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LEAH FARRELL

Taoiseach says general election 'not a prospect in the next couple of days or weeks'

Leo Varadkar said he has no plans call into Aras an Uachtarain in the next couple of days.

LAST UPDATE | 26 May 2019

TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said he is not ruling out a general election, but said it is “not a prospect in the next couple of days or weeks”.

“I can’t rule it out,” he told RTÉ’s Six One News, adding that if it was about maximising the prospect for Fine Gael “we would have gone to the country a year ago in the aftermath of the referendum when were on 35 per cent in the polls”.

Varadkar added: “I don’t intend to be calling into Aras an Uachtarain in the next couple of days… I can’t rule it out. First of all it is not necessarily my decision. Others could pull the plug on the government.”

After the interview, the Taoiseach told reporters at the RDS that the results today don’t change the fact that his decision on a general election will be based on what’s best for the country, rather than what is best for his own party.

His comments follow on from he previous comments today where he said the prospect of a general election “has to be considered in the next couple of weeks”. 

When asked by RTÉ Radios 1′s This Week programme, whether he would rather hold a number of Dáil by-elections this November or go to the country, Varadkar said it was “a judgment to be made at a later date”.

“The instability across the water in relation to Brexit, we have to bear that in mind as well and also whether we can get the votes to get the budget through.

“That’s something that has to be considered in the next couple of weeks but obviously, those by-elections have to be held by the end of November.”

Táiniste Simon Coveney too did not rule out a general election in the coming months. 

Speaking to RTÉ this morning, Coveney said: “I don’t think people are thinking general election today. I think at the moment let’s wait and see how these local and European elections work out in the next few days.”

“We’re going to have a very challenging summer and early autumn in the context of Brexit as well and in many ways those Brexit challenges may well shape the Budget in October. So those are big things for the government to manage in the coming months,” he said. 

However, he said that the prospect of a general election was down to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and whether the confidence and supply arrangement that’s been in place since the 2016 general election continued. In December, Martin committed to maintaining the agreement until 2020 due to the uncertainty caused by Brexit. 

Green wave 

The results of the local and European elections, he said, had been somewhat disappointing but he promised a shift in the government’s approach to climate change and the environment. “I think you will see in the next few weeks… a very significant climate policy coming from the government,” he said. 

“A number of weeks ago, certainly a number of months ago, we would have been hoping to have made bigger gains than we have made. But I don’t think anyone anticipated just the scale of the increase in the vote for the Green Party, particularly in Dublin.”

Climate issues proved a dominant issue in the election campaign, with Fine Gael European election candidates forced to defend claims that there was a tension between the government’s policies on climate and farming. 

“I think we can reduce our carbon footprint while also producing food more sustainably and every dairy farmer in the country has signed up to a sustainability programme on a voluntary basis”, he said. 

“We don’t need to wipe out farming to be pro the green agenda.”

Varadkar told RTÉ that he doesn’t see the green wave in the local election results as a protest vote, but rather “a message from the public to us in government that they want us to do more, more quickly”.

“I see it as a signal of a very big change in opinion on environmental issues and climate issues,” Varadkar said. 

We all understand that you can’t really do what needs to be done in terms of climate action without a carbon tax. But also a carbon tax on its own what do what needs to be done, so it can only be part of a picture.

Labour leader, Brendan Howlin, speaking to RTÉ this morning, admitted that his party had been “eclipsed by the green wave” in the local and European elections. 

Howlin said that the elections are for people to give a signal, and that the signal this time is “take the climate change agenda seriously, enough of the talk about action, we need to see action – and I think all the political parties will take that call and will act.”

With reporting from Adam Daly and Christina Finn

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    Mute The Risen
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    May 26th 2019, 1:36 PM

    It will be like the FG housing policy. Initiatives announced left right and center, with nothing enacted that doesn’t make their friends a shedload of cash from our taxes.

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    Mute David Corrigan
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    May 26th 2019, 1:39 PM

    @The Risen: The are a reactive lot. Not a proactive excuse for a human among them.

    259
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    Mute Frank Cauldhame
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    May 26th 2019, 1:42 PM

    I wonder will he appear on Morning Ireland to make these “promises” like he did when he was Minister for Housing and the promises turned out to be spoofs????

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    Mute Milk The Drones
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    May 26th 2019, 1:59 PM

    Roughly translated – we’re in for a sheet load of taxes.

    98
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    Mute Peter Hughes
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    May 26th 2019, 3:14 PM

    @Milk The Drones: we are and it will all end up in the pockets of the public sector…folks need to wake up before we get wiped out again because of this…to be honest its probably too late already.

