FF/FG/Green Government - Part 3

Their "role" was not having been in government for about 12 years at the time so I'm not sure they have much absolution to seek tbh. Though yes, I think they share about as much blame as all other non-government parties. I think all political parties were fairly reckless back then.

FG tried a more moderate fiscal manifesto and it nearly led to the first single party government since the 70s. It was despised by the electorate. I think you are deluding yourself about what Ireland was like back then. Talk of fiscal restraint was not popular and not wanted. We get the government and opposition we deserve, and more important ask for

They have plenty of ideas of their own. Those ideas were roundly rejected in 2002 as an example. Generally speaking, when your ideas are so massively rejected by the electorate it is a sign that you need to come up with different ideas. The electorate, as it turns out, were wrong. There is, to be fair, a fine enough line between being "populist" and adjusting your offers to what the population actually want. However, I think it behoves those in power moreso to avoid the populist label (and yes, that would include FG now). The 09 crash in Ireland would have happened no matter who was in govt, though I think FF made things worse and I would not be too quick to forgive them. But it was going to happen no matter what because no party that would have tackled the issues that led to it would ever have come close to being elected in Ireland.

The "sweet deals and cronyism" are partly overblown, partly poor judgement and partly a function of being in power so long. I think its probably time for FG to move to the oppo benches. The housing crisis is, to me, quite straightforward - we don't build enough homes. A large part of us not building enough houses is every single politician at a local level happily piling on to every planning objection going and local authorities having **** building guidelines (mostly looking at DCC there).