What is your ideal political party? Is there anyone who matches this?

I don't really think she "got off". They found her not guilty by reason of insanity. She's not free to go though. She was committed to the central mental hospital, which is a de-facto prison. She has an open-ended sentence in a place where she's surrounded by the criminally insane. That's exactly where she needs to be. Correct decision in my opinion.

There's no party in this country at the moment who are serious about either law and order or welfare reform, with the possible exception of the National Party who are led by a man sympathetic to neo - Nazi's and similar loons.

I've been a consistent supporter of Fine Gael over the years and was hoping, when Varadkar became leader, that we might see some serious effort to prioritise workers over the welfare lifestyle brigade, but before Covid it was business as usual with welfare increases across the board.

Fine Gael have traditionally been a centre right party. If they were infiltrated by a cadre of people committed to law and order and welfare reform, similar to the way the Left in both the UK and Ireland were infiltrated by Militant years ago, you'd wonder if the broader membership might be persuaded to adopt tougher positions on these issues.

Alan Shatter was keen to target the legal profession which would have a gone a long way. It didn't go well for him. A fella who was hard to like but he was trying to do something of benefit to us all.

That woman who killed her kids seems to rile up the war on woke loonies on this site and elsewhere, for them it's once again proof that they are the ever persecuted males and the world is so unfair.

"Cultural Heritage" is a pretty vague term that can be made to mean so many things. Who is the arbiter of culture? If we can't define what we want more precisely nobody is going to represent us.

The people that fund the whole nation aren't the whole nation, caring for the well-being of all citizens would necessitate doing things that don't track well with those making the money who resent every penny taken in tax that doesn't benefit them directly. Some of that would be money going to cultural projects.

Do they still exist?

“Trump Republicanism” minus the Trump derangement (stop the steal etc) , & vulgarity (mainly the rhetoric divisiveness) and minus the Christian hardcore nonsense (abortion, war on drugs, anti prostitution etc) would be pretty perfect for me.

Yep. That’s pretty close to my ideal too. Rigorous immigration control, that benefits this country and helps small numbers of legitimate asylum seekers, genuinely fleeing persecution. Of course that makes me Hitler in the eyes of a small cadre of misfits on here.

I’d also like a party that really champions education, making Ireland a truly innovative place for cutting edge tech, whilst also supporting our rich cultural heritage.

Last thing on my wish list is a party that really proactively tries to sort out the health service. The HSE is a mess right now and requires root and branch reform.

More or less, I agree with all of these policies, and I feel many other people do too.

Improved social insurance, stricter social assistance

Alternative ways to support families, rather than directing cash at OPFP, which is proven ineffective

stricter laws to prevent the crazy legal outcomes reported frequently in the news

better public transport

These should all be vote-winners.

I presume this is a joke?

Bank staff already pay income tax, like any other worker.

The bank pays corporation tax, like any other company.

The bank already pays a bank levy, extended until the end of 2022.

Bank shareholders pay income tax and 33% CGT, like any other shareholder.

OK, fair enough.

It would require a lot more checks.

Do other EU countries implement this?