If there were am Irish General Election today who would you give your first preference vote to?

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119628617#Comment_119628617

Politicians cannot give themselves any raises - their salaries are fixed to specific civil public service roles, so they only get the same increases as other public servants. This has been the case for a very long time.

If you require someone to have absolutely nothing that could be seen as a conflict of interest on becoming a politician, you're limiting your potential pool of candidates to, well, nobody.

The Register of Interests exists for a reason. The punishment for doing a Troy on it should be expulsion, not a mealy mouthed apology and keep going; but its there.

PsychoPete

Anyone but Sinn Fein

Jim_Hodge

I'll decide when I see the candidates in my constituency.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119628794#Comment_119628794

Exactly, unless you are a die hard supporter of a particular party why would you vote for someone that you thought was no good if another party had an excellent candidate ?

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119628820#Comment_119628820

Interesting. That's almost the polar opposite of my stance. There are plenty of excellent politicians in my constituency but I disagree with the policies of their parties so I won't vote for them.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119628898#Comment_119628898

My point was that if you don't know who will be on the ballot you can't make a value judgement.

You are talking about politicians you know so you can say you won't vote for them.

Would you vote for a dud representing a particular party rather than an excellent independent candidate?

Damien360

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119628772#Comment_119628772

The linking of politicians salaries to public servants salaries should have been decoupled a long time ago. Can you honestly tell me that the vast majority of the Dail could truly manage to get good employment at the salary and expense level they currently receive ?

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119628998#Comment_119628998

Yes. The salary really isn't that high. For the Senate it's actually crap.

And if you can pick specific members of the current Dail that are clearly incapable of earning such otherwise (and yes, there are a fair few - I could name a few that I don't think would be coherently capable of signing on even) - do you want to limit the potential future Dail candidates to just those? Because paying a lower salary will do just that.

Why would you become a TD when you can get paid much more for a much easier job - except to take bribes; which is the main reason that they're paid a reasonable amount.

It was specifically coupled to stop the Dail giving themselves pay increases. It never stopped people accusing them of doing so, though. If it was decoupled do you think it wouldn't suddenly become 250k?

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119628987#Comment_119628987

It's a hypothetical, but yes, I would choose a party over an individual. Most politicians serve the party. They typically vote with the party at all times so it makes sense to me to choose based on their party. If there are two of them from a party that I am interested in, in that particular election cycle, then I will base my preference between them on their individual attributes.

I don't really see the point of voting for independents at all. The sun, moon & starts need to line up for most of them to have any sway in anything and I'm not too interested in the parish-pump politics.

maccored

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119628680#Comment_119628680

the guff people pedal. show us the info there to say they dont believe in people owning private property. you'll be saying they're marxists next

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119629131#Comment_119629131

The flip side of that is that you would be willing to vote for a useless candidate once they wear the badge of your preferred party. That is what we see in the US

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119629046#Comment_119629046

There are some that would earn as much, if not a lot more, if they had never entered politics.

Then there are some who would earn more if they left politics - on the basis of experience gained and connections made while being a politician. i.e. if they had never been elected, they likely wouldn't be in the running for those positions

Then there are some that are qualified in nothing else, or else qualified in a steady but not wealthy profession who would never make the money they make as a politician.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119629131#Comment_119629131

As we have seen the era of single party government is in the past.

The best you can hope for is that the policy initiatives that drew you to vote for a particular party make it into a programme for government after the election.

I think that a really good independent candidate trumps a useless individual who has just happened to get a party nomination.

But that's just me.

Brussels Sprout

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119631873#Comment_119631873

It would make even more sense to vote on a party basis in the USA given that there only really two parties and they are extremely different to each other. Also their House of Representatives has 438 members so the power of any one of them is miniscule.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119631914#Comment_119631914

Well, we'll just have agree to disagree then.

Finty Lemon

Peddle

Finty Lemon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119629143#Comment_119629143

Ultimately the land of Ireland belongs to the people of Ireland and that is the underlining theme on which our policy is based. Sinn Fein believes that the constitutional balance must be in favour of the common good over and above the rights of private property."

Guess who will be deciding "the common good" ....

