Ireland election: Several ministers fighting for their seats – as attention turns to forming a coalition
Ireland’s Green Party, one of the three previous governing parties, may lose a significant number of seats – as attention turns to forming a new coalition after polling day on Friday.
Counting is still in the early stages, with the first seats filled in the late afternoon. The final result may not be clear for days.
But that hasn’t stopped the leaders of Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail speculating about the formulation of the next government.
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What to look out for in the Irish election
Mary Lou McDonald told Sky News that “no party has an absolutely straightforward path to government”.
The Sinn Fein leader said: “This is going to be complicated, this is going to require dialogue and collaboration.”
She said she would hold discussions with other left-wing parties “who are committed to the politics of change and a change of government”.
Ms McDonald, who was elected on the third count, added that Sinn Fein has “changed the political landscape here in Ireland, because it’s not so long ago that only two parties absolutely dominated government and opposition”.
Those two parties, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, look likely to form another coalition but may fall short of the 88-seat majority needed to govern in the Irish parliament.
The centre-right parties have vowed not to form a government with Sinn Fein, citing substantial differences on policy.
Explainer: What to watch out for in Ireland’s election
A coalition is inevitable as no party put forward enough candidates to reach a majority in parliament.
Fianna Fail’s leader Micheal Martin, who was elected on the first count, said: “It’s very, very early days, but we do see a route to a very strong finish here in this election.”
Fine Gael’s Simon Harris said that “we don’t know what’s going to happen on government formation” but that it was likely his party would not be in opposition.
Meanwhile, several high-profile ministers look like they may be in difficulty with Green leader Roderic O’Gorman in with a fight to hold on to his seat. He admitted earlier this morning that his party has “not had a good day”.
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Meet Ireland’s first-time voters
In 2011, the last time the Greens exited a coalition government, the party lost all six of its TDs (MPs).
The Fianna Fail health minister Stephen Donnelly and the Green media minister Catherine Martin also look to be in trouble.
But alleged crime boss Gerard Hutch appears to be in contention for the fourth seat in Dublin Central – the same constituency as Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald.
Read more: How Trump looms over Ireland’s election
An Irish criminal court judge described Mr Hutch, 61, as the patriarchal figurehead of the Hutch criminal organisation and said he had engaged in “serious criminal conduct”.
However, Mr Hutch has denied the allegations against him and was found not guilty of the murder of David Byrne, who died after being shot six times at a crowded boxing weigh-in event at a hotel in 2016.
It was one of the first deadly attacks of the Hutch-Kinahan gangland feud.
He is currently on bail on alleged money laundering charges in Lanzarote.
Meanwhile, Labour and the Social Democrats look set to increase their share of votes in this election.
Holly Cairns, the leader of the Social Democrats who was elected to her county council by one vote in 2019, was unable to vote this time around as she gave birth to a baby girl on polling day.
Counting started across the country at 9am this morning.
Voters in Ireland rank their choices rather than choosing one candidate. Prospective politicians must then reach a quota after rounds of vote counting, which often takes several days. There are between three and five seats up for grabs in each constituency.
The twin threats of climate change and Russian malign activity in the Arctic must be taken “deadly seriously,” David Lammy has warned.
Sky News joined him on the furthest reaching tour of the Arctic by a British foreign secretary.
We travelled to Svalbard – a Norwegian archipelago that is the most northern settled land on Earth, 400 miles from the North Pole.
It is at the heart of an Arctic region facing growing geopolitical tension and feeling the brunt of climate change.
Mr Lammy told us the geopolitics of the region must be taken “deadly seriously” due to climate change and “the threats we’re seeing from Russia”.
We witnessed the direct impact of climate change along Svalbard’s coastline and inland waterways. There is less ice, we were told, compared to the past.
David Lammy and Norway’s Foreign Minister Barth Eide view the melting Blomstrandbreen glacier. Pic: PA
The melting ice is opening up the Arctic and allowing Russia more freedom to manoeuvre.
“We do see Russia’s shadow fleet using these waters,” Mr Lammy said. “We do see increased activity from submarines with nuclear capability under our waters and we do see hybrid sabotage of undersea cables at this time.”
In Tromso, further south, the foreign secretary was briefed by Norwegian military commanders.
The foreign secretary visiting SvalSat, a satellite ground station which monitors climate in Svalbard. Pic: PA
Vice Admiral Rune Andersen, the Chief of Norwegian Joint Headquarters, told Sky News the Russian threat was explicit.
