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Election called for Saturday 8 February

Thelonious Monk

Can't see a thread on this. That's pretty soon huh? I hope people vote anything but FF/FG. Why not do something different for a change?

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suicide_circus

goldenhoarde wrote: »

While change is good, hand on heart will new minister's in the health and housing actually solve the issues.

this is it for me. Today and yesterday i listened to people from FF, SF, LAB, Greens, PBP going after Eoin Murphy, Simon Harris and FG as a whole over health and housing. And rightly so. But i just wanted to shout at the radio "WTF are you going to do about it??!" These are issues all over the western world.

Healthcare system problems in Sweden:
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/consumer/swedes-face-problems-with-health-care-system

Healthcare system problems in Germany
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-aims-to-revamp-crisis-hit-care-industry-amid-worker-shortage/a-47268886

Healthcare System problems in France
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/11/french-medics-health-service-collapse-doctors-nurses-protest-outside-french-health-ministry-strikes

Berlin housing crisis
https://berlinspectator.com/2019/01/08/berlins-housing-shortage-no-improvement-in-sight-3/

Housing crisis in the Netherlands
https://dutchreview.com/expat/housing/housing-crisis-in-the-netherlands/

Yes these issues are chronic in Ireland and the health service has been in freefall my entire life but they are not unique to us and a certainly not going to be solved by anyone on your ballot paper unfortunately.

Not very constructive i know...

PhilOssophy

FG:

- The only party to build 1 hospital for the price of 2
- Millions squandered on a broadband plan which is not fit for purpose
- Have created a country where only the really rich can aspire to own a home within 1 hr of Dublin City Centre.
- Have dont NOTHING in 9 years with the health service, except decide that we didn't need to price a Children's Hospital. Record numbers on trolleys, what happened to Dr James Reillys grand vision which he shouted about in opposition?

Anyone who thinks the crash that happened under FF wouldn't have happened under FG is deluded, they were going to spend more money on public services and public sector wages at the time.

The upshot : I honestly don't know who I will vote for, but not FG anyway, 9 years of any administration is enough.

2020Vision

DellyBelly wrote: »

I voted for FG the last 2 elections when I would have voted FF before then however i think it's time for a change in Ireland. I'll be voting FF this time. Give them a chance to add new ideas...

It's a shame that the Soc Dems are led by two pretty uninspirational TDs.

If they had managed to keep Baldie Donnelly on board, I would have been very tempted to give them a go.

reg114

The FG gov led by Enda Kenny that came to power after the economic crash blew the greatest opportunity for wholesale change this country could have ever witnessed. Decades of bloated unionised government departments like the health sector, education, the gardai could have been obliterated overnight if the political will had been present and the message conveyed to an electorate in shock after the crash.

The sad fact is public sector employee numbers exploded under Bertie Ahearne at a time when technology could have been adopted to actually reduce head count.

A cost benefit analysis of every government department has never been performed, this is something that could have been done under the watchful eyes of the IMF ten years ago. But Enda didnt have the guts. I recall Morgan Kelly predicting the economic collapse with confidence, equally he said cuts should have been much much deeper than Enda permitted, but what do you expect when you have a teacher as a Taoiseach ? Replace him with a failed Doctor ? Leo is like a south side version of Bertie only in a better cut suit. Both men were gifted a booming economy and both only interested in having their photos taken, and history will treat them roughly the same, because a recession is looming folks.

Irelands two party system works no better than the british or the American two party systems.. They have all failed, but they have failed not simply because of their respective political infrastructures but primarily because on an apathetic public. Apathy is the greatest threat to democracy. Watch how many people vote for FF and FG in the next election, if you are amongst them you are part of the problem. I have never voted for either party. Perhaps I'll vote for the greens.. at least they take the impending climate crisis seriously as opposed to Looney leo who thinks global warming will be a good thing FFS.. and to those who scoff at the greens lack of 'economic nous' , I say .. it was all the economic geniuses in FF who buried us financially, ( irish national debt is still 250 billion euros) and it was FF and FG who have enjoyed a cosy 'confidence and supply' partnership in recent years .. thats not democracy .. Wake up folks. If you keep voting for the same parties the outcome will be the same every single time.

Billcarson

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

The implication is that people who are "I'm all right Jack" don't care for issues such as housing and health. People with good jobs still need their employers to be able to hire employees that need homes to grow and stay profitable.
Even with private health insurance, I still have to use A&E where required.

But as you choose SF, am example why I don't vote for them is their plans to punish with extra tax anyone earning over 100K. What will that do to fix the health system that needs more consultants? Multinationals moving here create many well paid jobs but that extra punishing tax will just make it harder to attract then here as they need to attract in their key managerial staff from abroad.

