The Floating Voter

A Government TD has called on Football Association of Ireland chief executive John Delaney to step down.

Fine Gael’s Noel Rock said Mr Delaney’s performance as the head of Irish football is not living up to his “Rolls Royce salary” and insisted he should resign from the €360,000 a year position.

Speaking on Independent.ie’s Floating Voter podcast, Mr Rock said: “I think it’s time for John Delaney to step aside.”

“We pay a Rolls Royce salary, €360,000 a year, for John Delaney. Do we get a Rolls Royce performance out of that? I’m not sure,” he added.

Mr Rock said there are “clear issues of governance, of competence and of finance” within the FAI after reports emerged about loan Mr Delaney paid to the Association. He claimed this issue was “overshadowing” the on field performance of the Irish football team.

The TD’s comment came after the FAI has confirmed that chief executive John Delaney will appear at an Oireachtas committee to be quizzed by TDs and Senators

The organisation has also written to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Sport to say representatives would be "happy" to attend an earlier meeting than the one scheduled on April 10.

A statement this afternoon said: "The Association has offered to bring the April 10 meeting with the Committee forward to April 3 and the FAI awaits the Committee’s response."

It added: "The Association also confirms that CEO John Delaney will lead the FAI delegation to this meeting."

Members of the committee want to quiz the FAI on a €100,000 bridging loan given by Mr Delaney to the association in 2017.

Last night the FAI said it was willing to meet Sports Minister Shane Ross and Sport Ireland, the body which distributes State funding to sporting organisations, in relation to the loan.

It has also written to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement offering clarification on any issues raised by the loan, and said it will answer any questions.

Fianna Fáil leader Michael Martin has declared he will be the Taoiseach after the next general election.

In an exclusive interview with Independent.ie’s Floating Voter podcast, Mr Martin insisted that despite trailing Fine Gael leader Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in the opinion polls he will be the country’s next leader.

Asked directly if he will be Taoiseach after the next election, he said: “Yes, that is the agenda, that is the objective.”

“Obviously the people will decide but fundamentally that’s where we want to be,” he added.

Mr Martin said he has “no doubt” Fianna Fail will gain seats when the country goes to the poll and said he expects to make significant gains in Dublin where he is targeting five extra seats.

“We will gain seats after the next general election of that I have no doubt and we will be in a position to lead the next government,” he said.

He also said he expects to win three seats in the EU Parliament elections and weighed in behind Cork North Central TD Billy Kelleher who has put his name forward for the Ireland South constituency.

Mr Kelleher and Mr Martin previously clashed over the TD’s decision to put his name forward for the European elections.

He also insisted he has not lost his authority within the party and dismissed claims there is a discipline problem in Fianna Fáil.

“When I look at what’s happening in Westminster I think we have a very coherent operation here,” he said.

He said the “wise heads around the country” who support Fianna Fáil believe he made the correct the decision to renew the confidence and supply agreement with Fine Gael while Brexit negotiations were on-going.

He said he had been predicted he would be confronted by an “angry grass roots” at the party’s Ard Fheis in the City West Hotel in Dublin who would “really go for Martin because of confidence and supply”.

“That was not the case,” Mr Martin said.

“If you actually walked around City West, people were in good form, they got it,” he added.

Tanaiste Simon Coveney has said he is angry and embarrassed by the “warped thinking” which saw two letter bombs sent to transport hubs in London.

The Tanaiste said the people who sent the packages, which had Dublin postmarks, should be “isolated and criticised”.

Gardai are investigating the possibility that the letters were sent to airports and a train stations in London by dissident republican group the New IRA.

Speaking exclusively to Independent.ie’s Floating Voter podcast, Mr Coveney said: “I think any decent thinking person needs to reject utterly the kind of warped thinking that results in somebody sending an explosive device or something that can catch fire in the post into anywhere.”

He said he reacted to yesterdays reports with a “combination of anger and embarrassment” and praised the work of both the gardai and the police.

“The perception in the UK of this will be one of bemusement as to why anyone would want to send even a small explosive device like this to London from Dublin. The fact that it could happen and come from Dublin is something I and many other people would be uncomfortable with,” he added.

The Tanaiste also revealed new details of the Government’s on-going Brexit negotiations.

He said the Government will “intensify” contingency plans for the Irish border if Westminster MPs votes for a no-deal Brexit in the House of Commons next week.

However, he said the solution for the border in a no-deal scenario will still “look like something similar to the backstop”.

“If there is some other way of doing this that prevents border infrastructure or other checks and controls and facilitates an all-Irish economy to function into the future well then we are up for looking at that,” he added.

