General Irish politics discussion thread

Seth Brundle

mod: move on from this point scoring nonsense

PopePalpatine

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122009481#Comment_122009481

He's like the physical embodiment of the comments section of Niall Boylan's Facebook page.

Brussels Sprout

List of councilors not running again in June here.

Some notable names there:

• Mary Hanafin (former FF minister)
• Kenneth Egan (Olympic silver medalist)
• Charlie O'Connor (former FF TD)

blackwhite

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122022571#Comment_122022571

Not on the list - in Dublin one of my local DLRCoCo councillors, Emma Blain from FG, is moving from Sandyford-Glencullen to stand instead in Pembroke, a DCC LEA.

Seems odd to take an established councillor with a presence in one area and drop her into a new LEA and new council area like that.

markodaly

https://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2024/0415/1443507-school-meals-programme/

What do people think of this?

From the details and comments, it seems they are expediating this scheme so that schools not included can get on the scheme in the next few months, while before there was a 2030 target.

We are going to hear a lot more of this between now and the next few elections.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122023590#Comment_122023590

Generally speaking I think it's a wonderful program with zero downside that should be rolled out everywhere as quickly as possible. Always found it amazing when I was younger and found out hot meals were available in most English schools.

Notmything

Whatever the reason for bringing more schools into the scheme earlier than planned, it's going to be difficult to knock it.

My kids went to school that trialled the scheme and the food offered was decent, and introduced them to a good variety of options, and it wasn't all nuggets and chips.

I work in the area of family support and between breakfast clubs and now lunches being provided a lot of kids will be better off.

ax530

Spoke to a teacher who worked in a school with this scheme.

The waste was something else she said.

Food comes in containers to keep warm until served. It is not a freshly cooked meal.

Comes in prepared portions and most ended up in the bin.

Mostly pasta+ butter she said.

Think having fruit available in school and maybe freshly made sandwiches would be better.

Don't think schools would be happy with the extra costs for bins or extra pest control.

Notmything

Different schools have different ways of having the meals provided so I can only speak from my experience.

At the start of each day the children picked from a menu of usually 3 options. As the school doesn't have a kitchen the food was provided by a local service that also does meals on wheels.

As well as the hot food they got a fruit or veg pot.

All the containers were biodegradable and were returned to the service each day, I assume they had a system in place for disposing of them.

markodaly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122024201#Comment_122024201

Depends on your definition of freshly cooked. But it is a fresh meal.

Sam Russell

Not only did schoolkids in the UK get a hot meal in the middle of the day, they also got a serving of milk every day (of about 170mm) - or they did until Thatcher the snatcher (Education Minister) found out and cancelled the milk.

For families in poverty, post war, it improved the health of children in the fifties hugely such that they were the healthiest before or since.

It became a central plank for the popular culture of education in the UK, such that Victoria Woods wrote a sit-com called The Dinner Ladies. It was a hit because it was well written - but also appealed to that of most viewers had of a fond memory of school dinners.

L1011

The part time, school hours jobs that these create are also useful for those who may be otherwise unable to work due to school time commitments. There's a few different operators, they've all had to expand significantly.

This is something that the Government should not be clapping themselves on the back for though - its hideously late - the rollout started in 2003.

awec

I went to school in the north where obviously you could get hot food. It actually surprised me a bit when I learnt this was very unusual here.

It wasn't free, but the cost was heavily subsidised. Families on low incomes got it for free. The way it worked was on a Monday you went and bought your dinner tickets (or were given them for free), and then when you picked up the food you handed over a ticket.

This way kids never knew who paid and who was on free lunches.

It wasn't cooked to order food like, it wasn't a restaurant. You didn't get a choice, the menu was set for the week. Not everything was amazing but it was decent.

You got desert every day too, a highlight was the pink sponge cake with pink custard!

I think these days the options would probably be better and healthier.

Parents could still send a packed lunch if they preferred.

I would fully support a similar system coming in here. My child goes to school every day with a packed lunch, I'd way prefer them to get a hot meal. I don't mind paying for it either, it doesn't need to be free.

