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THE LABOUR PARTY spokesperson on Transport, Tourism and Sport Senator James Heffernan has resigned the party whip today.
A Labour Party spokesperson confirmed to TheJournal.ie that Heffernan has resigned the whip and that more details about his decision will be released shortly.
Heffernan’s announcement follows expectation that he planned to vote against the Government on child benefit and respite care grants proposed in the Budget.
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At least he has stood by labours election promises unlike others.
Labour aren’t in government on their own in case you didn’t realise.
If Labour pull out then the goverment falls.
That makes it 50/50.
Labour need to grow a pair!
@ Brian O’Se
Labour might as well not be in government for all the good they are doing implementing their policies.
@Brian
So thats the excuse…Labour aren’t in government on their own…totally pathetic …I thought a man of your seeming intellect could come up with something better than that…why go into government in the first place if they thought the wern’t going to have any of their policies implemented?
And then unemployment will magically decrease…you’re some fool
Some of their promises they have kept. Obviously you’re not too in tune to what is happening. Now go back asleep.
@brian
name them, name the promises that they have kept.
lats start with the big three election promises
jobs…hahaha
reform…dont make me laugh
fairness…biggest disparity of wealth in europe
Private sector returned to net jobs growth this year, minimum wage cut was reversed, basic social welfare rates were maintained. I can go on if you’d like. I’ve already destroyed your argument that they’ve reneged on every single promise.
croke park your having a laugh
bondholders
emigration
childrens allowence cuts
prsi cuts
taking the household charge from the estate of a dead man
gilmore has shifted the labour party to the right of fine gael even
go on please seeing as though your arguement is going so well
this is quite interesting
As for the most recent trends in the unemployment rate, the revised seasonally adjusted figures now put the cycle peak at 15% in Q1 of this year. But since then, the jobless rate has edged lower, falling by 0.1% points in each of the second and third quarters to stand at 14.8% on the latest estimates. As noted above, overall employment is continuing to fall so the decline in the jobless rate is due to the ongoing declines in the labour force rather than any outright improvement in employment. In turn, the major reason for the fall in the workforce is the decline in the working population aged 20-34 – likely due to the ongoing influence of net outward migration.
On emigration, you must have failed to read the well researched survey in the Irish Times a few months back on Irish people living abroad and their reasons for doing so- the vast vast majority did not cite the recession here as the reason.
Then again reading mustn’t be a forte of yours judging by your litany of spelling errors. Maybe go and attack your old English teacher instead of the Labour Party!
Yes, respect to him
By the way do you see where your private sector returned to net jobs growth this year comes from
sending the fittest, youngest, and brightest out of the country and leaving the rest of saddled with a debts of gamblers that our children will be paying off
I posted this earlier and its quite apt
when your short of good arguement resorting to snide comments doesnt make up for it
it only shows your lack of intelligence and self obsession
The problem as we both know is that the teachers are all in the labour party now getting the double pension to boot!
It wasn’t a snide remark, just a mere fact. Labour didn’t sign up to the bailout. The present government are in a straight jacket and the sooner you realise that Monopoly money doesn’t do it in the real world the better for all of us. P.s would you stop copying and pasting Internet articles in a vain attempt to make your points seem valid.
6 people who this government elected to the seanad voted against the budget including Martin McAleese a man whos morals and principles id take over any politician in the dail
This is your remark
Then again reading mustn’t be a forte of yours judging by your litany of spelling errors. Maybe go and attack your old English teacher instead of the Labour Party!
why do you have to lie?
What is your point? That I lied about your spelling errors??
Fair play to Martin, but again what’s your point? We all know its not a good budget but we have to get on with it.
My point you ignorant muppet, is that you lied about making a snide remark,
You lied about the fact that Labour were responsible for as you put it, the private sector returning to net jobs growth, when in FACT it was due to emigration and nothing to do with the Labour Party.
When you have an arguement without having to resort to insults and comprises of genuine fact come back and see me little man.
hahaha ive just noticed your a political commentator for the Irish voice newspaper you have got to be joking!!!!
they must be well stuck if they let an imbecile like you comment on anything
Another one bites the dust.
at the moment I think its around 40% of the government that are opposed to the manner in which it carries out its roles as shown in the vote of no confidence recently held,I personally find it shocking within a government that all the time is spent arguing rather than finding a mutual agreement
The stickies have become unstuck !!