    47
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    Mute Lar Meyler
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    May 26th 2019, 1:37 PM

    This will cost Joe Soap an arm and a leg. Greens will get blamed and demolished in next election…

    313
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    Mute Toomasu Sumitsu
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    May 26th 2019, 1:46 PM

    @Lar Meyler: So you mean their policies will actually be unpopular in practice when people actually see them implemented?

    60
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    Mute tommytukamomo
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    May 26th 2019, 2:00 PM

    @Toomasu Sumitsu: In a word… Yes.
    These idiots would make a balls out of boiling a kettle.

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    Mute Ashling Fenton
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    May 26th 2019, 2:39 PM

    @Toomasu Sumitsu: I think lar mean the cost overrun of FG implementing promises (like children’s hospital) will be blamed on someone else

    30
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    Mute Cathal
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    May 26th 2019, 3:45 PM

    @tommytukamomo: Must be cold tea, no kettles

    11
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    Mute Peter
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    May 26th 2019, 1:43 PM

    So taxes on the way.
    Old, new and increases.

    Fab.

    211
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    Mute tommytukamomo
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    May 26th 2019, 2:05 PM

    @Peter: blame the lazy armchair warriors that wouldn’t get off their fat lazy arses to vote.
    I really hope they enjoy being taxed out of their cars and not being able to heat their houses while the tree hugging excrement recyclers gloat (until ffg destroy them again)

    160
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    Mute Devilsavocado
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    May 26th 2019, 1:45 PM

    Just what FG wanted, the Greens setting themselves up to be a patsy for a tax increase,, will they ever learn…..

    214
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    Mute Peter Hughes
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    May 26th 2019, 3:15 PM

    @Devilsavocado: exactly….the greens will be blamed for implanting a FFG tax grab its comical stuff

    87
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    Mute Ron
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    May 26th 2019, 1:55 PM

    Bring on bottle refund scheme.

    Stop plastic at source.

    Tax fuel per kilometre.

    Rebates/payment for domestically supplying to the grid.

    Oh wait that would in still real change. Scratch that. Tax the productive classes to the point of revolution.

    146
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    Mute Liberal_Ireland
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    May 26th 2019, 1:37 PM

    Get ready to bend over and present your posterior, Mr. Tax payer.

    227
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    Mute Pl O'neill
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    May 26th 2019, 1:59 PM

    Tax , Tax , Tax , Tax , Tax .

    126
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    Mute Martin Brennan
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    May 26th 2019, 2:00 PM

    @Pl O’neill: The poor poor poor and the less well off And grants grants grants grants and grants for farmers and rich people

    84
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    Mute kevinhunt101
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    May 26th 2019, 1:44 PM

    Can’t wait to get ridden with tax, I’ll provide the lube sure at least

    106
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    Mute winston smith
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    May 26th 2019, 2:11 PM

    @kevinhunt101: water based lube I trust, anything oil based will see significant tax increases in the coming days

    73
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    Mute kevinhunt101
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    May 26th 2019, 5:38 PM

    @winston smith: oh yes definitely hahah. Mind you that might attract water charges??

    26
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    Mute Zippy
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    May 26th 2019, 7:00 PM

    @kevinhunt101: No lube just a hand full of saw dust this is going to hurt

    12
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    Mute kevinhunt101
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    May 26th 2019, 7:34 PM

    @Zippy: OUCH

    4
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    Mute Ciaran O 'Reilly
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    May 26th 2019, 1:44 PM

    How about building a few house’s ?

    97
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    Mute Seamus Gallen
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    May 26th 2019, 5:37 PM

    @Ciaran O ‘Reilly: houses

    17
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    Mute John Horan
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    May 26th 2019, 1:41 PM

    This is what I hate about democracy…reactionary policies to public outcries. The public is not always right, just look at the financial crisis which came about because politicians were not strong enough to stand up to our demands and make a stance to slow down the boom when the public thought they were getting rich. Politicians should be leading the way not just reacting. However I totally understand that doesn’t get you elected. Hence my dislike of democracy…..the least worst system

    93
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    Mute Niall
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    May 26th 2019, 2:04 PM

    How will it be paid? More taxes on the people who always pay anyway?!

    80
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    Mute P Quinn
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    May 26th 2019, 2:20 PM

    All promises now after the horse has bolted. The FG solution will be taxation for the people rather than the big polluters. No faith in FG and never will.

