Ireland delays selection of prime minister as parliament erupts in row

Published

4 months ago

January 22, 2025

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Ireland has delayed choosing its new prime minister after a row over speaking rights sparked angry scenes in the parliament.

The Irish Parliament, called the Dail, had this morning convened to nominate a new prime minister, with Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin poised to take on the position.

However, the process was pushed back hours – and eventually adjourned until tomorrow – after a dispute over the new government led to widespread disorder and clashes.

Mr Martin had been due to take on the role of PM, called the taoiseach, after his party made an agreement with another, Fine Gael, and a selection of independents.

However, a disagreement over whether some of the independents would be given opposition speaking time led to today’s proceedings ending without the new Irish PM being officially chosen.

Five of the nine independents are due to given junior minister posts, while the remaining four are seeking to join a technical group – a mechanism designed to give opposition TDs (the Irish equivalent of MPs) speaking time.

This move has been widely rejected by opposition parties including Sinn Fein, Labour and the Social Democrats – who argue the independents supporting the incoming government should not be allowed to join technical groups.

‘An unprecedented day in Irish politics’

What a shambles. An unprecedented day in Irish politics, for all the wrong reasons.

Everyone knew a slightly politically wonky row about speaking rights was brewing.

Nobody thought it would actually sabotage the country getting a new prime minister.

Micheal Martin must now wait until tomorrow – at best – to become taoiseach for the second time.

He must feel slightly jinxed. When he first got the job, it was in pared-back fashion at the height of Covid, with his family prevented from attending.

Covid also kiboshed his first trip to the White House in 2021.

The following year, he made it as far as Washington, before catching Covid himself and scrapping his meeting with Joe Biden.

With his proud family in the public gallery today, his second term got off to the worst possible start – in that, it didn’t start at all.

His new coalition relies on some independent TDs (MPs).

They want speaking rights in the Dail, as if they were part of the opposition – infuriating opposition parties like Sinn Fein and Labour, who see it as having their cake and eating it.

The row has been grumbling on for a few days, but everyone assumed a procedural compromise would be found.

It wasn’t, and questions will be asked of the new government parties as to why they failed to properly pave the way for today’s appointment of a taoiseach.

Micheal Martin has the numbers, the deal, and will be prime minister again.

But it was an incredibly inauspicious first day back at the office for him and his partners – one they must ensure is not repeated.

When the Dail met to nominate a taoiseach at 11am, opposition members repeatedly interrupted proceedings.

Speaker Veronica Murphy suspended the Dail multiple times before it was agreed party whips would meet with the parliament’s clerk to seek a resolution – but the talks failed.

Addressing the chamber at 4.25pm, the government’s chief whip Hildegarde Naughton said the process should proceed and a Fianna Fail TD stood to begin the process of nominating Mr Martin as PM.

However, members of Sein Fein – including its leader Mary Lou McDonald – continued interrupting.

Ms Murphy then adjourned the Dail until 9am on Thursday.

Speaking to the press outside parliament, Mr Martin said: “The most fundamental obligation of the Dail is to elect a taoiseach and, indeed, to elect a government.

“That opportunity was denied today by a premeditated, coordinated and choreographed position by the opposition and particularly by Sinn Fein party.”

“The actions of the opposition, the actions of Sinn Fein today, were wholly disproportionate to the issue at hand, which could have been resolved,” he added.

World

Donald Trump says he has call with Putin planned – as Ukraine condemns Russia over bus attack

Published

3 hours ago

May 18, 2025

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Donald Trump says he has call with Putin planned - as Ukraine condemns Russia over bus attack

Donald Trump has said he will speak to Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy separately on Monday in a bid to secure a ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine.

The US president made the announcement on Truth Social – shortly after the Ukrainian president condemned Russia for the “deliberate killing of civilians” after a drone hit a bus in north-eastern Ukraine.

Mr Trump said he will speak to Mr Putin over the phone. He will then talk with Mr Zelenskyy and “various members of NATO”, he wrote.

In an all-caps post, he said: “HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE A PRODUCTIVE DAY, A CEASEFIRE WILL TAKE PLACE, AND THIS VERY VIOLENT WAR, A WAR THAT SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED, WILL END. GOD BLESS US ALL!!!”

The Ukrainian town of Bilopillia today declared a period of mourning lasting until Monday after nine people were killed in a Russian drone attack – which occurred just hours after Kyiv and Moscow held peace talks.

Seven others were injured, Ukrainian authorities said. The bus was evacuating civilians from a frontline area when the drone hit, the country’s national police said.

A “father, mother and daughter” were among the dead, Mr Zelenskyy said, writing on Telegram: “All the deceased were civilians. And the Russians could not have failed to understand what kind of vehicle they were targeting.”

The attack has also been condemned by British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who said he was “appalled”.

“If Putin is serious about peace, Russia must agree to a full and immediate ceasefire, as Ukraine has done,” he wrote on X.

Representatives for Kyiv and Moscow met for direct peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey, just hours before the drone attack.

While the discussions – which were not attended by the Mr Putin or Mr Zelenskyy – did not result in a truce, both countries agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners in their biggest swap yet.

Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said on national television the exchange could happen as early as next week.

Russia ‘threatened eternal war’ at peace talks

After a Ukrainian official yesterday said Russia made “unacceptable” demands during the discussions, a source from the Kyiv delegation has now told Sky News that Moscow threatened “eternal war”.

Separately, a senior Kyiv official said Russia’s proposed ceasefire terms included the full withdrawal of troops from four regions of Ukraine: Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Luhansk.