And how did the government improve things in the health service? I have private health insurance too,sure that's what they want us to have. The gov have seemed to have made the health service even worse.
Sorry but I want fg out and ff nowhere near Gov simple as that. Sf all the way for me.

Of course that's not going to happen is it. Ff back in with the greens as junior party is my prediction . So you can sleep soundly......

suicide_circus

and FF giving out about the cost of the children's hospital....give me strength. does anyone seriously for one minute believe that the overruns wouldn't have been just as horrendous under FF? Remember when they delivered the Port Tunnel on budget? me neither.
.

James Brown

I think all the left parties need own their own narrative.

It's the right with; improve this, make that better, do more, look after those look after themselves.
While the left is all; this is wrong, that's terrible, we need stop this and help people.

'Help' and 'fairness' generally translate as higher taxes to people.

We know putting business first doesn't work. The economy may be doing well but if it's not translating to a better life for the majority of tax payers, well so what?
We are supposed to have a very middle political spectrum. Can't we have a government that does actually look after the working tax payer first?

Fine Gael need to f*** off out of it or do a complete rebuild of their policies and get rid of the youtube personalities of Varadkar, Harris and Murphy, not to mention the aul' curmudgeon Sir Charles Flannagan O.B.E.

[Deleted User]

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Fg cleaned up the mess?

Yep. do you remember what it was like in the late noughties after FF literally squandered the profits we'd made from the biggest booming economy on the planet? FG inherited and absolute sh1tshow and turned it around. Not everything is perfect, but they're doing a damn site better than their predecessors.

DellyBelly wrote: »

I voted for FG the last 2 elections when I would have voted FF before then however i think it's time for a change in Ireland. I'll be voting FF this time. Give them a chance to add new ideas...

Ah yes...change.......so you'll vote for FF who are almost identical to FG, policy wise, and who've been in charge of running the country almost uninterrupted since its inception.

[Deleted User]

Thelonious Monk wrote: »

Can't see a thread on this. That's pretty soon huh? I hope people vote anything but FF/FG. Why not do something different for a change?

Great to see common sense in holding election on a Saturday. Though, no doubt there’ll be some moaners.

Snow Garden

is_that_so wrote: »

Possibly O'Dowd. I think he's 71.

O'Dowd is a thorn in FGs side. I am surprised they kept him. He exposed the Irish Water privatisation plan.

O'Cuiv is an absolute dose. I hope he steps away. Fairly quiet these days.

Billcarson

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Great to see common sense in holding election on a Saturday. Though, no doubt there’ll be some moaners.

The last election to be held in a Saturday was in 1918.

Snow Garden

Deleted User wrote: »

Yep. do you remember what it was like in the late noughties after FF literally squandered the profits we'd made from the biggest booming economy on the planet? FG inherited and absolute sh1tshow and turned it around. Not everything is perfect, but they're doing a damn site better than their predecessors.

Ah yes...change.......so you'll vote for FF who are almost identical to FG, policy wise, and who've been in charge of running the country almost uninterrupted since its inception.

No, I wont have that utter nonsense. FG only implemented the existing IMF/FF policies - it was the hard working and resilient people of Ireland
that got the country back on track. And the US multinationals of course. FG/Lab didn't have any new ideas apart from 'not another red cent' and
'burn the bondholders'. Name one FG policy that helped the economy recover. All the credit should go to the taxpayer. In fact FG tried to break the bank altogether by setting up the most expensive/wasteful/bureaucratic quango of all time - Irish Water. And Trickle Phil Hogan got rewarded for it!

blanch152

Billcarson wrote: »

And how did the government improve things in the health service? I have private health insurance too,sure that's what they want us to have. The gov have seemed to have made the health service even worse.
Sorry but I want fg out and ff nowhere near Gov simple as that. Sf all the way for me.

Of course that's not going to happen is it. Ff back in with the greens as junior party is my prediction . So you can sleep soundly......

Do you really believe that Sinn Fein can improve things?

I can understand the neo-nationalists and Ireland-firsters voting for them, along with the bar-stool republicans and those nostalgic for De Valera's Ireland, even the welfare entitlement class will give them a vote, but anyone expecting them to actually do anything to improve public services, other than paying nurses more for doing the same job, is delusional.

blanch152

Snow Garden wrote: »

No, I wont have that utter nonsense. FG only implemented the existing IMF/FF policies - it was the hard working and resilient people of Ireland
that got the country back on track. And the US multinationals of course. FG/Lab didn't have any new ideas apart from 'not another red cent' and
'burn the bondholders'. Name one FG policy that helped the economy recover. All the credit should go to the taxpayer. In fact FG tried to break the bank altogether by setting up the most expensive/wasteful/bureaucratic quango of all time - Irish Water. And Trickle Phil Hogan got rewarded for it!

https://dbei.gov.ie/en/What-We-Do/Business-Sectoral-Initiatives/Action-Plan-for-Jobs/

There is a whole section on the Action Plan for Jobs.

maccored

blanch152 wrote: »

Do you really believe that Sinn Fein can improve things?

