{"id":165070,"date":"2025-11-05T23:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T23:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/165070\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T23:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T23:51:08","slug":"fianna-fail-tds-unhappy-at-being-named-on-naughty-list-for-questioning-party-leadership-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/165070\/","title":{"rendered":"Fianna F\u00e1il TDs unhappy at being named on \u2018naughty list\u2019 for questioning party leadership \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> backbench TDs who appeared on a \u201cnaughty list\u201d of rebels against the party leadership have expressed anger over the development. The list was discussed at a parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday night. <\/p>\n

According to those present at the meeting in Leinster House, the most outspoken contribution was made by Kilkenny<\/a> TD Peter \u201cChap\u201d Cleere.<\/p>\n

In an impassioned contribution, the former Kilkenny hurler said it was \u201csad\u201d to be called a rebel by Fianna F\u00e1il as he was from Kilkenny, considered a core party constituency. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou would swear Chap was in the dressingroom at half time in the All-Ireland final,\u201d another TD present at the meeting said afterwards. <\/p>\n

The matter was raised at the meeting by Cork East TD James O\u2019Connor, another of the 13 or so parliamentary members who were on the list. <\/p>\n

It was drawn up by an adviser to a Fianna F\u00e1il Minister, whose identity remains unknown, and circulated among party TDs and Senators last week. <\/p>\n

Those included were put into two categories: \u201crebels\u201d and \u201cold guard\u201d.<\/p>\n

Former ceann comhairle Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Feargha\u00edl<\/a> told the meeting he did not \u201ctake too kindly\u201d to being described as the old guard, given that he was the same age as Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> and both would be entitled to the free bus pass next year.<\/p>\n

Others who spoke were Cork North Central TD P\u00e1draig O\u2019Sullivan and Louth TD Erin McGreehan. She queried how asking questions of the leadership categorises a TD as a rebel. <\/p>\n

\u201cQuestioning is not disloyalty; questioning is seeking accountability,\u201d she said, according to colleagues. <\/p>\n

Others on the list included Pat \u201cthe Cope\u201d Gallagher, Willie O\u2019Dea, John McGuinness, S\u00e9amus McGrath and John Lahart. <\/p>\n

As the Taoiseach is at the Cop30<\/a> conference in Brazil, discussion on the matter was deferred until next week. <\/p>\n

Party MEP Barry Cowen travelled home from Brussels to raise what he said was the urgent situation in relation to the continuation of the Nitrates Directive, and the derogation currently enjoyed by Irish farmers. <\/p>\n

\u201cI take no satisfaction in saying this, but I believe the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine \u2013 and we, as a Government \u2013 are at serious risk of taking a flawed, short-sighted approach, one that could inflict lasting damage on Irish farming and the rural communities that depend on it,\u201d said Mr Cowen. <\/p>\n

He said the derogation that might be agreed will be so full of conditions it will \u201cmake the deal unworkable for virtually 100 per cent of farmers\u201d. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, at the Fine Gael<\/a> parliamentary party meeting, T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/a> said emergency legislation could be used to ensure critical infrastructure was delivered.<\/p>\n

He said this may be required for essential services, such as water and energy supplies for homes across the country.<\/p>\n

The Fine Gael leader said emergency legislation had been passed before in the Oireachtas when required, as in recent years for Brexit. <\/p>\n

Mr Harris said it can be done again for crucial national projects to ensure delivery and cut through the red tape and bureaucracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fianna F\u00e1il backbench TDs who appeared on a \u201cnaughty list\u201d of rebels against the party leadership have expressed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,4771,553,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5765,5,44,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-165070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-fianna-fail","14":"tag-fine-gael","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-micheal-martin","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-simon-harris","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115499780997780550","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}