Forming the next Irish Government - policies and personalities

You can tell the sticky wicket the government have landed themselves in by the way they have sent Paul McAuliffe out to shout across others and basically try and bully the view that they are acting in the interests for a more efficient/fairer Dáil.
It's just a smokescreen for a continued attempt to bolster a grubby deal with parish pump independents.

At this stage, diplomatic contacts would have been made that an invitation is/not on the way as visas would need to be applied for. So politicians would have been told informally what is happening.

It suggests to me that Sinn Fein may well have been getting out ahead of the bad news that they knew was coming in an attempt to control the narrative.

As MM said, they are playing politics as always.

It is always a presidential invite:

"I was asked yesterday about the status of the invitation of Prime Minister Kenny, from Ireland, to visit the United States on St Patrick's Day and I'm pleased to announce that the president has extended that invitation.

White House confirms St Patrick's Day invitation to Enda Kenny - BBC News

It doesn't matter what the current Dail rules say. If the SF court case succeeds, essentially the Court will be saying that the Constitution overrules Dail rules and legislation, ruling that Junior Ministers are not members of Cabinet (in practical terms, nothing much will change, they will be relegated to advisers). So any rules - e.g. the current reserved speaking time for opposition parties - that contravene the Constitution will have to be thrown out.

The Constitution makes no mention of opposition, it just says the Government (now only 15) is accountable to the Dail. Traditionally, this has been taken to mean Government parties and the accountability has been reserved to opposition time. With the reduction in the Government to 15, all else will be opposition.

Standing orders says in relation to groups/parties:

(5) A group may not include— (i) a party which contains a Minister or Minister of State; (ii) a member who is a Minister or Minister of State; (iii) some of the members of a party but not the others.

So no, it would not entitle FF and FG members to join technical groups or opposition groups.

I did a bit of looking before and the latest date for confirmation I could find was 14th February.

Yes, but those standing orders fall if the Sinn Fein court case is successful, which is the point I am making.

If the High Court rules that the Government only consists of 15 Ministers (which is what SF are seeking), then how can the standing orders rule out Ministers of State for example?

You are being deliberately obtuse. The common understanding of the term government is usually the parties that make up the government - not just the ministers themselves. When Barry Ward said he wasn't a member of the government he is technically correct, but from a wider understanding he isn't.

The way the standing orders are currently laid out (for better or worse) is that the opposition parties and groupings get to hold the ministers to account. The members of the parties of the ministers don't have the same speaking rights. If there's any sort of outcome to the legal challenge on the members of cabinet and whether super junior ministers are included, I don't see why that would have an impact on the general nature of the standing orders.

The government could, if they wanted to, change the standing orders now anyway - they have a majority in the Dáil and it's up to the Dáil to manage them. But it would (rightly in my mind) be seen for what it is - an opportunity to reduce the overall ability for the opposition to hold the government to account.

It’s an invite when the two governments agree a timetable not before

yes of course it’s an invite but it involves a lot of prep team to team before it reaches that ‘formality’ and I’d imagine there’s some pushback this year or more careful planning given our governments position conflicts with many of the Whitehouse

It is possible of course that it wouldn’t go ahead

Anything is possible in the current climate

Well, you see, the case being taken isn't about the "common definition", it is about the Constitutional provisions. They don't mention "Cabinet" or "common understanding", they are quite explicit - the Government consists of between seven and fifteen members - no more, no less.

Then it says, quite explicitly, that the Government is responsible to the Dail.

You are indeed correct, the Government could change the standing orders now anyway, could reduce opposition time and give it to Government backbenchers. The difference is, if the court rules in favour of Sinn Fein, the Government will have no choice but to follow the Constitutional provisions, and allow all TDs who are not in Government (i.e. one of the 15) to hold the Government responsible as the Constitution requires.

The current situation is that the provisions of the Constitution are interpreted widely, if we revert, as SF are seeking to do, to a narrow definition of the provisions of the Constitution, that just doesn't apply to one part of Article 48, it applies to the whole lot of the Article.

No it won’t.
The court will decide if more than 15 is unconstitutional or not.
Really the ‘sky is falling’ spinning went out if fashion a while ago. You did the same scaremongering re: the Apple ruling with the attendant dodgy legal ‘expertise’ all designed to make the opposition look like fools.

Are SF using UK funds or RoI funds to finance the case btw? If the case is lost how much are they on the hook for?

If it’s won ditto how much is the government on the hook for ?

500,000 sounds like a round figure

So this case might end up costing way more than what 2 super juniors are paid for being super juniors in a 5 year term?

Barmy

Aye, the world will come to a standstill in shock if MM doesn’t get to deliver the shamrock.
It’s very much an issue of local interest, nobody is gonna pay much heed tbh whether MLMD or MM go or not.

Pay less attention to Twiiter and look at Dàil activity maybe?
There is quite a list of interventions on z range of issues from Garda numbers, Neutrality, Senior Cycle Reform, to issues around Carers. Not to mention introducing legislation on Education.

Well you are obviously paying no attention to what is actually going on.

SF don’t decide what gets reported btw.