Mr Coveney separately discussed his family’s fostering of children during his youth. He spoke about encountering on the streets of Cork as a seven year old when walking through the city with one of those children.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been “fatally undermined” by the actions of former members, a Labour Party senator has claimed

Louth based Senator Ged Nash, who is a former PAC member, said the Angela Kerins Supreme Court ruling raised serious questions about TDs “playing the man rather than ball” during committee hearings.

Mr Nash said ex-PAC members John McGuinness, Mary Lou McDonald and Shane Ross would have to “account for their actions” in the wake of the ruling in favour of the former Rehab chief executive.

“The actions of Mary Lou McDonald and the actions of Shane Ross have potentially fatally undermined the public accounts committee,” Mr Nash told Independent.ie’s Floating Voter podcast.

“This really puts a question mark over the future operation of the Public Accounts Committee and other committees as well,” he added

Mr Nash said he raised his “unease” about the committee’s investigation into Rehab at the time of the hearings in 2014.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court signalled its intention to issue a declaration which will say the PAC acted “unlawfully” in its questioning of Ms Kerins.

A final ruling will be made the court in April when the court will decide if the former charity boss is entitled to damages.

Ms Kerins previously told the courts she tried to take her own life after she was grilled by the PAC over her €240,000 salary.

Two former Fianna Fáil ministers have said there is significant anger within the party over the confidence and supply agreement which props up the Government.

Former Cabinet minister Mary Hanafin and Minister of State Conor Lenihan both said deal which underpins Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s government is a cause of serious concern among the party’s membership.

Ms Hanafin and Mr Lenihan are both competing to be selected on the Fianna Fail ticket for the EU Parliament elections in May.

Speaking to the Floating Voter podcast, Mr Lenihan said a quarter of the Fianna Fáil members he has canvased are “very angry and annoyed” by the confidence and supply agreement especially in the wake of the National Children’s Hospital controversy.

He said some members believe “incompetence is being effectively rewarded” by the party’s decision to not support a motion of no confidence in Health Minister Simon Harris.

Ms Hanfin said she was pleased to see reports of robust exchanges between TDs at a recent Fianna Fail parliamentary party as it was important for members to debate issues. She said ordinary members are seeking to have more debates around the confidence and supply agreement.

Ms Hanafin said Fianna Fail members should support her candidacy because she has always stayed involved in Fianna Fáil even after the party’s demise after the 2011 General Election.

“If you play for Dublin, you don’t just turn out on All Ireland day and hope to win the support of the whole of Croke Park, you have to have played in all the championship matches, you have to have played in the league and I’ve been doing that in the last eight years,” she added.

Mr Lenihan, who spent several years working in Russia after the financial crash, said he gained “great experience” from working outside politics.

“I raised €1.2bn in research and development investment for an innovation hub in Moscow and I believe the skillsets and investment raising skills I learned and earned there would be very valuable in terms of conducting the role of an MEP,” he said.

Sinn Féin believes Health Minister Simon Harris is no longer up to the job - but will not be placing a motion of no confidence before the Dáil.

The party’s health spokesperson Louise O’Reilly has said they “don’t have the numbers” to justify trying to force Mr Harris from office over the escalating costs of the National Children’s Hospital.

Speaking on Independent.ie’s ‘Floating Voter’ podcast, Ms O’Reilly said the hospital should go ahead but more answers are needed on how the costs spiralled to €1.4bn.

Sinn Fein previously placed sought to have the Dáil declare no confidence in ex-Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald and Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy – but will not go after Mr Harris in the same way.

Under the confidence and supply arrangement, Fianna Fáil must abstain on confidence motions in ministers. A breach of this deal would almost certainly result in a general election.

Ms O’Reilly said it was up to Fianna Fáil to take action against the minister.

“They say the logic of their position is that they are doing this to save the world from Brexit and they very well might believe that.

“It’s less than a year since Micheál Martin went to Europe and said ‘don’t worry if there is any change in personnel, there’ll be no change in policy so you have nothing to worry about if there is to be an election’,” the Dublin Fingal TD said.

Asked why Sinn Féin won’t try force Fianna Fáil’s hand, she replied: “We don’t the numbers at the moment. If Fianna Fáil want to make a public statement then of course we will consider. Why would be trying to do that when it won’t succeed? They have said their hand is not available to forced.”

The Government plans to hold elections for directly elected mayors in every county, a Fine Gael minster has revealed.

