Following on from
this thread
Please remain civil or posting privileges will be removed
The teacher unions and the Department of Education appear moderately competent when compared to the organisation known as the State Examinations Commission.
Three kids through Leaving Cert, all have had issues with papers and won appeals. Incredibly incompetent stuff. No Minister to blame on this, this is on officials and teachers who correct. Simple procedures not followed.
Report what?
You have a very poor understanding of management. Report that.
The reason that I don't generally reply to your posts is because they don't demonstrate any understanding of Irish politics. The Greens lost all their Dail seats in the 2011 GE. The Greens, despite your claim, benefited from the Greta Thunberg hysteria in 2020.
Regards...jmcc
How is she personally responsible for the marks? Tell us exactly what she did in reference to this.
And I say this as someone who doesn't think much of Norma Foley, but I think less of the Dept. of Education and less again of the Teaching Unions.
Someone was complaining a few days ago that Norma Foley had disappeared over the summer.
Now it seems that her poor hand must be worn out from correcting all those Leaving Cert papers. The poor woman, she must have been at it day and night.
My point was that in my relative's case, they were registered according to the left hand of the RTB, yet the right hand of RTB said they weren't.
I've heard similar stories of the RTB making a mess of it in terms of the implementation of the changes. Dare I say, a lot of the confusion could be just down to red tape and an inefficient arm of the state.
Also, a key thing here, Donnelly did tell SIPO about this property from day one, so he wasn't hiding it.
The Green party, if you check the elections, have been growing in each government and local election.
The 2019 local elections even resulted in the Taoiseach coming out and saying the people had spoken and they needed to concentrate on Green initiatives.
Nothing to do with Greta who was having a huge impact on people in school, the next generation of voters. Not the current ones
The more that I think about the Green Party, the more unusual it appears in electoral terms. In the 2020 GE, it benefited from the Greta Thunberg hysteria. It also benefited from the implosion of Labour and the shift of the "issues" vote that had previously voted for Labour. They might call themselves "progressives" but they are really just as self-interested as any other vote. The problem for these progressives was that the Greens were essentially, as someone described them, FG on bikes. Some of the progessives split to form the Green Left party and that party has sunk without trace.
In terms of support in the opinion polls, the Greens have been relatively stable even accounting for the problems of guesstimating the support of small parties in 1K sample polls. If there is a widespread backlash against FF/FG and those parties make a mess of their campaign in Dublin Bay South, the Greens could gain a second seat there (Claire Byrne) at the expense of Labour's Bacik. It will lose some seats though.
If FG continues to have problems with the polls, there could even be a drift to the Greens by floating FG-inclined voters. What the Greens have not been able to do, so far, is to move beyond the ecological element and become a party with a wider appeal. If it is to do so then the Greens need to champion the reduction of energy bills either by hitting the energy companies hard with a windfall tax or subsidies for bill payers. That might actually gain seats for the Greens but it would be walking a tightrope in terms of government stability.
The electorate is not seeing FF and FG as one party. This is been pushed by one group of people. That's it.
At this stage it seems they think if they repeat it enough it will become true.
The percentage of non-party voters is much higher than the percentage of party supporter voters. The mistake that a lot of people, including journalists, make is in treating those who express a preference for voting for a party in an opinion poll as a supporter of a party. Most of the are not. The non-party aligned or floating vote decides the outcome of GEs.The Greens have, like PBP, a strong ideological element among their voters.The SocDems have become Labour without the baggage and this is why Labour wanted to take over the SocDems. FFG is caught in a rapidly altering political landscape but more importantly, the electorate is changing due to more younger voters coming into the electorate. Most don't have the political affiliations of their parents and grandparents and the opinion poll demographics have been suggesting the decline of some parties in younger demographics. What may be emerging is a classic Left/Right political axis in Irish politics with SF and some others on the Left of centre and FF/FG and some others like Labour and the Greens on the Right of centre. The Greens are far more to the Right than continental Greens. Labour showed just how much they cared for the Working Classes with the gleeful imposition of the Water Tax and Austerity. Little differentiates Labour from FG.
The real problem for FFG, from some of these polls, is that the electorate is beginning to treat FF and FG as a single party with one poll suggesting that second preferences would stay within FF/FG. That is a very dangerous prospect for FF/FG because of electoral fratriciding. This is where a party runs too many candidates and two candidates knock each out in later counts allowing a candidate who is marginally ahead of both to get the seat. The combined number of votes of the two candidates would be enough for a seat but because the votes were split, the other candidate would win.