Thinkingaboutit

Independents, people I know a bit, even if they're no hopers as to getting seats. Entering the political process with the resources the machine parties have and failing is something heroic. Challenging our pretend arguing hereditary political and ruling class is not easy.

fits

I’m very fed up with the erosion of childrens disability services and therapy. It was a vastly superior service even five years ago. But sure they can’t vote so….

my five year old kid has had zero therapy since the pandemic started.

so I’ll be looking at any party that has a realistic plan to address it quickly.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119632825#Comment_119632825

You mean the party that will sell you the best fairy tale. As you have already pointed out there are no votes in it and with the prevailing economic conditions no money around either, so you are likely to disappointment in your choice.

The only way conditions will improve for your kid is if the over all conditions in the country improve and more cash flows into the exchange. And the parties that are most likely to impact that are FF/FG and SF. An if you are serious about change the you are going to need to join one of these parties, get involved in driving party policy and campaigning.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119632526#Comment_119632526

Well we know it won’t be SF that is for sure! Private property rights are enshrined in the constitution, so it will the very people who’s property rights they want to take away that will get to decide, after the Supreme Court has declared their dreams unconstitutional.

fits

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119632833#Comment_119632833

Thanks for explaining to me how politics works.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119632838#Comment_119632838

Sorry I mistook you for someone that actually wanted go go beyond whining about it.

fits

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119632928#Comment_119632928

Yeah thanks I’ll see if I can fit it in between my full time job, my 5 am starts and caring for my son whilst running ragged around the place trying to get him what he needs.

Kermit.de.frog

If Fine Gael deliver tax cuts for workers they have my vote.

On SF I think this stuff about property rights is going to be toxic to home owners and could hit the party hard in the next election when it's brought up.

Damien360

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119633083#Comment_119633083

SF are chasing the young vote and not your vote. There is a wedge driven between those of us who worked hard to own our homes and those who cannot actually afford one.

Generation rent vs older generation. Those of us old enough to know what happened in NI will be more unlikely to vote SF. The younger generation don’t know and don’t care as that was all in the past. SF is strangely driving a wedge into taxpayers but the younger generation doesn’t see themselves in that same bracket as housing is most important for them.

The inane muttering and flip flopping of Leo, the waffle from Michael, the drivel from Eamon is wiping out their vote. I reckon it will be a rainbow government with SF and a whole host of independents next election, a bit like the main party and Healy-Rae one all those years ago.

The local FF, FG and Labour councillors and TD’s must smell something in the air as we have got quite a few election type leaflet drops to our home in the last 3 or 4 weeks. An election may be closer than anyone thinks.

Faugheen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119633131#Comment_119633131

I actually think Micheal Martin is the best thing about this current government. He’s out nearly every day facing questions and isn’t hiding. I genuinely don’t think we had that with Leo or Enda before him.

He had a shocking start but as the pandemic went on he grew into it. The problem is Leo and Eamon know that without their support then the government is dead in the water so they just mouth off about whatever they want. The constant kite-flying from Leo really annoys me and Martin has to constantly play bad cop and pour cold water over Leo’s fantasy plans. I’ll be interested to see how Martin behaves when the roles are reversed.

As for who I’ll vote for? I put Sinn Fein. I’m no big lover of theirs, but the social contract is completely broken and it’s down to policies of FF and FG so I just want to see something different. I think they’ll need one of FF or FG to go into government anyway and if they don’t deliver, then it will take a long time for them to recover.

You can already see them becoming more moderate in their policies. They’re now suggesting ‘changes’ to the USC model instead of abolishing it. They’re in favour of subventions to energy companies so a price cap can be placed on bills etc.

They won’t be the ‘looney left’ party in government.

I don’t particularly like Mary Lou McDonald, however I do have a lot of time for Michelle O’Neill. I know she wouldn’t be running but if there was a United Ireland I’d much rather her as Taoiseach than Mary Lou.

Galwayguy35

I will vote for the Independant candidate, number 2 will go to the FG guy who is also very active with the community.

Don't know if Rabbitte will run next time but she won't be geting my vote anyway.

maccored

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119632526#Comment_119632526

so basically they never said what you claimed they did. good to have that cleared up.

Brussels Sprout

I'm genuinely surprised that the far-right Troika only got 6% given the amount of immigration and culture war type threads on this forum.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119628068#Comment_119628068

Not as simple as that. I intend to turn up, collect my ballot paper and then give every candidate my bottom preference. That's voting, but it will be recorded as a spoilt vote. Hence the option "none" would cover my choice of candidate.