the cycle of delay, disarray and litigation? 'Ireland has created an objection manufacturing facility because the legal system allows for objectors to intervene at a very low level,' says a veteran of court battles. 'The legal threshold for objection is very low.' According to an informed source, one proposal under Government consideration is to cap the legal fees in judicial review cases on critical infrastructure. At present litigants can claim all their legal fees from the State if they successfully challenge an infrastructure project in court. The idea of imposing a cap on such costs, which has yet to be settled definitively, would limit fees to €35,000. With costs in some cases running to hundreds of thousands of euro, the aim would be to reduce the incentive for lawyers to take on judicial review actions on a 'no foal, no fee' basis. A further idea is to fast-track planning and any litigation on designated 'public interest' projects. [ The Irish Times view on infrastructure: stop making the same mistakes Opens in new window ] 'Could we have a policy for public good so that if we put in an application for a wastewater treatment plant it gets treated as a priority?' asks Laffey. 'If it ends up in the courts, it gets treated as a priority. We're not saying that people shouldn't have the right to object. Of course they should. But it should be treated in a way that is accelerated.' Another proposal is to move from the sequential submission of planning and consent papers to a system of parallel submissions made simultaneously, in effect telescoping a process that takes years to complete. More radical still would be measures to exempt the most critical utility projects from planning procedures. This would be highly controversial, certainly. But the risks posed by any failure to finally deliver the GDD project are significant. 'The whole of Dublin is dependent on this to be able to flush the toilet in five years,' says one developer who faces project delays because of constraints on water and power supplies. How grave is the electricity problem? Conroy estimates the network in the Republic is about 25 per cent below comparable European countries. 'In recent years there's been a shortage of generation capacity in the Irish power system,' he says. Niall Conroy, acting chief economist with the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council. Photograph: Damien Eagers Industry regulators brought in emergency generation to fill the gap in the short term, but the machines burned fossil fuel. 'Ideally, if we are adding additional electricity generation capacity it should be in renewables.' The pressures on the network have been all too apparent for years. In 2021 national grid manager EirGrid curbed electricity access in Dublin for data centres, buildings that house highly energy-intensive computer systems for storing internet and business data. The next year new data-centre gas connections were stopped. This remains a matter of contention with big US tech groups. While industry figures say the curbs have driven big data-centre projects away from Ireland, ministers have been advised to 'ration' connections for new centres. Such tensions were set out in clear terms a month ago when Oonagh Buckley, secretary general of the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, spoke at a public meeting about trade-offs between housing needs and the power demands of the growing artificial intelligence (AI) industry. 'We're having to even think about prioritising what is the social need of the demand – is it housing or is it AI?' she said. This reflects the view that it is already a daunting challenge to meet the electricity needs of a growing population, before any discussion on data centres. Central Statistics Office (CSO) data shows total metered consumption of electricity grew 30 per cent between 2015 and 2024, with data centres taking up the overwhelming portion of the growth. Their share of power consumption doubled to 22 per cent in 2024 from 11 per cent in 2020 and more than quadrupled from 5 per cent in 2015. The increased share of demand came despite the addition of almost 204,000 residential meters to the network between 2015 and 2024. Tens of thousands of new homes are required to settle the housing crisis. However, developers on sites with hundreds of homes in certain areas of Dublin have been told electricity connections are not possible without new power substations. Such infrastructure is critical, converting high-voltage electricity from power plants to lower-voltage supply for homes. ESB Networks says single individual homes can be connected within weeks, but new multiphase residential or industrial developments 'could require a very significant amount of new infrastructure' which is then subject to design, planning and procurement lead times. The company cites challenges securing viable sites for substations and requests for connections in areas of limited demand. Other issues include long lead times to procure kit. 'Network reinforcement projects can take a number of years to deliver,' it says. Transport timelines are also measured in years – and the more years that pass, the more costs rise. When Melis Maynar of Madrid met Ahern 22 years ago, the projected costs for the original Dublin underground varied between €3.4 billion and €4.7 billion. Such figures, large as they are, now appear trifling. With MetroLink delivery not likely until some time in the 2030s, the project was costed in a range between €7 billion and €12 billion in 2021. But that was before post-Covid inflation set in. Now there are fears that costs, in the worst-case scenario, could balloon to €23 billion or even more. [ Dublin's Metrolink project could go 40% over budget and leave many homes 'grievously impacted' Opens in new window ] But Walsh of TII says the MetroLink plan is critical for climate targets. 'If there's any hope of decarbonising mobility in Dublin, we absolutely need to build the metro.' If MetroLink happens, the cost will be many multiples of the €1.45 billion Spain spent in the 1990s building 56km of Madrid metro lines in four years. This was helped by 24-hour tunnelling and Melis Maynar's aversion to fancy architecture, and his reluctance to fork out big fees to 'consultants who consult with consultants and advisers who advise advisers'. Without any tunnelling or tracks laid, the State has already paid dearly for metro planning. Spending on MetroLink had reached €181 million by July 2024. When the first metro plan was scrapped in 2011, the State wrote off €225 million of exchequer funding for the scheme. Infrastructure is always expensive but the consequences of failure could be even more costly.
