Fianna fail/Fianna Geal Confidence and supply deal

It's not down to poor execution. The issues we face in Ireland have been worsening. That's not down to poorly executed policy but poor policy.
A minority government would be good if FG didn't have FF, (or in the past Labour). Sadly even with the Greens 'keeping FF in check' we didn't see any keeping in check. I've not witnessed anything of note get the elbow because FG are in a minority government. We still have the same policies we had under Kenny pretty much. Maybe he'll make a come back and 'end the scandal of hospital trolleys' in time for the annual worse than usual crisis crisis. 'These things take time' though....

kalych wrote: »

Will never work with PR-STV. The reason Ireland is stuck with FF/FG always is the transfer system. While it prevents large number of nutjobs being elected at the same time and forming a new party, it also prevents any serious change from happening also. You may vote number 1 for someone new, but most will always give 2-3 preference to some incumbent.

I think record breaking numbers of child homeless and year on year worsening crises in housing and health is pretty nutty. I wonder what the fear is of anyone outside of FF/FG? They might lead us to a financial disaster?

Simply wondering what the fear is considering we're literally breaking records.

Interesting article on parties funding yesterday:

Political parties now almost wholly reliant on State funding

Fine Gael is in similar rude financial health.

It recorded total income of €6.2 million for the year, of which State funding made up almost €4.7 million. Because it is in government, and many of its TDs are Ministers and so receive the support of the civil service, Fine Gael receives less than Fianna Fáil under the leaders’ allowance and in Oireachtas supports.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/political-parties-now-almost-wholly-reliant-on-state-funding-1.3680924

I trust they are paying tax these days.

kalych wrote: »

Certain portions of the population simply don't trust them maybe?
If the ruling party is failing in certain aspects doesn't mean you absolutely have to vote for someone who "sounds" like they'll fix those few issues. That's not how people's voting habits work in my opinion.

Sometimes if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. otherwise it would have been fixed already. This is evidenced by the rise and failures of populist parties around the world that cause more problems than they fix (populists in Italy and their budget issues, Orban's party in Hungary and its nationalistic stance, SYRIZA in Greece previously offering no solution other than "leave the Euro and it'll all get better", UKIP's influence transforming the Tory party to the extent that they refuse to accept reality with Brexit - it will destroy their economy, Venezuela etc.)

Some of these parties are right leaning, some left. but ultimately they are all populist in nature. SF seem in that sense to be of the same ilk. Again I'm mindful that I may be completely wrong but it's my view (and my vote). Hope this answers your question of "why not?".

I get the lack of trust. It's obvious they are not preferable to most. The fear can't be regarding the economy or societal crises when we've had, will have and are suffering through same.
FG/Lab got in because they made it 'sound like' they'd tackle certain things. That's generally how every party gets elected.
It's not a case of a few hiccups, it's national emergency level and record breaking. Most of us aren't eating out of bins as the man says but many areas are simply going in the wrong direction for many years now.
I'd suggest it's more a case of ignoring issues or tending to them in a manner that makes them worse, but is good business for a minority. At this stage you have to ask are they bad at their job or good, depending on their goals?

Yet the two times our economy was destroyed was under the governance of Fianna Fail, a party Fine Gael view good enough to co-govern with.
Fianna Fail will profit from Fine Gaels loss and I believe Fine Gael are okay with that as it keeps the see-saw between the two going.

Populist? There's an element of that in every party, particularly the most popular ones. End the scandal of hospital trolleys comes to mind.
FF/FG performance shouldn't be measured against Sinn Fein's popularity, but it often is. I'd prefer the likes of the SD's myself.
The main common factor between FF/FG/SF is they each have a die hard base regardless of what they say or do. That's the big problem IMO.

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

Of course the fear can be regarding the economy.

If we elect economic illiterates just because they are not FG/FF, we might still be in recession with massive unemployment instead of seeing EU-leading growth and all-time record employment numbers.

I'm not pushing for anyone else just cause. I didn't raise that. I'm merely pointing out we already have a government doing a bad job, record breakingly so in some areas. So even if we take others as possibly being bad at governing, it's more a matter of choice between equally incompetents, more or less, not sticking it to FF/FG just cause.

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

This recovery is straining our economy in various ways, like demand for housing when our building industry is still only half recovered from the crash, but it is absolutely better than being still down in the economic dumps.

But it's not. Housing/health are worse than when we were 'in the economic dumps'. Not to mention Fine Gael taking the party that oversaw our visit to the economic dumps as a partner, lest we get lumbered with a third party that might send us to the economic dumps.
Demand for housing isn't a side effect of a growing economy. It's an effect of bad policy year on year. I thought the whole point of growing the economy was so we all felt the benefit? This is obviously not so, so what's the disconnect here? Wait another decade or so? When is the switch tripped when we'll all feel the benefit, is there such a thing? It's likely we'll continue as is until the next crash at which time we'll be told we partied or went mad depending on which party, FF/FG, has the upper hand votes wise.

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

Pretty much all the alternatives we have are 'left' in one form or another. I guess there are a lot of voters out there who are vaguely dissatisfied with FF/FG but don't want that alternative.

There's no viable party going to knock FF/FG off their perch. We've far too many born and bred civil way families. That's our curse. Even in the early days of the most recent melt down FF were faring better than the spooky left that will...cause us to enter a financial melt down, rise in homelessness? I forget.

I'd say the majority are far beyond 'vaguely dissatisfied'.
FF know they'll not sweep in to a majority, so they are best sticking with the current set up. Similarly, FG shouldn't be expecting any great strides beyond where they are. That's all this renewed agreement is about. Talk of security, is referencing their own interests and security. Proof, FG partnering with FF. The party that nearly had us all 'eating out of bins' is suddenly good enough to co-govern and bring stability. As I've said before it'll be some laugh reading any FG propaganda in the run up to the next election.
With rents on the increase and the emergencies and crisis becoming part of the scenery, sure, lets keep this brand of 'stability'.

In FG's desperation to maintain power they brought FF back from the near dead. That's one of the legacies of Kenny and Varadkar. Not that FF wouldn't have been back but we might have had a longer break, (the chance for a new party/parties to get a look in?). All derived from FG doing such a poor job and the public being more than 'vaguely dissatisfied' with them to give them a majority.