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    Mute Sean Brennan
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    May 26th 2019, 2:13 PM

    They could start immediately by banning the corri-board and single use plastic poster the body politic are so fondly maligned to in promoting themselves, or put a tax such material to discourage its use. Lead by example.

    68
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    Mute Shelly Levine
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    May 26th 2019, 2:01 PM

    Oh really? Fine Gael MEPs voted against a call for the EU to present a 100% renewable energy strategy. Fine Gael MEPs voted against including climate justice as a fundamental value of the EU. Fine Gael MEPs voted against calling on the EU to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.

    56
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    Mute David Grey
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    May 26th 2019, 2:48 PM

    Carbon taxes on the poor while the largest contributors to global warming get off the hook again!
    1 cruise liner has the same emissions as 1 million cars!
    The Greens are merely populist, they need to be radical and instead of punish those in rural areas with no public transport hit big business with a carrot & stick approach.

    62
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    Mute Sega Yolo
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    May 26th 2019, 3:17 PM

    @David Grey: averaging 140,000,000 bhp. … Really???
    C’mon, what’s the real figure?

    4
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    Mute Ananya Sharma
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    May 26th 2019, 5:48 PM

    @Sega Yolo: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/cruise-ships-polluters-ocean-sewage-particulates/
    Will the Green party ban cruise ships from entering Irish waters?

    24
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    Mute Darren Mulligan
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    May 26th 2019, 5:54 PM

    @Sega Yolo: Maybe Google and you will find he seems to be correct with his statement

    9
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    Mute Donal Desmond
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    May 26th 2019, 2:44 PM

    Simon,s significant changes will be akin to this promises concerning housing crisis and homelessness. To all the people who voted for these paracites you have endorsed the blueshirt and F.F. policy concerning a crumbling health service,homelessness, housing crisis, scandal after scandal. Remember after the crash … people screamed from rooftops never again.. well you just re-elected the same paracites.

    50
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    Mute Martin Brennan
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    May 26th 2019, 5:01 PM

    Typical he’s just a chancer can’t miss a photo opportunity. It’s not about the welfare of the country it’s about him and his ego

    44
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    Mute Pl O'neill
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    May 26th 2019, 5:03 PM

    @Martin Brennan: Show Pony Phoney !

    21
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    Mute Pl O'neill
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    May 26th 2019, 5:02 PM

    Marie Bailey might Just “ Swing “ it for Leo !

    30
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    Mute AJ Con
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    May 26th 2019, 2:06 PM

    Any change of a few sustainable farming grants rather than crucifying the farmers ye encouraged in expand in Dairy, beef etc..

    Don’t forget it’s the FG government who oversaw a Certificate in Agriculture (green cert) where the new farmer is expected to expand or substantially improve their farm with a cash flow injection as part of the final Project, a clear message to the new farmer that expanding was essential.
    Only around one in five voters voted FG first in the county council elections, they are the minority in the room, but with the power, if you don’t think they are doing a good job, don’t forget giving them the 3′s and 4′s also gets them elected with transfers. There is no obligation to give all candidates a number, just who you see as worthy.

    32
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    Mute Benny
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    May 26th 2019, 1:46 PM

    declare a climate emergency and the public vote for the Green Party, seems like the voters are the only ones responding to the call for action

    26
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    Mute Cathal
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    May 26th 2019, 3:49 PM

    @Benny: Protest vote, they couldn’t vote left so voted for the silverspooned BMW driving eco warriors

    44
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    Mute Adrian
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    May 26th 2019, 2:03 PM

    FG. Politicians with no principles, no values. They’re like that reptile that changes the color of its skin to blend in with its surroundings to survive.

    54
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    Mute Martin Brennan
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    May 26th 2019, 5:09 PM

    @Adrian: arrogant and too posh to push Even swings

    29
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    Mute Tony Murphy
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    May 26th 2019, 3:31 PM

    Get your money out ladies and gents. This is going to hit us all in the pocket.

    34
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    Mute William Tallon
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    May 26th 2019, 2:49 PM

    ‘Wrap the Green flag round me boys…’

    19
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    Mute Martin Brennan
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    May 26th 2019, 1:59 PM

    The bloody arrogance of him

    45
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    Mute Paul A Whelan
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    May 26th 2019, 2:44 PM

    Ha ha! Too late Simon. FG have no interest in the environment or related issues. You have shown that time and again. FGs philosophy is to encourage industry and the rest will take care of it self. Your housing policy is rubbish, you take medical cards from the disabled and now you want to jump on the Green train to stay in power. Too late in my books.