Irish Times
11 hours ago
- Irish Times
If our Geraldine can thrive in Trump's Washington, she might be a worthy winner of the race for the Áras
It's been no fun trying to whip up any sort of speculation about the forthcoming presidential election. The kites aren't flying the way they used to. It seems the vicious nature of recent campaigns is making potential candidates think twice about taking a tilt at the Áras, while the political parties, still weighing up their options, hope a shorter mobilisation might limit carnage. Nonetheless, some interesting names are floating about. A number of Fianna Fáil stalwarts have been mentioned: former taoiseach Bertie Ahern , former minister Mary Hanafin and MEP Cynthia Ni Mhurchú while Barry Andrews, her colleague in Brussels, has graciously ruled himself out. READ MORE Then there was talk of the party sounding out the former SDLP leader, Colum Eastwood , who said he wouldn't rule out running when he was sounded out by the BBC. The MP for Derry's Foyle constituency said he was mulling over his prospects because 'people have asked'. 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She received Concern Worldwide's annual Women of Concern Award for 'her outstanding career as a female leader within the diplomatic and Civil Service and her unwavering dedication to advocating for women's rights at home and abroad'. She was awarded the freedom of her native Drogheda in 2020. A Fianna Fáil source said: 'There really is a dearth of good candidates out there. Geraldine would be an inspired choice. She would be a candidate of stature and if the party rows in behind her campaign we could be on to a winner. And she'd have the Louth vote sewn up.' Here's another interesting one. The businessman and founder of the homeless charity Tiglin, Senator Aubrey McCarthy, is also a name which keeps coming up when the presidential election is discussed. Senator McCarthy, who was elected to the Upper House for the first time this year, has not ruled out a run. One Leinster House observer tells us how Kildare-based Aubrey 'has been noticed on the Ferrero Rocher embassy circuit of late'. 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The former deputy director general of the World Health Organisation – he became a household name during the Covid crisis and is an outspoken voice on the humanitarian cost of Israel's assault on Gaza – is being courted by a number of parties, including Labour , as a consensus Left candidate. If he makes it to Glenties, his speech may reveal all. Fox news The sad news of a fox perishing in the fountain outside Government Buildings in Dublin on Tuesday was one of the most-talked-about topics of the week. Not least because many of us feared it was Mildred, a fox regularly sighted strolling around Leinster Lawn haughtily ignoring the political and media wildlife trying to take her photo. Not to be confused with the other Mildred Fox, who was an Independent TD for Wicklow from 1995 to 2007. A number of people have been in touch since we reported the sad death, wondering how a creature as strong and agile as a fox could drown in relatively shallow water. Former Green Party minister Roderic O'Gorman has the answer. It was a fox cub, probably still getting used to going out exploring on its own. O'Gorman's office in the Engineering Block looks into an area at the back of Government Buildings, near the service and maintenance areas for Leinster House. There is an open basement area under the block where a family of foxes resides in a hidey hole under the pipes. 'I saw them originally about three weeks ago just peeping out of the den – still very small. But they are growing up fast.' he told us on Friday. 'When I see them now, it's just them on their own, so they are obviously big enough for their parents to let them out.' O'Gorman shot a video of them running around the place last week. 'I saw four of them playing then, but when I was looking down on them this morning [Thursday] there was only three.' The Merrion Street/Kildare Street campus is their playground. 