Róisín Shortall

One reason is because she is a good communicator and more accessible to her constituents then other TD’s and candidates.

she was one of the first TD’s in the country to embrace social media as a means to engage with her constituents and the wider electorate. Before that she had ( maybe still does ) a very informative newsletter she went door to door with for people..

i don’t know enough about her achievements or maybe lack of them but the perception in her community is that she is one of the better candidates..especially regarding grass roots local issues…I wouldn’t be a fan of her national politics for the most part but speaking to my parents they’d always give her a vote and in the past I did too.

I can't speak for her constituents but I've always a lot of respect for Shorthall. She was in a bad situation in the Department of Health where she was being undermined by an incompetent minister. Ultimately she left the party over it. It's very easy to look back at that decision with the benefit of hindsight (given what happened to Labour in the 2016 election) and say she jumped ship to save her own skin but in 2012 that was a leap into the unknown and took guts. The easy decision would have been to just stick it out and continue to cash her ministerial cheques while complaining in private and leaking to the press like so many others do.

Furthermore she went on to create a successful new party. That's no easy task either - just ask Peadar Toibin or Lucinda Creighton.

hahah, what utter shite, she jumped ship the first opportunity, no intention of leading , no intention to govern, she seen the **** hand anyone who had to govern at that time and shat the bed. as somone else said, she comes across as a very good communicator, but all she comunicates is just finger pointing.

Just think about it some more - It's extraordinarily rare that a minster steps down on a point of principle. Shorthall did it. Lucinda Creighton did it over that Abortion bill. Off the top of my head I cannot think of anyone else in the past 20 years. The only similar thing I can recall was Trevor Sargent stepping down as leader of the Greens (and almost certainly giving up the opportunity to be a full minister as a result) when they voted to enter into coalition with FF after the 2007 election.

How are they better off as a result of anything Dessie Ellis has ever done? And yet he has been repeatedly re-elected, and topped the poll last time around.

People may feel that they are better off if their concerns are listened to and articulated by their TDs. And they may feel that Shortall and/or Ellis listen to their concerns, and articulate them effectively.

I was trying to ascertain what it is you think a good Dáil politician should be doing and you answered it. You want a parish pump style politician who's focus should be maximizing the returns for their constituency. From the list I gave you above Michael Healy-Rae would be the best example of that. He's famous for sorting out medical cards, planning permissions, "funeral packs", running buses for cataract patients and various other greasing of the wheels of bureaucracy in favour of his constituents.

Does Roisin Shorthall do these things? Frankly, I doubt it. I do know that some politicians prefer to focus their energy on national issues. They hold less face to face meetings with constituents, they don't show up at funerals and they try and spend more time in Dublin working on their committee work or on defending/opposing upcoming legislation. I suspect that these politicians are in the minority. After all you don't have to remind a TD that "all politics is local".

As for Shorthall, I would imagine that running a party takes up a lot of her time. She must be getting the balance right though since she has a stellar record in being reelected by her constituents.

It has nothing to do with health, they originally pushed it as an idea to help rural pubs combat the lower prices of off licenses and super markets selling cheaper booze, when they realised that the optics on that was really bad not to mention illegal under competition law they pivoted it to health. In reality the VFI and LVF lobbied FG hard for this.

All the evidence for this is available from FGs 2011 manifesto

Supporting Irish Pubs: Fine Gael recognises the importance of the Irish pub for tourism, rural jobs and as a social outlet in communities across the country. We will support the local pub by banning the practice of below cost selling on alcohol, particularly by large supermarkets and the impact this has had on alcohol consumption and the viability of pubs. 

Shortall while in Labour and part of the coalition pushed hard for it

Shortall knows what side of her bread is buttered , throwing her hat into the ring for the SD's upon leaving Labour seeing the writing on the wall. An achievement does not have to be in concrete terms - i.e. getting a new hospital or some building opened, she does her job as one poster said she is an effective communicator. I do know she was in favour of alcohol minimal pricing which will not endear her to a youthful electorate.

Shortall always strikes me as one of our few principled politicians. I don't agree with her stance, but I do respect her. She stood up to Reilly even when her party didn't back her. As others have pointed, that's rare in Irish politics.

I believe she's kept up efforts on supporting Slaintecare even though it won't specifically be to her party's advantage. I think that show's somebody putting the Irish population's interests ahead of her own political interests.

It’s a seriously competitive and engaged constituency so to be there 30 years later is impressive… must be doing something right.

She was the prime mover in the genesis of Slaintecare and defends it without reservation in any discussions/debates.

It's a rubbish policy in my opinion; trying to introduce the NHS model into the HSE or displace the HSE with the NHS model. While the NHS in England is running into huge bottlenecks and budget overruns. I have never heard her questioned publicly about what the arguments for Slaintecare are. Surely we should look to countries with a relatively successful health service like Germany, Holland, Austrailia and NZ.