Brussels Sprout

I went to a primary school in a disadvantaged area. This was in pre-Celtic Tiger era Ireland so a time when there wasn't a huge amount of money in the country in general but also before the modern DEIS designations.

I remember the teachers used to give some of my classmates sandwiches at lunchtime. The thing is that they queued up at their desk at lunchtime, very publicly in front of the rest of the class. It was only maybe 2 or 3 boys out of a class of 30 but even at that young age there was a stigma about it. When the teacher wasn't around they would get mocked by some of the crueler boys. I recall one of them being knicknamed "Binny" because they said that his family ate out of a bin and others would be taunted by children making a big show of eating a chocolate bar in front of them. Awful stuff.

Having witnessed that kind of thing I think that anything like this has to either be universal or done in such a way that grants anonymity to the children who require it. I also think that it should absolutely be done because I also remember that those boys kept going back for those sandwiches, despite the taunting, because they were bloody well hungry and they had nothing else to eat.

Rugbyf565

https://www.newstalk.com/news/eamon-ryan-arklow-airport-plan-would-have-to-benefit-the-public-and-show-value-for-money-1715901?fbclid=IwAR3DNuzPjv0GrjRoDfzqeDxG1ZwTqj2dF1UMY48BgZJNVRAC0L2PRwA7SJ4

Eamon Ryan’s always been a Fine Gaeler- in one statement he contradicts his whole position on climate change (he should be saying we need to reduce pollution, emissions, de-incentivise air travel), he actively supports foreign investment from corrupt middle eastern states, he encourages road travel on N11 and undermines the importance of metro link and inter country train link projects (arklow train) & cross country train links (to Shannon airport) by placing air travel & new unneeded infrastructure ahead of it and he sprouts bs conservative ‘creates jobs’ taking points, we all know where that economic logic/thinking ends.

PommieBast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122026950#Comment_122026950

I don't rate Eamon but reading the article my impression is of someone who is trying to be non-commital either way. The bit about job creation is not a quote from him.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122026950#Comment_122026950

Eamon Ryan knows full well that that project is never going anywhere.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122026950#Comment_122026950

I don't think you read the article carefully enough. Government ministers have a responsibility to listen to all proposals. There wasn't any sign in that article that he was in anyway positively disposed towards it.

People hit on the Greens a lot, but this isn't one.

Jack Daw

So I've just seen 2 recent videos of Matt Carthy and Marylou McDonald.

Carthy states in a speech that "we are all Palestinians" don't think we are Matt, and the vast majority of people don't give a toss about what is happening outside Ireland.

Marylou McDonald in speech refers to our "precious Muslim community"Why all the pandering to a bunch of religious gobbledygook?

You'd almost think with all this nonsense they are deliberately trying to turn people off them so they don't actually get into power so they won't be exposed for the bunch of spoofers they are.

https://twitter.com/LionChief101/status/1779084558966698057

https://twitter.com/sledge81NEWS/status/1780315639325880699

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122029610#Comment_122029610

Carthy states in a speech that "we are all Palestinians" don't think we are Matt, and the vast majority of people don't give a toss about what is happening outside Ireland.

In terms of what the vast majority of people think - is this simply based on what you think?
As for his comments, I think you're deliberately taking them out of context and not seeing them in the same light as "Je suis Charlie" for example. Might you be doing this because of a particular agenda?

Marylou McDonald in speech refers to our "precious Muslim community"Why all the pandering to a bunch of religious gobbledygook?

FFS, she is referring to a community of people - what is gobbledygook about that?

You'd almost think with all this nonsense they are deliberately trying to turn people off them so they don't actually get into power so they won't be exposed for the bunch of spoofers they are.

I'd almost think that there is a bias in your posts. If this is the worst thing fault you can see with SF then maybe you need to change your filter.

Jack Daw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122029655#Comment_122029655

We don't need pandering to any communities based on religion, all religion is just nonsense.