“Russia has stated that they are in confrontation with the West and are utilising a lot of hybrid methods to undermine Western security,” he said.
But it’s not just Vladimir Putin they’re worried about. Norwegian observers are concerned by US president Donald Trump’s strange relationship with the Russian leader too.
Norwegian observers are concerned about the Russian leader – and Trump being ‘too soft’ on him. Pic: AP
Karsten Friis, a Norwegian defence and security analyst, told Sky News: “If he’s too soft on Putin, if he is kind of normalising relations with Russia, I wouldn’t be surprised.
“I would expect Russia to push us, to test us, to push borders, to see what we can do as Europeans.”
Changes in the Arctic mean new challenges for the NATO military alliance – including stepping up activity to deter threats, most of all from Russia.
More from Sky News:
Trump doubles down on Putin criticism
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In Iceland, we toured a NATO airbase with the foreign secretary.
There, he said maintaining robust presence in the Arctic was essential for western security.
“Let’s be clear, in this challenging geopolitical moment the high north and the Arctic is a heavily contested arena and we should be under no doubt that NATO and the UK need to protect it for our own national security.”
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This is also about distracting Russia, drawing away resources that could have been used in the war in Ukraine and deterring it in the future.
Because the more Arctic opens up, the more this once pristine wilderness is becoming the arena of national rivalry and potentially conflict.
World
‘What did they do to be burned and bombed?’: Charity calls on UK to offer Gaza children life-saving treatment
A British charity has written to the prime minister and foreign secretary, urging them to allow seriously ill children from Gaza into the UK to receive life-saving medical treatment.
Warning: This article contains images readers may find distressing
The co-founder of Project Pure Hope told Sky News it was way past the time for words.
“Now, we need action,” Omar Dinn said.
He’s identified two children inside Gaza who urgently need help and is appealing to the UK government to issue visas as a matter of urgency.
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Britain has taken only two patients from Gaza for medical treatment in 20 months of Israeli bombardment.
Children are among the bulk of the casualties in Gaza
“Most of the people affected by this catastrophe that’s unfolding in Gaza are children,” he continued. “And children are the most vulnerable.
“They have nothing to do with the politics, and we really just need to see them for what they are.
“They are children, just like my children, just like everybody’s children in this country – and we have the ability to help them.”
Sky News has been sent video blogs from British surgeons working in Gaza right now which show the conditions and difficulties they’re working under.
They prepare for potential immediate evacuation whilst facing long lists, mainly of children, needing life-saving emergency treatment day after day.
Dr Victoria Rose is a British surgeon working in southern Gaza’s last remaining hospital
Dr Victoria Rose told us: “Every time I come, I say it’s really bad, but this is on a completely different scale now. It’s mass casualties. It’s utter carnage.
“We are incapable of getting through this volume. We don’t have the personnel. We don’t have the medical supplies. And we really don’t have the facilities.
“We are the last standing hospital in the south of Gaza. We really are on our knees now.”
One of her patients is three-year-old Hatem, who was badly burned when an Israeli airstrike hit the family apartment.
Karam, aged one, has a birth defect that could be easily fixed with surgery
His pregnant mother and father were both killed, leaving him an orphan. He has 35 percent burns on his small body.
“It’s a massive burn for a little guy like this,” Dr Rose says. “He’s so adorable. His eyelids are burnt. His hands are burnt. His feet are burnt.”
Hatem’s grandfather barely leaves his hospital bedside. Hatem Senior told us: “What did these children do wrong to suffer such injuries? To be burned and bombed? We ask God to grant them healing.”
Hatem Senior
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The second child identified by the charity is Karam, who, aged one, is trying to survive in a tent in deeply unhygienic surroundings with a protruding intestine.
He’s suffering from a birth defect called Hirschsprung disease, which could be easily operated on with the right skills and equipment – unavailable to him in Gaza right now.
Read more:
Gaza doctor’s nine children killed
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Karam, aged one, has a birth defect that could be easily fixed with surgery
Karam’s mother Manal told our Gaza camera crew: “No matter how much I describe how much my son is suffering, I wouldn’t be able to describe it enough. I swear I am constantly crying.”
Children are among the bulk of casualties – some 16,000 have been killed, according to the latest figures from local health officials – and make up the majority of those being operated on, according to the British surgical team on the ground.
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