Fratriciding has happened in various GEs and also in 2020. (Casey/Greeens winning in Waterford is one example.) FF and FG may have to have a combined candidate strategy and an electoral pact if they want to avoid it playing out on a larger scale. The problem for FF is that it has lost its identity under Martin. Martin appears to be a wannabe FGer more than an FFer and his leadership has, since 2016, damaged FF. If SF breaks through the 40% barrier in the next few polls, that would suggest that it is on course for a possible majority government. That would have a major impact on the stability of the FFG government especially if FF's support falls to around 14%. Voters often vote in their own interests first but there is also a kind of crowd dynamic to the way that votes shift.Martin's weak leadership and Varadkar's incompetence combined with that crowd dynamic in 2020 saw FF lose seats where it should have gained and FG have one of its worst ever GE results.
The fact that an SF majority government is a possibility should bring FFG to its senses but it seems to be wandering around like a headless chicken from PR disaster (Troy Story) to PR disaster (Donnelly) while voters struggle with increasing energy bills and the rising cost of living.
You keep talking about this, based it seems off these polls in the middle of nowhere so who will they actually vote for? For the voters you're talking about it was typically a case of not voting for one party or the other. Labour and SDs are about it, seeing as people have also the Greens written off as well. There really is no home in SF for many voters no matter what you imagine the polls say.
Norma Foley has made a mess of the Leaving Cert results again. It looks like the marks are excessive again this year. 35% will get more than 500 points due to grade inflation. It was 15% pre Covid. So some courses will high points will have do random selection because so many will be eligible.
Good point. :)
Cynic in me suspects,many of the backbenchers are hinging on getting a junior ministry when government resigns for reshuffle,and the pensions that accrue
Yep. The last thing that electorate needed to be reminded of was that FF/FG/etc partied while people died. That's a thing that's going to hit FF in the next GE. All because Martin reappointed Calleary. There are serious questions about Martin's competence and depending on the next few opinion polls, FF backbenchers may be worried enough about their seats to start a leadership challenge.
Looks like jobs for the boys,same as that bord failte executive,who resigned mid COVID controversy,whom was quietly reappointed to another state board and covered up/hushed
Not if there's a general backlash against FF/FG. Based on some of the trends from the polls, the electorate is beginning to treat FF and FG as the same party with transfers occurring with in the parties. If 2020 was weird in terms of transfers, the next one may be a lot more so.
Annual registration is required per legislation passed by members of the Oireachtas.
Whatever about making excuses for your relatives it can't be argued that Donnelly wasn't aware of same since he most likely voted for it.
Oh, he's a prime candidate for losing his seat anyway. It fell his way in 2020 but not that well liked in Wicklow I believe. Either of the FG candidates in his wake could pip him next time or SF get a second person home.
I suppose if any ordinary taxpayers are caught breaking the rules they need to take a lead out of Donnelly's book and just say is "It shouldn't have happened" and maybe "lessons were learned".
Calleary might go to light show party when the electricity bills get really high over winter.
They're trying too hard to be seen as elite.
Fine Gael 2011 - New Politics document...
"Fine Gael, the party that created the State and declared it a Republic, will build a New Republic in Ireland - where trust is restored in our democratic institutions and the concerns of the Citizen, rather than the elites, are placed firmly at the centre of government."
Liars
And he's generally reckoned to be one of the smarter FFers. As for Martin reappointing Calleary, it is like he wants to destroy FF.
Completely agree. Neither party will be able to buy a transfer and they will be scrambling for seats.
Donnelly is making a fool of himself on Virgin News. Waffle. More to come on it I reckon.
It is very worrying for SMEs. It is going to add up to a lot of very angry voters who have lost their businesse and who will see the current bunch of FFG as nothing more than overpaid incompetents to be eradicated at the ballot box in the next GE. If FFG does nothing about energy costs and continues to mutter platitudes to its presstitute friends in the media about how they "understand" what the electorate is going through, it would be no surprise at all to see FF and FG seat counts being halved at the next GE. Stuff like Troy Story and Donnelly are only adding to the problems FFG is facing.
I don't think I can remember a busier summer recess in terms of the government continually having to defend themselves.
I am genuinely worried about the upcoming winter in relation to SMEs going bust in significant numbers, the health service deteriorating to dangerous new lows and real hardship/ homelessness.
The government isn't stable enough or decisive enough to tackle these problems. We'll just hear the usual waffle around "plans" and "billions" with zero detail.
What I was talking about earlier.
Why did the RTB change his around?
If you have a tenant there and he is there year in, year out, why do you need to re-register it?
They should reform RTB tbh.
This drip feed of stories on FF politicians makes it very difficult for FFG to get ahead of the stories. It also raises questions about Martin's leadership.
Well there seems to be a shortage of them. My colleagues are having awful problems getting somewhere to live.
No wonder the Housing Plan is failing. We have a government full of landlords deciding housing policy with obvious vested interests.
I believe O'Brien was flying kites recently for budget tax breaks for small landlords. Troy may not qualify but Stephen D possibly does...
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