What have the government done right?

NIMAN

Listening to the radio the other day, I heard the lack of housing being discussed. I recalled all the chat about fixing the issue over the last decade yet its worse than ever.

Then I got to thinking of all the things that could be described as being at a 'crisis' level in our society, and there is quite a list even off the top of the head.

- the lack of housing

- no room for refugees

- record waiting times in hospitals

- the Mica debacle

- rents as high as New York and Paris

- slow move away from ICE cars

- poor uptake in house retrofitting

- awful deals for fishermen

- huge class sizes

- severe lack of teachers

You get the idea.

Then I wondered, "what could the government point to in the last 5 or 10 years and say they have done a great job on? ". I would guess record tax take would be one of them.

What else?

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058273715/what-have-the-government-done-right

Is "awful deals for fishermen" now a crisis, and on what basis?

Danno

I think getting the M8 Dunkettle Project to where it is deserves some credit. The second runway at Dublin Airport too, though I would have rather they used that money to upgrade Casement to be a second airport for the city and built a spur on to the rail line at the back of Peamount Hospital. The opening of the New Ross bypass was another good project.

Other good items included better paternity leave conditions, the amalgamations of some colleges to create TUs, the reduction of excise duty on road fuels and the refusal to increase the TV licence fees were a selection of a short list of good things done.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119932120#Comment_119932120

It was just something I heard being discussed on the radio today as well, so it popped into my head when writing the op.

We had such a resource in out natural waters but have made a balls of it. All other nations fleets are expanding yet the Irish fleet is getting smaller as its not viable for a lot of boats to go out. Perhaps not a national crisis as such then, you can ignore that one sure.

Got anything that's a great example of government policy that's working well?

NIMAN

I forgot how far we are behind in our attempts to reduce our fossil fuel emissions too.

buried

What have they done right? Their members and lackeys haven't called to my door begging for votes.

But, inevitably like everything else, they'll end up getting that decision wrong too.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119932190#Comment_119932190

A second airport is a terrible idea, just leads to having two crap airports with flights to fewer destinations (e.g. Belfast); also you wouldn't have got Casement to anywhere near commercial ready for the cost of the North runway anyway.

On the actual topic - they handled the economic fallouts of the pandemic much better than I expected them to; public transport fares have been brought to levels that would be considered cheap by European standards (and seem like they're free compared to GB); they haven't actually fallen apart in insane infighting yet

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119932199#Comment_119932199

Yes, aren't the Japanese responsible for eliminating a few species of whales? Surely that is more of a crisis.

https://www.science.org/content/article/overfishing-could-push-european-fish-species-extinction

It's a problem in Europe too.

"More than 90 species of marine fishes in Europe's waters are threatened with extinction, according to a report published today by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Sharks, rays, and other cartilaginous fish are at greatest risk, with about 40% facing extinction. The main threat is overfishing, the report warns."

Of course, we could have stayed out of the EU, kept our fisheries and never had the prosperity we now have.

downtheroad

Is Mica the government's fault?

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119932382#Comment_119932382

Well some would say it is, due to failure to regulate..

I was thinking more of the fact that despite the issue being known about since 2014, there has only been a handful of homes sorted, and there is no progress at all in the other 5000 to 7000.

downtheroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119932398#Comment_119932398

Government should be telling those homeowners they can chase the builders and developers through the courts. Or homebond (or whatever that is). How the taxpayer is on the hook for this is a joke. Maybe that's the crisis, that we all have to fund the repairs.

893bet

Government bashing is almost as popular as dole bashing on here.

mattser

Well all of them saw an increase in the most recent poll, while the main opposition were down 4. Someone thinks they're doing something right.

Itssoeasy

I mean saying that the government has made a mess of housing is a bit simplistic. They haven’t made it better and they deserve blame for what happened on their watch and housing and health was perfect before this, which it wasn’t. Though thankfully that’s not that big a phenomenon on boards.

The Dail and Seanad record has so many references to housing and how bad the hospitals are it’s amazing and it goes back nearly to the first Dail. It’s fascinating how time moves on but some problems in this county have stayed the same throughout.

I think we are in a better situation in the public finances which will hopefully blunt the slowdown that seems to be on the way. I think the government got the initial response to Covid correct. That can’t be said for the reopening back up which was a mess.

Dyr

Lets not their Triumphant, longest, hardest lockdown in Europe that most people were only to happy with

You can blame the government but ultimately it all comes down the sheer complacency of Sean Citizen. We like to go on about our Rebel history but ultimately there was a reason that the Brits were able to stick around for 800 years

Overheal

Well, the aqueducts

farmingquestion

...

Dohnjoe

I grew up in the Ireland in the eighties. High unemployment was the norm, infrastructure was woeful, cars were rust-buckets, masses were emigrating, low quality goods and services on the shelves, we wore second-hand clothes as kids, the list goes on and on.

