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LABOUR LEADER IVANA Bacik has said that “the deal had already been done” between Fianna Fáil and the Regional Independents before she felt government formation talks had concluded.
Speaking on The Late Late Show, Bacik said that, as a party leader, she had individual meetings with Micheál Martin and Simon Harris in the early stages of negotiations, but by the second stage “it was clear that a deal had been done”.
“And indeed, the Ceann Comhairle was then elected the next day.”
Last week, Verona Murphy won the first-ever Dáil vote of confidence in a Ceann Comhairle.
Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats, Independent Ireland and People Before Profit had tabled a motion of no confidence after chaotic scenes in the Dáil.
It all began with the speaking rights row, when opposition parties protested allowing some independent TDs who supported government formation to have new speaking rights, alongside backbenchers in the coalition parties.
The row has halted committee work, and delayed the nomination of the Taoiseach.
It also resulted in unprecedented disruption in the Dáil chamber, which the Ceann Comhairle struggled to get under control.
On The Late Late Show tonight, Bacik said she wanted to “draw back the curtain” on the government formation talks, which perhaps created the first rumblings of discontent.
“We had very positive and constructive negotiations with Fine Gael, and there was a lot of commonality.
“When we went to Fianna Fáil, however, it was very clear that the deal had already been done with the Regional Independents and there wasn’t going to be any give from their side on our demands, on our policy program.
“And we know in the Labour Party how important is, if you go into government, you must be able to deliver at least a critical amount of your programme.”
Bacik said the now infmaous photo of Michael Lowry holding up two fingers to People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy in the Dáil chamber is an “enduring image”.
The audience applauded as she said Lowry gave the two fingers “to democracy”.
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This really shouldn’t happen in this day and age in a modern western country
It shouldn’t but it can if a driver disobeys a signal inadvertently or not.
Some cab signal systems will stop the train in a situation like this, but the driver may be able to override it to some degree.
There might be no cab signalling, the system might be down.
This section of line is privately owed. And has no proper advance warning system it is run by station masters making phone calls to other stations to see if the single line is clear ,a very antiquated way of running a railway in this modern era but devastating when mistakes are made ,as we all can see ,I would reserve blaming anyone till the investigation is complete,
I remember my dad telling my that in the case of a train crash, the middle and second last carriages were always the least likely to de-rail. I always choose the second last carriage. Look at the picture.
Strange this points to a big signalling failure or driver error.
The train network in Italy is superb usually, certainly safer than driving over there.
Or maybe one of the drivers had a stroke or seizure.
Good point Shawn but train’s like this would be fitted with a device called the Deadman pedal. A bell or buzzer with go off every so often and the driver with have to press pedal. If not the emergency brakes would kick in
Their banks are on for a collision Aswell..
Skydiving feels safer than driving in Italy Jimmy
Go to talk about banks somewhere else please. Thank you
Thanks Kaz.
It appears that telephone block signalling was used on this line, this is an antiquated system. See arnie reply above.
Extract from article:
Ferrotramviaria’s 81km network is electrified at 3kV dc and includes 40km of single-track line. Track-doubling is underway on the section where the collision occurred and the line is still equipped with telephone block signalling. Last December the company had announced plans to install the Italian SCMT automatic train protection system on the Ruvo – Bitonto section of the Bari – Barletta line.
Death toll is rising, sadly.
have your say