Minister for State for Local Government John Paul Phelan also announced plans to introduce ‘recall elections’ which could see voters petition to remove a mayor from office.

Speaking to Independent.ie’s Floating Voter podcast, Mr Phelan said: “The ultimate objective here is that every local authority will have directly elected heads – a chair, mayor or whatever you want to call it.”

“Cork, Limerick and Waterford are the test grounds,” he added.

On May 24, voters in the three counties will be asked if they want a directly elected mayor who will have similar powers to a local authority chief executive.

Mr Phelan also told the podcast that recall elections, which were recently introduced in the UK, could be extended to the Dáil after they’re introduce for mayors.

This would mean TDs could be forced to fight a by-election for their seat if enough people sign a petition calling for them to be recalled.

Mr Phelan said the “safe guard measure” was being introduced for mayors as a test case.

Under the new system, a two thirds majority of councillors would also be able to remove a mayor if they had done “something completely off the wall,” the minister said.

Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cuív has spoken out about the party’s partnership with the SDLP saying he is “disappointed” that a merger has been taken off the table.

Mr Ó Cuív said a “huge number” of SDLP politicians and members of other political parties would run for Fianna Fáil in the forthcoming local elections in Northern Ireland if the party decided to run candidates.

The Galway West TD was speaking to Independent.ie’s Floating Voter podcast as Fianna Fail ruled out a merger but announced a partnership with the SDLP in Belfast today.

“I hope it is a stepping stone (but) that remains to be seen,” Mr Ó Cuív said

“I am disappointed with the arrangement, I have to say. The SDLP is going down and down and down. It is becoming a smaller and smaller party.

“If Fianna Fail did organise in the North - the SDLP has gone down so low - there would be a huge number of SDLP representatives who would have just transferred immediately to Fianna Fail,” he added.

He said Northern Ireland elected representatives who are currently members of Fianna Fáil are being told to run as Independent candidates in the forthcoming local elections.

The long-serving TD said he first learned a Fianna Fáil/SDLP merger was off the table when it was revealed in last weekend’s Sunday Independent.

Mr Ó Cuív was sacked from the party’s frontbench for his role in unveiling Sorcha McAnespy as a Fianna Fáil’s first candidate in the North.

He said he knew party headquarters would not be “overly pleased” with the decision to announce Ms McAnespy’s candidacy but insisted Fianna Fáil needed the “push” to move North.

He insisted he accepted his punishment and “hasn’t run away” from his involvement with the election stunt which also involved Fianna Fáil senator Mark Daly.

Mr Ó Cuív also discussed attempts by Galway County councillors to get him to run in the Presidential election and his work with dissident republicans.

Illegal cross border dumping businesses are being run by “mafia style operations”, a Fianna Fáil TD has said.

Louth TD Declan Breathnach said border criminal gangs are capitalising on rising environmental costs faced by businesses and families by operating illegal landfill sites.

Speaking to Independent.ie’s Floating Voter podcast, Mr Breathnach said the illegal dumps are being operated on the north and south of the border

“We all know there is big business in waste and waste disposal. The reality is huge activity has gone on - most notably in my own community where two of the biggest landfills ever found were unearthed at huge expense to the Department of the Environment to rectify,” he said.

“The reality is criminality has moved into that area and has done for a long time. The small guy moving door to door (collecting bins) is feeding into that mafia style operation and it is a difficult one to watch,” he added.

On Brexit, the Fianna Fail TD said “too many good relationships have been made” for governments in Ireland and the UK to make a “backwards step”.

He said the people in the UK who voted to Leave the EU were “sold a pup” and a second referendum should be held.

Mr Breathnach said one of the main issue concerning voters on the North of the border was immigration before the Brexit vote.

The doors of the Dáil chamber have been locked and TDs have scuttled back to their constituencies for the Christmas break so it is only right Independent.ie’s Floating Voter podcast looks back at their performances over the last 12 months.

In the past year, our lawmakers made history by legalising abortion, Michael D Higgins was returned to office for a second term and Danny Healy Rae was photographed asleep at a GAA match.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar also made headlines by trying to impress Donald Trump with a claim he may have influenced a planning decision linked to the US President’s golf course in Clare. And he upset first-time buyers by telling them to turn to the ‘bank of mum and dad’ when saving up for a deposit.

On the podcast, Independent Newspapers political editor Kevin Doyle grills his in-house team, deputy political editor Philip Ryan and political correspondent Laura Larkin, about their highlights of the year.

Their knowledge of political events is also put to the test with the first-ever Floating Voter/Sunday Independent political quiz.