Fianna Fail doubles down on refusal to form coalition with Sinn Fein

Published

1 hour ago

November 26, 2024

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Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin says his party has made “a policy decision” not to enter coalition government with Sinn Fein after Ireland’s general election.

Current polling shows the three largest parties – Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein – in a three-way tie.

In the third of our leader interviews ahead of Friday’s vote, Mr Martin told Sky News that Sinn Fein’s housing strategy would “crucify first-time buyers”.

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He said: “They want to get rid of the help-to-buy scheme and the first home bridge-the-gap scheme.

“If you put them together, they can give up to €80,000 to a first-time buyer.”

“Sinn Fein’s housing policies would mean delay, disruption and higher prices at the end of the day,” he added.

With nearly 15,000 people in emergency accommodation, compared to just over 10,000 in 2020, housing has dominated the campaign.

Asked why the crisis had deepened while his party had been in coalition with Fine Gael over the last four years, he replied: “We need to do more.

“We acknowledge the serious challenges facing us, but we have the better policies.

“125,000 houses were built over the last four years, so Fianna Fail did take the portfolio, we did change momentum on housing,” he added.

Mr Martin, who was taoiseach for the first half of the outgoing coalition’s term, currently serves as tanaiste (deputy prime minister) and foreign affairs minister.

He said he understood the concerns people have about “the very significant increase in those seeking asylum in this country” and vowed to establish a new department of domestic affairs to address it.

Reflecting on “a world in turmoil,” he also disagreed with Sinn Fein on the need to prioritise Irish unity.

He said: “My focus is on uniting people, Protestant, Catholic and dissenter, and that’s always been my creed.

“I put practical flesh on the bones of that when I became taoiseach, when I set up the Shared Island Initiative, the most consequential initiative since the Good Friday Agreement.

“We put €1bn behind that initiative to get a lot of projects done. To me, that’s the pragmatic flesh on the bone.

“Let’s build reconciliation. We’ve had enough of rhetoric and all these calls Sinn Fein go on about.

“We’ve had that for 75 years. It didn’t achieve a whole lot, but it’s about getting behind reconciliation. It’s about people.”

Watch Micheal Martin’s interview in full on Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge. Sky News has also interviewed the Fine Gael and Sinn Fein leaders.

Politics

Council services ‘could suffer due to social care costs’ if government creates ‘super councils’

Published

1 min ago

November 26, 2024

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Council services 'could suffer due to social care costs' if government creates 'super councils'

Council services such as leisure centres and waste collection could suffer due to the cost of social care if the government goes ahead with plans to scrap district councils in favour of “super councils”, local government sources have claimed.

They told Sky News the government is considering getting rid of district councils, which are responsible for waste collection, housing, leisure centres, local economics and regeneration.

District councils, also called borough or city councils, along with larger county councils would be merged to make “super councils” – or unitary councils – covering an entire region, the sources said.

The changes are expected in the English devolution white paper, set to be published soon, after Chancellor Rachel Reeves said in her October budget she wanted to make council structures “simpler” by reorganising them.

However, there are concerns the rising cost of social care, which larger county and unitary councils have to legally fund, will pull funding away from the basic but essential services district councils provide.

There is also a worry these large councils will become detached from local communities, despite Ms Reeves saying she wanted the reorganisation of council structures “to meet the needs of local people”.

Bridget Smith, Lib Dem leader of South Cambridgeshire district council and vice chair of the District Councils’ Network (DCN), told Sky News: “Unitary and county councils are struggling financially, and in many cases going under, because of the ever-increasing demands of social care.

“It will be no different for these proposed ‘super councils’.

“The danger is social care will suck up all the resources which districts currently spend on place making, economic development, preventing ill health, improving quality of life and so much more.”

She added that simply reorganising local government is “simplistic and naive” and will cause new problems for local communities, and for the government’s housing targets as district councils are responsible for housing.

There is also concern if councils were merged it would take about three years to convert, which would take up all a council’s time, potentially bringing projects to a halt, including house building.

Sam Chapman-Allen, chair of the DCN and leader of Breckland district council in Norfolk, said there are examples across England where devolution – handing power and funding from national to local government – is working well, such as Manchester where 10 district councils work together under the mayor of Greater Manchester.

Smaller examples include South Lincolnshire, where three councils work together with a shared senior team.

“I wouldn’t say my members are nervous about change because they’re really nimble, agile organisations, but we want to work with government to get the best outcomes for their residents and businesses,” he told Sky News.

He said district councils also provide lots of preventative “non-traditional” social care schemes off their own backs, such as supporting people to live a healthy life, which means they take pressure off the traditional social care system.

Conservative shadow housing, communities and local government secretary Kevin Hollinrake told Sky News: “Services have to come first so you want to make sure they’re maintained and improve social care, and of course it’s the biggest part of the discretionary budget. It’s a valid concern.

“On the face, there are savings moving from two tier to one tier, but you don’t want the council or councillors to become too removed from what they’re serving.

“The worry here is this is an imposition rather than asking councillors if they want to move to unitary – that’s top down rather than bottom up.

“It’s perverse, you’re talking about devolving then telling councils what to do. It’s a bit of a paradox.”

A spokesman for the ministry of housing, communities and local government said there are “no plans to abolish district councils” and any organisation will be “from the bottom up”.

He added: “No decisions have been taken on council reorganisation.

“Our priority is to focus on the transfer of power from Westminster and work with councils to create structures that make sense for their local areas and work effectively for local people.

“We have announced £1.3bn to help councils deliver essential services – including an additional £233m to help prevent homelessness, and will be providing greater stability with multi-year funding settlements, so we can get councils back on their feet.

“We will set out further details in the upcoming English devolution white paper.”