I can understand the neo-nationalists and Ireland-firsters voting for them, along with the bar-stool republicans and those nostalgic for De Valera's Ireland, even the welfare entitlement class will give them a vote, but anyone expecting them to actually do anything to improve public services, other than paying nurses more for doing the same job, is delusional.

dev's ireland? oh man you really havent a notion.

Dwarf.Shortage

Would love to see an arms race to see who can do more for first time buyers but that's just from a selfish point of view, with the Help to Buy scheme already in place it's hard to see much more being done but every little helps as a single applicant trying to buy in Dublin.

conorhal

suicide_circus wrote: »

this is it for me. Today and yesterday i listened to people from FF, SF, LAB, Greens, PBP going after Eoin Murphy, Simon Harris and FG as a whole over health and housing. And rightly so. But i just wanted to shout at the radio "WTF are you going to do about it??!" These are issues all over the western world.

Healthcare system problems in Sweden:
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/consumer/swedes-face-problems-with-health-care-system

Healthcare system problems in Germany
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-aims-to-revamp-crisis-hit-care-industry-amid-worker-shortage/a-47268886

Healthcare System problems in France
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/11/french-medics-health-service-collapse-doctors-nurses-protest-outside-french-health-ministry-strikes

Berlin housing crisis
https://berlinspectator.com/2019/01/08/berlins-housing-shortage-no-improvement-in-sight-3/

Housing crisis in the Netherlands
https://dutchreview.com/expat/housing/housing-crisis-in-the-netherlands/

Yes these issues are chronic in Ireland and the health service has been in freefall my entire life but they are not unique to us and a certainly not going to be solved by anyone on your ballot paper unfortunately.

Not very constructive i know...

Who could have predicted this in countries that took in 100,000's of migrants to permanantly resettle there might face a housing crisis as a result? We could clear the housing list of homeless just by declaring Nigeria a safe country to return to.
Not that there's any credible candidate prepared to suggest that perhaps a housing Irish people should be a priority.

Billcarson

blanch152 wrote: »

Do you really believe that Sinn Fein can improve things?

I can understand the neo-nationalists and Ireland-firsters voting for them, along with the bar-stool republicans and those nostalgic for De Valera's Ireland, even the welfare entitlement class will give them a vote, but anyone expecting them to actually do anything to improve public services, other than paying nurses more for doing the same job, is delusional.

Well I admit I'm no die hard sf supporter but I dont expect fg or ff to improve things . They have had a century to try things and imo failed. Time for imo potentially something different. Sf are a risk they have never been in power (down here) but a risk worth taking imo. Dont judge any party till they have been in power,then judge away......

[Deleted User]

L1011 wrote: »

Rich Boy was the only chance but the Greens are likely to eat that seat.

What about R.I.S.E? Will their TD hold on to his seat?

jam_mac_jam

Dwarf.Shortage wrote: »

Would love to see an arms race to see how can do more for first time buyers but that's just from a selfish point of view, with the Help to Buy scheme already in place it's hard to see much more being done but every little helps as a single applicant trying to buy in Dublin.

Jesus Christ. This point of view is exactly what led us in to the last crash. I really despair of this country sometimes.
Yeay lets mess up the market more so I can get freebies. Horay

2020Vision

Billcarson wrote: »

Well I admit I'm no die hard sf supporter but I dont expect fg or ff to improve things . They have had a century to try things and imo failed. Time for imo potentially something different. Sf are a risk they have never been in power (down here) but a risk worth taking imo. Dont judge any party till they have been in power,then judge away......

So why not list the "improvements" to "things" that you anticipate SF making when they assume power. I'll start you off:-

Trains running on time: CHECK.

jam_mac_jam

My biggest fear is that there will be a SF and FF coalition but I suspect SF will not do very well. Populist and dangerous.
This is just based on the European elections.

HBC08

I know I can't afford the Greens to be in power again.

Dwarf.Shortage

jam_mac_jam wrote: »

Jesus Christ. This point of view is exactly what led us in to the last crash. I really despair of this country sometimes.
Yeay lets mess up the market more so I can get freebies. Horay

Or maybe I'm caught in a horrible trap where I can easily afford the mortgage repayments on a house but the cost of renting the exact same house is crippling my ability to put a deposit together. As a single applicant on €70,000 with a €50,000 deposit I could spend €295,000 which wouldn't buy a two bed apartment in Dublin, because of my job I will always have to work in Dublin.