Moscow also called for international recognition that those regions and Crimea – annexed in 2014 – are Russian and for Ukraine to become a neutral state, with no allied troops stationed there, they said.

The Kremlin declined to comment on the matter.

Ukraine has rallied support from its allies following the talks, and a number have spoken out.

French President Emmanuel Macron said: “Today, what do we have? Nothing. And so I tell you, faced with President Putin’s cynicism, I am sure that President Trump, mindful of the credibility of the United States, will react.”

The EU is working on a new package of sanctions against Moscow, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

World

Israel and Hamas resume ceasefire talks after ‘extensive strikes’ on Gaza

Published

6 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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Israel and Hamas resume ceasefire talks after 'extensive strikes' on Gaza

Israel and Hamas said ceasefire talks have resumed in Qatar – even as Israeli forces ramped up a bombing campaign and mobilised for a massive new ground assault.

Earlier, the Israeli military said it had been “conducting extensive strikes and mobilising troops” as part of preparations to expand operations in Gaza.

Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said Hamas had “refused to discuss negotiations without a cessation of the war”, but after the airstrikes and the mobilisation of forces the militant group’s representatives “have agreed to sit in a room and seriously discuss the deal”.

“Israel emphasises that if the talks do not progress, the [military] operation will continue,” he added.

A Hamas source told Sky News that ceasefire talks began in Doha on Saturday morning.

Hamas official Taher al-Nono told Reuters news agency that the two sides were involved in discussions without “pre-conditions”.

He added Hamas was “keen to exert all the effort needed” to help mediators make the negotiations a success.

More than 150 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.

This week has been one of the deadliest phases of bombardment since a truce collapsed in March and marked a significant escalation in Israel’s offensive.

The Israeli military’s preparations to expand operations in Gaza have included the build-up of tanks and troops along the border.

It is part of “Operation Gideon Chariot”, which Israel says is aimed at defeating Hamas and getting its hostages back.

An Israeli defence official said earlier this month that the operation would not be launched before Donald Trump concluded his visit to the Middle East.

The US president ended his trip on Friday, with no apparent progress towards a new peace deal.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, leaders at the annual summit of the Arab League in Baghdad said they were trying to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

They also promised to contribute to the reconstruction of the territory once the war stops.

The meeting comes two months after Israel ended a ceasefire reached with the Hamas militant group.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on 5 May that Israel was planning an expanded, intensive offensive against Hamas as his security cabinet approved plans that could involve seizing Gaza and controlling aid.

This week, Israel said it had bombed the European Hospital because it was home to an underground Hamas base, but Sky News analysis has cast doubt on its evidence.

Israel’s goal is the elimination of Hamas, which attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and seizing about 250 hostages.

Its military response has killed more than 53,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

World

The chilling moment in Russia-Ukraine peace talks – as Putin makes mockery of Trump’s efforts to end war

Published

6 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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The chilling moment in Russia-Ukraine peace talks - as Putin makes mockery of Trump's efforts to end war

Vladimir Putin made a mockery this week of Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

Far from punishing him for it, the US president went out of his way to dodge calls to get tough with the Russian leader.

Follow latest updates on Ukraine war

On Sunday, President Trump called on leaders of both Russia and Ukraine to meet.

He posted: “President Putin of Russia wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOODBATH. Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY.”

That post let the Russian leader off the hook. Only the day before, Putin had been ordered by Ukraine’s allies, including America, to agree to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire.

The Russian president had swerved that demand, suggesting talks instead.

“If the ceasefire is not respected, the US and its partners will impose further sanctions,” Trump posted before swivelling and backing Putin’s proposals for talks instead.

Undeterred, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accepted the call.

Putin though refused to go, sending officials instead.

And yet there was no reprimand from the US president. Instead, he chose to undermine the talks he had himself called for.

“Look, nothing is going to happen until Putin and I get together,” he told reporters on Air Force One. So much for that then.

It is what happened in those talks though that should give the US president the greatest pause for thought about Putin’s intentions – as it does in Kyiv.

The message they brought was blunt and belligerent, threatening eternal war.

“We don’t want war, but we’re ready to fight for a year, two, three – however long it takes,” lead Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky is reported to have said. “We fought Sweden for 21 years. How long are you ready to fight?”

Far from offering a compromise, they are reported to have demanded the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the four regions they have partially seized by force and the capitulation of another two, just for good measure.

And there was a chilling moment when the Russians are reported to have threatened their interlocutors like gangsters.

“Maybe some of those sitting here at this table will lose more of their loved ones,” Mednisky said. Russia is prepared to fight forever.

For Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, that was personal.

Max, his 23-year-old nephew, lost his life fighting the Russians in 2022 not long after their illegal and unprovoked invasion began.

At the end of this week, Putin appears scornful of Western efforts to end this war through a ceasefire and negotiations and Trump seems happy to let him get away with it.

Even Fox News, normally slavishly subservient to Trump, is wondering what gives.

Its anchor Bret Baier is no Jeremy Paxman, but in an interview last night asked Donald Trump 10 times if he might finally now put pressure on Putin.

The US president ducked and dived, talking about the money he had made in his Gulf tour, Zelenskyy’s shortcomings, Biden, and Iran instead. But he did not give a straight answer to the question.

With performances like that, Putin has nothing to worry about. Trump’s position though seems increasingly untenable.

Ukraine’s European allies though should be alarmed. They threatened Russia with sanctions and retaliation last weekend if he rejected a ceasefire. He now has.

With or without America, will they be good to their word?