Gonna be honest, I'm not sure what other countries use.
My take on the SCC is that it's a convenient way for the State and Gardai to secure a conviction against someone they don't have sufficient evidence to convict in a normal court. Any court that takes testimony from a Garda as admissible evidence is dangerous. The Gardai have stumbled from one controversy to another over the past 5 years.
From a case earlier this year: "The non-jury court today found that Garda Assistant Commissioner Michael O'Sullivan, who gave evidence of his belief that Michael Connolly (47) was an IRA member, had made "an unqualified assertion" during the trial that none of the material he viewed that formed the basis of his belief was in the Book of Evidence against the accused man.
The Special Criminal Court described this assertion as "seriously incomplete and misleading"."
There's no reason why criminals and gangs can't be tried in the regular court system. People cite intimidation as a reason for retaining the court, but there was never any evidence of intimidation in the first place. Even in the 1980's Mary Robinson tried to abolish the court as there was no evidence that the court was maintaining impartiality and reports the Gardai were denying defendants due process. And then you have all the irregularities, like Slab Murphy being tried in the SCC for tax evasion...
Anyways, way off topic.
Are you possibly confusing the term 'commemorate', where we remember a tragedy? Versus 'celebrate', where Sinn Fein members cheer and applaud for people who caused a tragedy (like murdering gardai)?
They are worse
Which IRA that killed Gardai does Fine Gael celebrate?
What rot.
Of course it's possible, but is it likely? No. It's interesting that you would classify such measures as "easy vote winners". Vote winners for whom? FG?
Why would supporters of the "landlord party" welcome measures that restrict the income of landlords? As noted by Varadkar's most recent freudian slip, "we need to balance that one person's rent is another person's income".
https://www.thejournal.ie/rent-dail-varadkar-o-broin-5554348-Sep2021/
Sounds like you need a new job mate, seriously underpaid.
I'd imagine it would be around the same amount who vote everytime without looking at or knowing policies.
You're probably too young to remember the visceral horror of them blowing up children in the UK.
The tax I was referring to is known as local property tax here in Ireland, whereas similar tax provisions are described as land property taxes in other countries. We use the terms interchangeably, like corporate/corporation tax. I should have explained that in more detail, I sometimes forget that even the most basic concepts can fly over of the head of certain individuals.
Again, the idea that silence cannot be construed as evidence of guilt is a peculiarity of the Anglo-Saxon legal system.
Uh...there's no such thing as 'land property tax' so not sure what you are interchanging with what tbh.
To answer the OP's question - yes SF are every bit as bad as we think, and probably a bit worse than that tbh.
However I'm coming to terms with the fact that in the next 10-15 years there will be some sort of reckoning, likely through a SF-led coalition of some sorts (most likely with FF, no matter how much the supporters on either side kick and scream about it).
There hasn't been a single party, majority government in Ireland at this point since the 1970s, and with the way the polling is still split between the three main parties and... others (some fly-by-night, others more permanent) it's not likely to happen anytime soon either. So what SF are going to have to learn is how to compromise (I think someone said this earlier too). I don't think the majority of people have factored this in.
Why not?
Or is it possible that they investigated implementing these (easy vote winners) and were told it was not practical/legal/ or was prohibitively expensive?
So Health Service is terrible because of the unions.
Lenient sentencing in court is the Judges fault.
Disorder on street, lazy Gards.
Housing situation untenable down to the landlords.
You'd have to wonder if there was some kind of body which could govern all these things, rather than leaving it to all these parties. We could call it a government.
They are used on 'ordinary' people all the time in the EU.
There is no suggestion that they will be used on 'ordinary' people here, and there never has been since they were established.
Bad news for you - the health service is in large part a shambles because it is run for the benefit of the staff, not the patients. This is a fact, and honest people in the health service will tell you this.
Unfortunately, SF will not be able to change this.
In effect, real democracy has ceased to exist in this country.
FF / FG are two sides of the same coin; both of which lead us down the same path, but criticise each other in a family-like way. When we vote one side of this same family out, the other side gets in. It's like voting out chlamydia in favour of syphilis - with no option to remove either.