Now we can't move for luxury SUVs on the roads. All we did in the interim was complain and blame the government, but successive administrations did do something right. We went from one of Western Europe's poorest countries, to one of the more well-off countries.

Indeed, we have a lot of problems now, but they are generally "wealthy country" problems, as opposed to "poor country" problems that we had in the eighties and prior.

eggy81

Got us back to record employment after the last recession. Pretty good achievement. I remember thinking things would be **** forever back then.

buried

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119932516#Comment_119932516

"We can't move for luxury SUVs on the roads" Most of the country before 2008 was in the same fantasy induced situation where you couldn't move for some person who was basically qualified for nothing but a babysitter job who was being given loans in the bank for upwards of one million Euros to get a house.

That was a "wealthy country problem" back in 2008. Looks like some of you haven't learnt any lessons.

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119932516#Comment_119932516

We are still poor. Everything is borrowed. Only the idiots are saving and will have to pay the piper at some stage. It's all funny money based on funny economics.

Put Roderic O'Gorman in the ministry he is in.

He comes across as a compassionate person, and it seems that his own experience as a member of a minority group make him able to empathise with people others. He seems to take complaints and criticisms on board and address those charges.

That said, I cannot wait to see the Greens eradicated from the face of this earth.

buried

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119932660#Comment_119932660

Unfortunately his own experience as a member of a minority group has utterly clouded his judgement as he now believes that minority groups deserve more rights and advantages than the actual majority. What's worse, he's already promised and published rights and advantages that he now cannot provide, just like the ones he and his office showcased last year. His experience as an individual means nothing when you are in a position to supposedly be in charge of a collective. Which is his de-facto remit as a T.D.

ArthurDayne

It's an interesting one as there had been some signs of good work up to 2020.

The government was dealing with the challenge presented by Brexit — and for the most part I think they did well on that front. Their maneuvering in conjunction with the EU partners was generally well thought, and the measures taken to safeguard the Irish economy from Brexit fallout (to the extent possible) have not been without merit. There were signs of some ambition re infrastructural development (Ireland 2040) — and while a lot of that now looks blown out of the water, there was some success like the continued push on the Celtic Interconnector project. Socially, things like the modernising of female reproductive rights have been good. This government does also seem to have a better handle on the country's financial situation.

I do however remain of the view that the Irish COVID lockdown strategy — in terms of its length and intensity — was unjustified and disproportionate. The suspension of things that people might otherwise have spent on, combined with suspended construction, have contributed to the situation where we have a wall of savings in this country vying for very few houses. New fault lines of inequality have emerged — for example the emergence of a Working From Home class who retain high city salaries while having the flexibility to live almost anywhere and price others out.

This government's successes have largely centred around the traditional Irish approach of keeping things steady, predictable, doing nothing overly different. But when the sh*t hit the fan, a recurring failure to be brave and radical in addressing really key issues has come back to bite us all.

thinkabouit

Not go ahead with water charges.

Larbre34

Keeping full employment and a growing economy in the biggest financial headwinds since 1929.

Keeping investment at a high rate and mitigating the effects of Brexit, which in the not so recent past could have destroyed this Country along with Britain.

Everything else is secondary. Minor details.

keynes

The only thing the government should be commended for is their maintenance of the low corporation tax. It is actually quite remarkable given their usual subservience to international bodies they ordinarily feel so beholden to. Fundamentally, all the other "good things" flow from this. (With our enormous revenues from this source and the absence of a military budget, we should of course have the best public services in the world.)

[Deleted User]

I'm very cynical when it comes to peripheral countries.

When I say peripheral, I'm talking about small countries like Denmark or Netherlands or New Zealand or Lithuania.

In our case, Ireland really doesn't have a government. It's either Fianna Fail or Fine Gael - both of whom, on the very large questions, agree on pretty much everything.

When we talk about a "change of government", what we're really talking about is a "change of management".

The prime direction remains exactly the same.

It's just a bunch of middle managers arguing among themselves over relatively peripheral issues. Both of whom do a pretty average job. They wrap up their incompetence in the language of political propaganda and populism, depending on who is in charge. But the outcome is the same, bland indifference.

So don't expect any JFK moment. Small countries are managed, not governed. In the case of Ireland by the misleading idea that FG or FF are different, or by the idea that the EU doesn't control Ireland by proxy.

We are an irrelevant country. Don't expect miraculous management; it ain't going to happen.

The EU are our boss, whether we are willing to admit it or not.

Larbre34

Total rubbish from you as usual Eskimohunt

mojesius

I suppose the referendums on Repeal the 8th and Marriage Equality were positives, as well as their handling of the shitstorm that was Brexit.

I also notice a lot of schools have been upgraded from 80s prefabs in recent years.

That's all I have to say about that.

xxxxxxl

Make all parties redundant and left us with no one to vote for.