'They can go through to the courtyard through the arches. One of them must have gone in there, which is awful.' Three government ministers held press conferences in the courtyard on Tuesday morning – Paschal Donohoe, James Browne and Jim O'Callaghan. There were large media contingents at the briefings. Strangely, nobody noticed the dead fox in the fountain. It was switched off the following day and thoroughly cleaned. 'It's great to see such amazing wildlife right here in Leinster House in the very heart of Dublin, but it's awful sad to see us losing one of the family,' said O'Gorman, the only Green TD in the Dáil. Just don't tell Danny Healy-Rae or Michael Collins where the rest of them are. Mildred, we are assured, is still around. Welcome to the wildly inaccurate Rose county Don't cry for me, Ballymena... Maria Walsh , a former Rose of Tramore, told the EU Parliament in the Brussels town of Strasbourg this week that Ireland and Europe must stand with victims of hate-fuelled crimes and 'show that diversity is a strength, not a threat'. The Fine Gael MEP for Midlands-Northwest referred to recent public order disturbances in the North during the 'One-minute speeches for matters of political importance' slot on Monday. With just 60 seconds to get her point across, Walsh, reading carefully from her one-page script, didn't notice a glaring error in her opening line. A microphone malfunction at the start wouldn't have helped either. 'Recent riots on the island of Ireland, which began in the town of Ballymena in Co Leitrim have morphed from concern about a tragic sexual assault allegation into xenophobic violence against migrant families,' she began. 'As Amnesty Northern Ireland director Patrick Corrigan said, we are just one petrol bomb away from racially motivated murder.' Luckily, Sinn Féin's eagle-eyed observers spotted her geographical gaffe and, in the spirit of comradely co-operation, a member of the comms team took to social media to point it out. 'Could someone please provide Fine Gael with a map of Ireland?' Luke O'Riordan asked, attaching a video clip of the moment. As it happened, the error was spotted a couple of days before this generous intervention. The clip Walsh posted to her own account had already been seamlessly edited with no reference to Leitrim, the Wild Rose County. AK-47 is reloaded and the safety catch is off Former Labour leader Alan Kelly is enjoying something of a renaissance these days, what with chairing the Oireachtas Media Committee and a nicely blossoming Dáil double-act with Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan . Kelly has suddenly become the man with the inside track on issues of concern in the world of law enforcement. He says he has told the minister more about what is going on than his Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris . He was talking about the overdue remedial work on Garda stations, particularly those affected by asbestos. Why has the Commissioner not given the minister details of people at risk and situations where the State may be exposed to claims? 'Does this not create a huge risk that you really need to put close to the top of your pile as regards the issues the Commissioner hasn't told you about? Maybe you need to have a truth and reconciliation meeting with the Commissioner. Perhaps you need to sit down and say, 'Hey Commissioner! Do you know what, you're out the gap there on the first of September. Is there anything else in the long list of issues that you haven't told me about?'' The following day, Kelly told the Dáil that he was the first person to inform the Minister that undercover gardaí supplied guns to Evan Fitzgerald, the young man who took his own life at a Carlow shopping centre on June 1st. He said he rang O'Callaghan on June 3rd to let him know of the involvement of undercover gardaí. 'Is it correct that I had to tell him to go to the Garda Commissioner and ask him about the full details in relation to this case?' He has already revealed information about garda holsters, importation issues with guns, drugs in HQ, thousands of missing fingerprints. 'I can guarantee you many of the other issues still have not been brought your attention,' he said, ominously. 'So I would encourage you to have that truth and reconciliation meeting very soon. Otherwise, I'm going to be coming in here on many many more issues that you're not bloody well aware of.' Justice Questions might be worth watching in the future.