Labor (along with Fine Gael) are going to be wiped out in the next election. If the next government listens to the interests of the voters, it will benefit.
Agreed, but who benefits. So FF get back in and a few months later, we all join hands and declare FF to be wiped out at next general election at which point we vote in a FG/ Lb coalition and so on etc etc.
real alternatives are needed.
fg have a bad track record in government the only reason they were voted in was in a back lash again ff but people will take ff back in the next election along with sf and a larger than usual independents
It’s looking like the people want real alternatives. The next government could be SF and independents.
Yup….bit like Lanagan’s ball….they stepped and they out again…whole charade goes around in circles as an elite group of gangsters continue to pilage this country. Real change is needed indeed…
Another well deserved blow to the Labour Party …….. Looks like the ship is sinking !
The rate these guys are falling we wont get a chance to vote out labour next election.
Well done John Heffernan. At least stood by your comments during the week. Unlike his John Whelan whom it seems shouts loudly by does sweet FA when it comes to the crunch and votes with government
John Whelan, nice guy but very much in the mold of FF party man. If he wasn’t from Laois/Offaly where the Cowen Klan have the FF party under its total control, he would ideally ran for them and not Labour.
Serious question. What exactly does “Resigned the whip” mean? Is he out of the party, still in, but able to do his own thing?
What the implications for him?
I’d imagine he is no longer on Eamon’s Christmas card list.
Still in the party but able to do his own thing.
Still a party member but is not working with the party as such. He’ll sit in the opposition side. Until the sticky parasites are expelled from the Labour body politic.
It means he is no longer a member of the Parliamentary Group of Labour TDs, Senators and MEPs. He cannot attend meetings of that group, nor seek speaking time in the Dail as a member of the government nor have access to the party’s research and media resources. He remains a member of the Labour Party and can attend and speak at its meetings, however.
It means they cant spank him anymore.
That’s another few bob saved on Christmas card stamps Eamon. What? Eamon doesn’t have to pay for stamps.
After James Heffernan goes, the Labour Party should take a good look at itself and see what direction it is heading in and who in society does it think it represents?
Why have all the good people to leave the Labour Party on points of principle and those that told lies to the electorate are still left in that Party, trying to justify as to why they did lie?
Labour doesn’t represent the the ordinary people any more, because in this Budget it is forcing them to bear the brunt of the austerity package and Ministers Gilmore, Rabbitte, Burton and Howlin especially, wouldn’t know what a Socialist was if it jumped up and bit them……….Where are the policys of James Connolly and James Larkin in the Labour Party? They are conveniently forgotten so that the Labour Ministers in Government can suck us all dry while they look forward to massive obscene Pensions and Salaries. Shame on you!
Shame on those Ministers especially for what they are doing to the Irish people and if the current grassroots in Labour do not decide to rid themselves of those people, there will be no Labour party left, but that won’t worry Ministers Gilmore, Rabbitte, Howlin, or Burton as they will be happily sailing off into the sunset, at the next election, as they will have assured themselves of big paydays and they will leave behind a Labour Party that will be lucky to have 10 TD’s elected in the next election!
Well done again to James Heffernan and Colm Keaveney, as you both can can carry your heads high as you couldn’t stand over lies that were told to the electorate, which is more than can be said for all the other members of the Labour Party that are in Government .
That tells us the kind of people that they are and the electorate will not forget them!
The policies of Connolly and co are redundant when you’re in an IMF bailout…did you honestly think labour could keep those promises in a coalition government dominates by Fine Gael? It appears that Auction politics is still worthwhile with people like you around!!
Brian, who rattled your cage?
It’s not nice to be faced with the truth is it and ironicely enough it’s the lies that Labour told that has got them into this prediciment?
For your information, promising to look after the less well, the elderly etc., in Society is not auction politics, but rather it is stating some of the principles of Connolly and Larkin, but to renage on them is to turn against all the principles of decency and of the Labour Pary!