I am of the opinion that someone earning double the average industrial wage should be able to afford an apartment. I don't want anything for free, I just want a system that makes it possible for me to pay for it and doesn't leave me stranded renting in perpetuity.

But do continue, politics is moving away from valuing the truth you might as well ride the wave.

James Brown

Deleted User wrote: »

Yep. do you remember what it was like in the late noughties after FF literally squandered the profits we'd made from the biggest booming economy on the planet? FG inherited and absolute sh1tshow and turned it around. Not everything is perfect, but they're doing a damn site better than their predecessors.

That's a myth. We have a number of worsening record breaking crises.
Also, FG took a loan.

Deleted User wrote: »

Ah yes...change.......so you'll vote for FF who are almost identical to FG, policy wise, and who've been in charge of running the country almost uninterrupted since its inception.

Is there much difference? Why vote for either?

RocketRaccoon

blanch152 wrote: »

Do you really believe that Sinn Fein can improve things?

I can understand the neo-nationalists and Ireland-firsters voting for them, along with the bar-stool republicans and those nostalgic for De Valera's Ireland, even the welfare entitlement class will give them a vote, but anyone expecting them to actually do anything to improve public services, other than paying nurses more for doing the same job, is delusional.

Ask yourself this, can it get any worse than it has been? The other 2 have proven they are not fit for purpose so why not give SF a crack at it? If they get it and fail then they are no better then we will know but as it stands they are the best of a bad bunch.

jam_mac_jam

Dwarf.Shortage wrote: »

Or maybe I'm caught in a horrible trap where I can easily afford the mortgage repayments on a house but the cost of renting the exact same house is crippling my ability to put a deposit together. As a single applicant on €70,000 with a €50,000 deposit I could spend €295,000 which wouldn't buy a two bed apartment in Dublin, because of my job I will always have to work in Dublin.

I am of the opinion that someone earning double the average industrial wage should be able to afford an apartment. I don't want anything for free, I just want a system that makes it possible for me to pay for it and doesn't leave me stranded renting in perpetuity.

But do continue, politics is moving away from valuing the truth you might as well ride the wave.

Yes, I understand the housing crisis thanks. You are calling for an arms race of freebies not increasing the supply or something sensible. Throw more money at it. Which just increased the prices the last time. Making it harder for everyone.

The help to buy scheme just increases the cost and goes straight to the developer.

Exactly what caused the last crash. Complete lack of economic knowledge and selfishness.

beggars_bush

lot of school teachers will be unhappy!

no closure for polling stations

I would have had it during the mid term break as schools were closed anyway, but I suppose Leo knows best...

Spanish Eyes

Look, most of us just love GE time. It's an opportunity to rant and rave, and I include myself in that. Time to look back and see what the current administration has/has not done, and reflect on which other combo or party would be better next time around.

I've come to the conclusion that nothing really changes, like deckchairs on the Titanic.

Anyway, there are a few things FG need to do in order to get a vote from me... (will NEVER vote FF just to mention) and the alternatives to FG are not looking good.

So...

1. Back the fk off from being my mammy and telling me what I can and cannot do, MUP, calories on restaurant menus, you get the drift. That is not helping anyone in the big scheme of things.

2. Keep the promises made to those who work and contribute. Nope, didn't happen. Feckers. Easier for people like me to fund everyone else who doesn't contribute a cent. Apart from VAT in case someone lights on me.

3. Get public transport and traffic sorted in Dublin (apologies, I know there are other pressing issues in Rural areas but I can't help where I am).

4. Do something about the millions and billions spent on HAP and so on, get building FGS, forget about your mates.

5. Forget it, just do the same thing on a different day!

James Brown

Dwarf.Shortage wrote: »

Or maybe I'm caught in a horrible trap where I can easily afford the mortgage repayments on a house but the cost of renting the exact same house is crippling my ability to put a deposit together. As a single applicant on €70,000 with a €50,000 deposit I could spend €295,000 which wouldn't buy a two bed apartment in Dublin, because of my job I will always have to work in Dublin.

I am of the opinion that someone earning double the average industrial wage should be able to afford an apartment. I don't want anything for free, I just want a system that makes it possible for me to pay for it and doesn't leave me stranded renting in perpetuity.

But do continue, politics is moving away from valuing the truth you might as well ride the wave.

Great points.
Somebody will be along shortly to ask you 'what would you do?'.