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SENATOR JILLIAN VAN Turnhout is in discussions with Fine Gael over the possibility of joining the party to run in the European elections next year and fill the seat being vacated by Gay Mitchell.
TheJournal.ie understands that preliminary discussions have taken place over the possibility that the former head of the Children’s Rights Alliance, who was appointed to the Seanad by Taoiseach Enda Kenny in 2011, would join the party and run for the Dublin seat next year.
Mitchell announced that he would not be contesting the next European elections earlier this month and a number of party members including two senators, a TD and Dublin’s Lord Mayor have emerged as possible successors.
However, van Turnhout is also positioning herself as a possible candidate. It is understood that discussions over the matter will not be advanced until after the Meath East by-election which takes place next Wednesday.
Van Turnhout did not wish to comment when contacted by TheJournal.ie this week.
A spokesperson for Fine Gael said that “no decisions have been made” in relation to the elections next year, adding: “Senator van Turnhout is a fine parliamentarian, but remains an Independent to the best of my understanding.”
Van Turnhout has previously been a member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), a consultative body of the EU which represents employers’ organisations, trade unions and other interest groups at a European level.
During her time on the EESC she was on the steering group of the EU Forum on the Rights of the Child and she would be seen as a key advocate for children’s rights at a European level if selected and elected to the European Parliament next year.
Her Seanad colleagues, Fine Gael’s Catherine Noone and Eamonn Coghlan, are also said to be in the running for Mitchell’s seat with rebel Fine Gael TD Peter Mathews and Dublin’s Lord Mayor Naoise Ó Muirí also in contention.
As a result of Croatia’s accession to the EU, the number of MEPs representing Ireland in the European Parliament will be reduced from 12 to 11 next year requiring a redrawing of Ireland’s European constituency boundaries.
It is not yet clear what effect this will have on Mitchell’s Dublin constituency as it is currently constituted.
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In my opinion: I think if you present yourself to a hospital with flu like symptoms or flu in general and have not seen your GP or Caredoc services you should incur a whopper of a bill. Say €1000 regardless of VHI LAYA or medical card. I think that would surely stop people in there tracks. Going to the hospital so they can look down your gob feel your glands and tell you to rest and take paracetamol is a waste of time.
@Tom Harpur: Good man Tom , charge those tax payers even more .
Try get an appointment with your doctor , we can fit you in next Thursday .
@Tom Harpur: you don’t understand the nature of true influenza and its particular dangers for a number of categories of vulnerable persons. Patients are only admitted as a last resort. In A&E, patients with symptoms of influenza are triaged and usually treated as very low priority unless the symptoms indicate secondary infections and dangerous morbidities.
@Ken Hayden: if you can’t get a appointment with your doctor go to your out of hours doctor. No need to block up A&E just because you have a sniffle or sore throat
@Fiona deFreyne: I understand too well the true definition and feeling of influenza I’ve had it plus I’m in the at risk category so I get the jab. The last port of call should be the Emergency department for this if it’s bad you should be referred by your GP or out of hours doctor service.
@Tom Harpur: well said and people not at risk whose health is usually good – just get to bed – keep hydrated and stop spreading the love.
@Tom Harpur: Try to ring out of hours service in Dublin. You’ll get a fax machine. Search on google and you’ll see reviews from 2015 complaining about the same thing (phone number officially advertised is actually a fax number). Plenty of time to fix this if they actually cared about their services.
And we wonder you people are going to A&E for a flu.
@Tom Harpur: Normally anyone ending up in A&E with flu has other complications. The flu can be a very serious and even fatal illness, if you’ve certain underlying problems and also for some elderly people.
If more of us got flu vaccines, fewer of us would develop flu and the virus wouldn’t spread around so much. We might have something approaching herd immunity every year.
For the sake of 2 seconds of minor inconvenience, you educate your own immune system to kill off a nasty virus and avoid a ton of problems yourself and you won’t pass it on to someone vulnerable!
Are they not just piling on more pressure after Christmas with this rescheduling? Surely there’s procedures already booked in for those times in the new year.
More of the same.
National embarrassment
Nothing to do with all the consultants being off for 2 weeks No?
@PDiddy: How do you know consultants are off for two weeks? Can you name your sources? Oh I see, you are just talking through your backside.
If this was Ryanair we’d be kicking up a stink . Keep the recovery going , playground for the globalists
@Ken Hayden: What do you expect the hospitals to do in the current situation? Hospitals simply don’t have the resources, staff are taking measures that they know will help them get through such a busy period with minimum impact on patient survival.
Kick up a stink at the state and the fact that CUH were even put in this position, not at CUH itself.
@Veronica: (A) what is the current situation (B) have we not had Christmas season before .
Why can a hospital not foresee these problems , where do we live .
@Veronica: I’m not blaming the staff , I’m sure they do their best .
I am blaming the overlords , the admin , who control the money .
@Veronica: do we even have 1 hospital in the actual country ‘with the resources’ ? even 1 – it’s a lame excuse every single time from government who take our taxes but fail to use them appropriately
Ah, ye old revelry. Prefer Tomfoolery myself.
Ireland is a Third WWold country.
Ireland is a failed state.
Young people need to be told that there is no future for them here.
Foreign direct investment into the failed state of Ireland is very foolish.
@Colin Morris: 1.4 million medical cards and half a million GP cards. That’s a lot of people not contributing.
@lavbeer: that’s a very sweeping statement….. I have a medical card as I have an autoimmune disease, I still work full time and pay my taxes and ‘contribute’ as you put it.
Irish hospital caught unawares by flu outbreak in Winter flu season.
This so-called ‘Aussie flu’ really sucks and especially as it seems to hang in there. Can understand that people with breathing problems will feel it more as it is really effin awful from the lungs up to the throat so good idea to shift patient emphasis for a while.
have your say