No one, not you or any member of the Labour Party in Government can convince me that what was done in the Budget is right and any decent bhuman being would detest anyone who tells lies for their own gain, regardless of who they are!
Labour knew that they would be in Coalition with Fine Gael, but that did not give them the right to lie!
Have a happy Christmas!
When did I ever attempt to convince you that the budget was, in your words, right? The age old maxim of canvas in poetry govern in prose has obviously never entered into your utopian mindset…when you promise not to raise income tax as well as cutting basic social welfare rates, it’s inevitable that other areas should be targeted. I don’t agree with the budget myself but I’m not deluded or so naive to think that when I voted for who I did that they could match in every detail, their election manifesto. For The only manifesto we’re adhering to is that of the IMF and co.
It amazes me that Gilmore and Rabbitte are so intoxicated by power, they can’t see they are going to lead the Labour Party towards a Green Party style meltdown in the next election.
It’s time for the Labour young bloods to manufacture a heave against Gilmore. If they don’t then the party is going the same way as the Greens and their own seats will be in trouble. Even if a heVe fails it will set down a marker to all the old men that their time is nearly up- no bad thing in my opinion.
It’s hard to believe that it has only been 20 months since the ‘Gilmore for Taoiseach’ posters on the streets. At one stage Gilmore was their biggest asset, in power he has quickly turned into the parties biggest liability.
Well done James. Credibility is arguably the most important characteristic in a politician. Along with the ever expanding list of members who are not now in the party, you have shown that the lies that were told pre-election are unacceptable.
Dont be kidding yourself – this is all about self-preservation.
At the rate this government is going Fianna Fail will be back in at the next election !
#bonkers
If FF get back in then people in this country deserve all the bad luck they get. I have no doubt that within 2 years of FF back in power that unemployment would be rocketing towards 600k and they would be squirreling state money in offshore bank accounts before the whole thing collapsed.
They know the country is banjaxed and that it would be their last chance to rob it.
==== I JUST WISH STEPHEN DONNELLY WAS RUNNING THE SHOW ====
Can’t see FF aka Frankfurts Fools being re elected but hoping a combo of ULA,SF,Socialists Party,independents and new Direct Democracy Ireland can’t be any worse than the euro lackey gutless eunuchs we have at present.
Eamon must be getting a little uneasy now.
did he not vote for the social welfare bill in the end?
Heffernan voted FOR the social welfare bill last night as per Journal.ie…..(open to correction though folks….)
Viewed as either self preservation to be able to run at the next election if the government falls or a political with sudden attack of conscience and guts.the late announcement if the timing after the social welfare was approved leaves me to question the bona fides of this person.
Oh it’s only comical reading the protests of the labour supporters.
I was one of the fools that actually believed their promises and supported them.
Now I wouldn’t give them the time of the day and actually look forward to watching the party being destroyed totally.
They have proven themselves to be decietful liars with scant regard for the electorate.
They have sided with fg in kicking the people and sneering at them.
The labour party are going to be destroyed first and then the other shower of paracites fg will be next.
Just handing it all back to the cnuts who put us here in the first place
Journal, can you give us a list of the labour TDs that have so far given up the whip?
I know it’s off topic and perhaps below the belt but your post conjures up an image of stagg running around saying “me,me,me… give me the whip”…
Really sorry but couldn’t resist.
No bother Mike. I did leave that comment open to interpretation. Glad you picked up in it. I wonder did they have to give up the party gimp mask also.
On the wider EU stage this act of humility may be construed in a different viewpoint when the EU comes to town.
Ends Neville Chamberlain Kenny and Goebbels Gilmore and neutered Noonan getting there gimp suits cleaned up and polished ready for the next EU summit when Merciless Merkel’s turn up to whip and dildo brigade to screw Ireland even more except the 3 knobs will say Ireland got a great deal.
Another futile and useless gesture that serves no one least of all the country.
Well done James you can now sit in a defunct senate and say you have done your bit for Ireland and take your 100k salar/perks per year
Now if you really want to make a difference resign and head back to whatever you were doing before you landed on this particular gravy train
Well done James. A man of principle. It’s sad when political parties like FG and Labour make pre-election promises and then deliberately break them! How can they be trusted?
Now for the rest of Labour to go
have your say