    42
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    Mute Shane McGettrick
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    May 26th 2019, 1:40 PM

    Shite! Quick, onto the bandwagon tout suite!

    50
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    Mute Charles Coughlan
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    May 26th 2019, 2:19 PM

    Bit late Simon, still you could introduce a country wide smokey coal ban.

    16
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    Mute Shane O Malley
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    May 26th 2019, 6:08 PM

    such a move requires ball s , that rules leo out running to country

    13
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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    May 26th 2019, 5:23 PM

    It would be fookin hilarious if they called it on their own terms while still being propped up by FF

    12
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    Mute Adrian
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    May 26th 2019, 7:08 PM

    I can see FF and FG holding secret talks in leinster house about elections, colluding to secure another term in gov for them both before their combined support drops too far to enable them to maintain the status quo. Then when its called, it’ll be out the doors to drum up the fake rivalry between themselves to hover up all the votes.

    9
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    Mute Cathal
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    May 26th 2019, 8:13 PM

    @Adrian: FF will be swinging the shoulders looking to be top dog again, Micky Martin will be gone unless he pulls the rug soon. Varadker knows he’ll lose anyway whether now or when Noonan scandal hits.

    9
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    Mute Adolf Galland
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    May 26th 2019, 1:56 PM

    1. Ban all single occupancy vehicles inside the M50
    2. Introduce congestion charging inside the M50
    3. Stop people buying useless crap they don’t need on the Internet.

    12
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    Mute sean
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    May 26th 2019, 5:58 PM

    @Adolf Galland: So I already pay €34k direct at source every year. On top of that I pay VAT on everything, house tax, car tax, bin tax, tax on my pension. I have to be in work at 6.30am and my job means I need to drive quite a bit. Now you want me to pay a carbon tax, a single occupancy tax and a congestion charge. Squeezed middle cant take anymore, at this rate, Id be better off giving up work and going on the dole.

    34
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    Mute kevinhunt101
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    May 26th 2019, 7:38 PM

    @sean: it’s just the people who have no kids and cycle 2km to and from work don’t see the log distances people have to go to and from work. It’s all black and white to them. Many people might have a few kids going to different crèches and schools and a different work place, that’s real life. Just pack the 6month old baby onto a bike sure with all their stuff for the day be grand they’ll say

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    Mute sean
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    May 26th 2019, 7:41 PM

    @kevinhunt101: here here

    4
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    Mute Cathal
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    May 26th 2019, 8:09 PM

    @Adolf Galland: Need and want are different things, trying to enforce your misguided notions on others usually results in a fairly sharp reaction, we are probably 10 -15 years from a MadMax/Purge type society without silly notions from naive eco warriors with M badges on their X5s

    2
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    Mute Gerard Heery
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    May 26th 2019, 11:09 PM

    @Adolf Galland: you show see the six lanes of traffic on both sides of the road ie twelve lanes going almost 24/7 in the Emirates and California we are nothing towards these places on the planet

    1
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    Mute Ian O'Rourke
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    May 26th 2019, 9:31 PM

    There will be no election cause he knows he will either be flung out or will have to create a coalition with the independence alliance or SF

    4
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    Mute TamuMassif2019
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    May 26th 2019, 11:22 PM

    After this election FF might say to themselves, hay we might be able now to take FG on??? And then you have your July election ;)

    4
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    Mute Martin Brennan
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    May 26th 2019, 11:19 PM

    Poor old Leo his ego has taken a drubbing Mr Knowall is even blaming the swing gate incident nothing to do with over spending tax payers money

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    Mute TamuMassif2019
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    May 26th 2019, 11:23 PM

    @Martin Brennan: Today he was trying to impress the horsey set in my view, poor people what are they lol.

    1
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    Mute Frank Discussion
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    May 26th 2019, 7:46 PM

    It’s not the time for an election with the UK situation going on. We would be as bad as them if we had one.

    2
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    Mute Cathal
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    May 26th 2019, 8:15 PM

    @Frank Discussion: Brexit could go on for years, should we just stumble from one kakfest to another while we wait on the Eton mess

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    Mute Donal Desmond
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    May 28th 2019, 2:27 AM

    Can understand Leo’s reluctance to call an election. He will have to face his deputy leader Michael. We will still wind up with the party that facilitated the gangsterism of the banks and the F.G.party that endorsed their gangsterism. Of course the people with short memories re elected these paracites. A, well a nation of fools is an understatement.

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