Election 2024: Fine Gael branded ‘McCreevy and Cowen tribute act’ after promising splurge
Recent election promises from Fine Gael have been described as a “Charlie McCreevy and Brian Cowen tribute act”, as political opponents accuse the party of seeking to buy the election with a series of expensive spending commitments.
Fine Gael insisted its promises were carefully costed in its election manifesto which was published yesterday but critics – including its Government partners Fianna Fáil – questioned a number of aspects of the document.
Launching the Labour Party manifesto in Dublin yesterday, the party’s finance spokesman Ged Nash said that “Simon Harris’s ‘new energy’ is starting to look like a Charlie McCreevy and Brian Cowen tribute act.”
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News in Ireland
- Gardaí issue alert on counterfeit currency circulating across Ireland with fake €50 and €20 notes most common: There has been a significant increase in reports to An Garda Síochána of counterfeit currency in circulation.
- Tech giant X challenges State’s new online safety rules: Tech company X is challenging in the High Court the State’s new online safety rules put in place for video-sharing platforms.
- Plans for a bicycle maintenance station at Leinster House ‘stall’ after furore over €336,000 shelter: Plans for a bike maintenance station at Leinster House appear to have stalled after the furore over the spending of €336,000 on a bicycle shelter.
- ‘I can’t see Sinn Féin getting in’: How will Drogheda and Bray football fans vote in the election?:Election 2024: Football supporters express range of views on Sinn Féin’s policies at their teams’ promotion/relegation playoff in Tallaght
- Weather forecast: Rain in Munster and Connacht will spread northeastwards becoming widespread. It will be heavy at times will turn to sleet or snow in parts of Ulster and north Connacht this evening. Highs of 3 to 6 degrees over the northern half and 7 to 12 degrees elsewhere.
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The Big Read
- ‘I believe my nephew may have ADHD or autism, but his parents won’t discuss it’: My brother and his wife have a five-year-old son with significant sensory communication and emotional needs. I work as a teacher, and I’m inferring that he might have ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) or autism. When he comes for a visit, or to family events, he can’t communicate and often has meltdowns.
Opinion
- Una Mullalley: The man in Data Centre Alley couldn’t conceal his shock: ‘You’re screwed’
- Joe Humphreys: We are united by common urges: Freedom. Justice. The need to go to the toilet
Business
- Dublin Airport whistleblower concerned about such actions in future: A former member of airport operator DAA’s security staff says he is pleased to have received confirmation from the Irish Aviation Authority that concerns he raised about procedures at Dublin Airport in a protected disclosure had been addressed following an investigation. However, he said he still had concerns about how the DAA would handle another whistleblower highlighting safety issues after the way he was treated.
Sports
- Ken Early: Naive Ireland need to remember this pain and at least learn to whinge: “Ireland get battered, everywhere they go! Ireland get battered, everywhere they gooo!” The England fans were loving their song-for-the-day, but they also started leaving in large numbers from around 70 minutes, after their side went 4-0 up. Why risk getting stuck in the crowds at Wembley Park Tube station just to see England run in another goal or two against this shambles?
World
- Maureen Dowd: Donald Trump and Elon Musk is hardly a match made to last: Melania won’t be spending much time in the White House, but someone else seems eager to fill the role of the president-elect’s helpmeet
- I’m a Brexit-era ‘citizen of nowhere’, trying to settle in Ireland: Near where I like to go to write in rural Clare, there’s an old church. I walk there often late in the afternoon, when the need to write is overcome by the urge to be out moving under the sky, feeling the weather and hearing the birds. It’s walking as meditation more than for exercise, a practice of presence after the strange practice of absence that is sitting still and writing a novel, writes Sarah Moss
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