PD's to meet this afternoon to discuss Bertie's money

mike65

Charlie Bird says they'll walk in the next 24 hours.

Mike.

Dave!

The RTÉ report is saying that the PDs have been given new information (or rather, "a chronology of events" leading to the purchase of Bertrude's house) and Charlie Bird seems to think that they're going to pull out of government within the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the latest Red C poll has Fianna Fáil up 2 points and FG down 1 :rolleyes: Labour up 1.

wow sierra

clown bag wrote:

It's just an exercise in trying to appear like they have some credibility. They know there's no where to walk to except walk the plank. It's FF or bust for the PD's and they know it. I think FF would rather a different option (Labour) given the choice of forming the next government. I can see them dissolving the PD's and merging with FG in the not too distant future. The whole "Mary Harney is a great girl after what she did for Dublin's smog problem vote" appears to finally have gone up in smoke. She will be more associated with the health service now which is a negative. Still think she was very brave to take it on though. Mc dowel does nothing to attract voters and I can't see many ordinary people giving them even a preference. I look forward to the PD's getting less speaking time than Joe Higgins (and fewer friends in the house) in the next Dail.

Agree with the above - hope they do walk now and let Fianna Fail get on with it. Whether out of Govenment or with Labour or the Greens etc. The only positive in the PD,s is Mary Harney and not just the smog - I think she is a great politician. McDowell is a serious liability.
One bit of disagreement - I find Joe Higgins amusing and good as a watchdog on the left but I think he gets quite enough speaking time and publicity at the moment and hope his colleage Claire Daly doesn't get elected

ballooba

Avns1s wrote:

At the end of the day, the PD's originated in FF and will eventually end up back there if they don't just 'evaporate' in the meantime.

Didn't PDs originate from FG?

brianthebard

Wiki says it was formed by ex-members of both FF and FG.

mike65

Jasus we have people here who can vote but are too young to know the genesis of the PDs! :eek:

Mike.

Voipjunkie

irish1 wrote:

Can anyone explain why Michael Wall gave Celia Larkin £30,000 to refurbish a house 7 months before Michael Wall bought the house and how Bertie had managed to save £28,000 from a net Salary of £40,000 in a year?

Thats only a conspiracy theory don't you remember

Voipjunkie

mike65 wrote:

Jasus we have people here who can vote but are too young to know the genesis of the PDs! :eek:

Mike.

That is scary makes me feel old

Dar

brianthebard wrote:

Wiki says it was formed by ex-members of both FF and FG.

IIRC it was ex-members of FF as well as one ex-member of FG who didnt even stay with them that long.

Villain

Voipjunkie wrote:

Thats only a conspiracy theory don't you remember

ROFL very good, but don't quote me again or we could end up discussing this somewhere else

Voipjunkie

Tomorrows Red C poll has FF up by 2 points maybe that is why the PDs have backed off for the moment there might be life in the old dog yet

Dirk Gently

ballooba wrote:

Didn't PDs originate from FG?

No, but if they merge with anyone should they become insignificant as a political party it most likely will be FG who they have most in common with.

E92

It also has Labour up 1(12%), FG down 1(26%), the PDs down 1(2%), the rest unchanged.The poll was taken between Monday and Wednesday, what will be really interesting is to see is what Sunday weeks poll will say, particularly when we see what the PDs say tomorrow. The poll also was taken before FF had 2 big policy u-turns(stamp duty and the uncosted pensions plan), before Noel O'Fynnn said what he said too and before there were these new revalations about the affair(though that could boost Feel and Fails support). Even if the PDs decide to stay, the damage will already have been done to the Government I think. Its hardly good for Feel and Fail when they're hearing that the party they have been working with for so long decides to either ditch them or at the very least give them a scare. Interesting times lie ahead.

Dave!

Yeah next week's poll should be VERY interesting! Still, I'm surprised that this latest poll has them up. Have the Irish public never heard of the expression, "there's no smoke without fire"? Jeez, they probably think everyone's innocent til proven guilty :rolleyes:

The opposition have COMPLETELY avoided talking about the payments after what happened last time. Would it be the media attacking Bertie over this, that has FF's support up? Or Bertie's innate likeability?

Or maybe people just believe his story?