Most people don't care about Palestine as recent polls have show.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122029727#Comment_122029727

We don't need pandering to any communities based on religion, all religion is just nonsense.

I agree that religion is nonsense but that does not mean that those communities don't exist - they do and it would be stupid of any politician to ignore that.

Most people don't care about Palestine as recent polls have show.

You seem to be confusing voter priorities with what voters care about. While it may not be their priority, that doesn't mean that they don't care about it! Plus Palestine has been something IIRC SF have been shouting about for some time so it makes sense for them to continue shouting about it!

Brussels Sprout

That's quite the source:

• Paid for Blue Check Mark (and only 135 followers)
• Rumble user
• protonmail account

That's like the disinformation trifecta right there.

Jack Daw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122030000#Comment_122030000

So she didn't say it?

See below straight from the horses mouth then from another event.

Pandering to any religion in a load of guff, we really could do without it from any political party.We've almost managed to get rid of politicians pandering to catholics in this country we don't need to start doing it for other religions.

https://twitter.com/MaryLouMcDonald/status/1417436180648546331

Seth Brundle

Pandering to any religion in a load of guff, we really could do without it from any political party.We've almost managed to get rid of politicians pandering to catholics in this country we don't need to start doing it for other religions.

How exactly did she "pander" to the muslim community?
You are deliberately taking offence at a phrase.
As I previously said, there is loads wrong with SF but it does appear that your problem with them is in relation to their stance on immigrants (or at least certain immigrants) and I think that says far more about you than it does about SF.

Now if you want to have a mature discussion on phraseology then head over to the English forum but (and I'll say it in bold)
mod: no xenobhobic posts here!

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122030043#Comment_122030043

That's not what I said. I was commenting on that account pushing the message. It's clearly been set up by someone to push a far-right message with a particular interest in bashing muslims.

The only reason it's mentioning MLM is because she said something positive about muslims which is diametrically opposed to their own world view - where the only permitted stories about muslims are of them being dangerous criminals, religious lunatics and terrorists.

It's fascinating to me that the Irish far-right hate Sinn Fein more than they hate the government parties. Sinn Fein have never been in power in this country. If they're upset about immigration policy they should probably take it up with the parties who have been responsible for that over the past 25 years.

Jack Daw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122030163#Comment_122030163

I don't like Sinn Fein precisely because they appear to stand for nothing anymore they flip flop constantly (admittedly all political parties do that), but they are much much worse and obvious at it and clearly will say and do anything if they think it would make them popular.

I also happen to think a party who are supposed to be rooted in nationalism should actually be more nationalistic in its outlook and focus on Ireland first and foremost .

There is nothing positive to be said about the Muslim religion ( or any other other religion) , there is plenty positive can be said about people who happen to be Muslims, you can have respect for people who happen to be Muslim's without pandering to their religion. I also notice that it's odd that politicians go after the Muslim vote (like she is) but never seemed to go after the Polish Vote despite the large numbers of Polish people who emigrated here, could it be that they aren't a trendy enough minority group and you don't get enough social justice points for going after the Polish vote.

I really think anyone attempting to gain votes of people by praising their religion is a slippery slope, we don't need any more religious influence in politics in Ireland regardless of what the religion is.

L1011

Due to having EU citizenship, there aren't that many Polish, or other eastern Euro, people living here who are able to vote in General Elections. Its more common for those from outside the EU to naturalise and hence gain that right.

kalych

Agree with the above. Only to point out that it isn't just apathy since some EE countries like Lithuania don't allow dual citizenship. This means that getting Irish citizenship would result in some risk (if ever wanting to go back to Lithuania to retire) and a great deal of expense and time wasted. Living here with an EU passport results in mostly all the same benefits as an Irish citizen apart from voting rights and many choose to forgo the trouble of getting Irish citizenship in this case.

However, Lithuanian immigrant children are much more likely to be Irish citizens and this trend might change as we have more second generation EE immigrants entering the workforce.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122030473#Comment_122030473

True, and this scenario results in us having to increase the number of TDs we have because that figure is based on population, not just the population with GE voting rights