Sinn Fein will never get power because they are simply unelectable - no capability, terrorist sympathisers, and even worse than the two above.
I find SF'S guff about the housing 'crisis' tiring.
Every day their members/politicians are out objecting to new housing up and down the country.
Total hypocrites.
What are FF or FG doing to stop people voting SF? Let's face it the only reason why SF are popular is due to the way FF and FG have behaved in government the last number if years. They have turned people against them and to SF because of the policies they have pursued. It is their own fault and have taken no steps to change that.
I wonder how many of the people who voted SF in the last election or who plan on voting for them in the next election have studied their policies.
I reckon a lot of them just want to give FF/FG a kicking which is fair enough but we don't want to put a party in power who's policies will make things worse and I've not seen or heard anything so far from SF to convince me they have any real plan to turn things around.
Oh goody another tedious SF thread
Hang on now a minute Ireland never united the garden in the first place. It was only the UK who ever succeeded in Uniting Ireland So the back garden analogy does not even wash. Ireland was a mix of clans and tribes. With at various times high Kings who were not officially recognised. The back garden analogy is just a myth.
The reality is historically and in popular culture even people in NI who claim to be Irish citizens are entwined in British culture and language and so on. It is not as simple as the back garden analogy, The fact is military Ireland were not strong enough to have a UI on their own. Much like Brian Boru only got so far about 900 years previously when the island of Ireland was a hotchpotch of clans and all sorts. Countries are created historically by war and conquest that is just the way of the world.
A combination of a vacant property tax and a higher LPT on taxpayers with 2+ properties would reduce property hoarding. Carve out an exemption for rental properties within RPZs to prevent the reduction of rental stock in cities.
Restrict AirBnB rentals so that only vacant rooms can be rented out, rather than the full property. There are many things that could be done if the political will was there.
They're the choice of the largest amount of voters and if polls are to be believed there doesn't seem to be the much vaunted around here, 'ceiling' on their vote.
You may want to take that on board.
History is history.
If it wasn't the UK, it would have been another country; perhaps even a country that leaves a far, far, far, far worse record.
This idealised version of history where no country becomes dominant and influences and invades other countries is so dilute of significance that it beggars belief. We see the same with the US etc.; people bemoaning the US interventions etc. But if the locus of power were in Russia or China, rather than the US, we'd see a far worse history. It just lacks perspective.
Sinn Fein have this same, myopic view of history regarding the UK. It's so stupid that it's yet another reason we don't want these idiots anywhere near the levers of power.
No brainfart here. You're just trying to muddy waters.
So long as Sinn Fein have members with links to terrorism, who collect Garda murderers upon their.release from prison and have sung songs of 'oh ah up the ra' they are not a choice for the majority of people.
Nothing to do with history, it's what they stand for now that counts.
Drew🙄
Of the almost 200 current member states (and one observer state) of the United Nations, the British have, at some point in history, invaded and established a military presence in 171 of them.
Barbados being the latest one to finally boot them out this year 2021.
That's some facts for those who don't care what happens in the north and they are quiet happy living Ina bubble down the south...
It is akin to your neighbour taking over half your garden and not handing it back..Sinn Fein would be better than any of the others in power..proberly better.
A united Ireland by peaceful means is the best way forward.
Way too socialist and left leaning for me, they are also trying to appeal to the liberal middle class voters who normally vote for the SocDems, Greens and Labour who wouldn't have given SF the time of day in years gone by.
Have you seen the size of Mary Lou's house? In what way do you think they will amend Local Property Tax? Up to the same levels as NI, which SF happy voted to increase even more.
And how are Sinn Fein going to solve your problems? Are they going to ban AirBnB for instance? Reduce rents by 30%? How do they plan to build the number of houses necessary for their plan to solve the housing crisis?
Or are they going to muddy the waters even more for you by allowing more and more refugees into the country as part of O'Gorman's Refugee Plan whereby "four months in the country and ye get a house/apartment" instead of staying in Direct Provision? Do you see them stopping that?
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