Interesting.

patzer117

DaveMcG wrote:

The opposition have COMPLETELY avoided talking about the payments after what happened last time. Would it be the media attacking Bertie over this, that has FF's support up? Or Bertie's innate likeability?

Yeah, Pat and Enda every 5 minutes saying "I'm not going to comment on Bertie's Finances...

I repeat I'm not going to comment on Bertie's Finances.

It's up to the electorate to decide about his credibility and integrity. I'm not going to comment on them"

That's Completely avoiding talking about it? They're playing it for all it's worth, don't be so naive

Dave!

patzer117 wrote:

Yeah, Pat and Enda every 5 minutes saying "I'm not going to comment on Bertie's Finances...

I repeat I'm not going to comment on Bertie's Finances.

It's up to the electorate to decide about his credibility and integrity. I'm not going to comment on them"

That's Completely avoiding talking about it? They're playing it for all it's worth, don't be so naive

I'm not being naive. They're making the odd comment, but for the most part it's "it's up to the electorate to decide, now I think we should talk about policies....."

The opposition is beating the government on policy, this finances controversy could go either way so they're not talking about it and definitely not putting pressure on him over it. It's the various media outlets that are talking about this absolutely non-stop.

patzer117

I don't quite agree, but still. I can't wait for the debates, then we'll have real policy vs. policy. if they go ahead that is

Voipjunkie

DaveMcG wrote:

Yeah next week's poll should be VERY interesting! Still, I'm surprised that this latest poll has them up. Have the Irish public never heard of the expression, "there's no smoke without fire"? Jeez, they probably think everyone's innocent til proven guilty :rolleyes:

The opposition have COMPLETELY avoided talking about the payments after what happened last time. Would it be the media attacking Bertie over this, that has FF's support up? Or Bertie's innate likeability?

Or maybe people just believe his story?

Interesting.

Not dismissing the Poll but it is margin of error stuff

Also it was taken before VB tackled Bertie which seems to have given this real legs in the last day or so.
PJ standing in the shadows trying to shut VB up and your man trying to grab the microphone from him just smacked of the Haughey years to me and the media seem to smell blood now.

Dave!

Wasn't aware there was gonna be debates! No dates set, I gather. Will it be all the leaders head to head or what? Like America?!

Voipjunkie wrote:

Not dismissing the Poll but it is margin of error stuff

Also it was taken before VB tackled Bertie which seems to have given this real legs in the last day or so.

Yeah I agree. I'd say that VB thing will stick, and depending on what the PD's have to say tomorrow, that could be more points gone.

The_Minister

gandalf wrote:

they knew most of these facts already.

Proof?

ballooba

The_Minister wrote:

Proof?

Are you on drugs? The writing is on the wall.

The last PD?

ballooba

ballooba wrote:

Are you on drugs? The writing is on the wall.

The last PD?

Banned for 2 weeks

NewsWire

Sky News say that Bertie will be appearing on Adam Boultons Sunday Live Show which starts at 10am

DublinWriter

mike65 wrote:

Jasus we have people here who can vote but are too young to know the genesis of the PDs! :eek:

Scary indeed. I remember when they held their inception meeting in the Marine Hotel in Sutton and the traffic was backed up the coast for miles, such was the interest in a new Irish political party.

Don't throw it all away, indeed.

luckat

Rats. Sinking ship.

As for the genesis of the PDs, there's a good Wiki.

Point to note, by the way: the current editor of The Irish Times served briefly as a PD TD, and was the party's spokeswoman for foreign affairs.

copacetic

from independent.ie

PDs expected to pull out of govt at morning press conference


10:00 Sunday May 6th 2007


The Tanaiste Michael McDowell will hold a press conference in Dublin within the next hour, amid growing speculation that the Progressive Democrats are to pull out of government.

Leading members of the party held crisis talks last night, after Michael McDowell received new information about Bertie Ahern's personal finances.

Wishbone Ash

Press Conference at 10.30am.

NewsWire

NewsTalk say that the press confrence will take place at 10.30 and that the PD's will announce that they will stick with the government and not pull out during the election race.

Seth Brundle

Jody Corcoran's article in the SIndo...

Seth Brundle

NewsWire wrote:

NewsTalk say that the press confrence will take place at 10.30 and that the PD's will announce that they will stick with the government and not pull out during the election race.

Lets hope that he turns off his microphone when he tries to whisper how they managed to get through that!