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There will be no news cycles or discussions on SF proposals. Unification remains a distant prospect and a process whose start is also utterly out of our control. This is a 5 min story.
A rather curious interpretation that completely ignores the importance of the news cycle in voting patterns. It is not a distant prospect. At least Barry Cowen has a bit of a clue and realised the damage that FF not having a policy on this could do to his party. Martin removed Eamon O'Cuiv as deputy leader of FF for campaigning with an SDLP/FF candidate in NI. This partitionist mindset seems to affect people of limited intellect in some parties who expect that partition will continue indefinitely. Parties South of the border need to be making connections and alliances now rather than waiting until after Reunification. The only parties that seem to organise on both sides of the border are SF and the Greens. The short-termism in the political thinking may end up reducing FF and FG to being microparties in a single Dail. Perhaps it is too early in the morning for such thoughts.
Regards...jmcc
Well that’s where we will just have to differ. I, and most people I know, consider it a distant prospect and talking about it to be the very opposite of a vote winner.
This current govt is going to face zero serious discussion on the matter because there is zero chance of it being an issue in the next 5 years. People seem to forget that the calling of a border poll is ultimately an issue of internal U.K. politics.
One word: Scotland.
That proposal for a Scottish Independence Referendum will get coverage in Ireland and it will drag the Border Poll into it as part of a wider discussion. There is also a possible Assembly election being talked about for December due to the DUP not wanting to take their seats. These things aren't long-term issues. They are happening within, if it survives, the lifetime of the FFG government.
It has to pass both electorates, and with something as big as that, I think you have to do a referendum vote. Not sure many (myself included) want an united Ireland yet.
And those referenda require policies and planning. The Census shift seems to have taken FFG by surprise. Events, particularly these ones, happen whether or not people are ready. At the moment, it just looks like yet another planning failure by FFG.
Oh, I'd agree, they definitely need some policy and set of plans in place (like there's a lot to merge).
Because that's what blanch wants. And in 10 years it will be some other excuse to delay it further.
That's a lot of text to essentially agree with what I wrote. Sometimes you don't have to overanalyze what a FFer gets yo to. They're not the most inconspicuous bunch.
MacSharry will probably rejoin the FF parliamentary party after Martin is removed. Analysis is a habit.
Sarah Carey on Claire Byrne now acting as a government proxy. Can't say I missed her on the air.
Census figures show that the conditions for a border poll have not been met. Don't just take my word for it.
"If you were to include the Irish-plus hybrid identities the percentage moves up to 33.3%, exactly one-third of the population. Set against the combined British identity of 42.8% this might give pause for thought to those wanting to see a border poll in the near future."
After listening to the arch-soup taker Fealty on the Last Word last night I'm not at all surprised you've jumped onto Slugger to ease your concerns.
The border poll talk has died down almost immediately after the census news. Anyone with any analytical skills can see that the GFA conditions have not been met. I am sure there will be many trying to flog this for whatever they can get in terms of populist publicity, but any unionist with half a brain can keep pointing back to these census figures and say come back in a decade.
The news has moved on to more important stuff like the Budget, Russia and the health service.
McEntee is such a poor Justice minister.
She has known about the Garda resource issues and Cherry Orchard type problems for a long time and she is acting like it's a brand new issue.
Pure and utter waffle from her. And zero honesty.
Has there ever been a more incompetent cabinet?
Yes. The last FF-led government has a good shout at being so.
That's fair.
That is far too much tax intake from the state. Bills and food prices are skyrocketing but they won't cut VAT. It will probably be spent on Green Party schemes for middle class people and EU fines.
I mean, seeing the crises in public housing and throughout the State with public services being in shíte, it would appear we need every penny we can get.
It appears we have wasted the MNC billions over the last 20 years. I feel we will look back and regret the wasted MNC windfall especially given the state of the basics - health and housing. And also our debt per capita is one of the highest in the world. How did FFG let that happen??
i think theres enough pressure now, that at least some more will be spent to try resolve these issues, its great that this money is coming in now, at least the government will more than likely spend more now...
There's no "appears" needed.
That we didn't come out of the last 30 years with world class upgraded rail and public transport services throughout the State is a crime.
There's not. We move from crisis to crisis and never fix anything satisfactorily.
crisis are indeed becoming more and more severe and frequent, i suspect we re at a major turning point now, so i suspect this will begin to change, as we now have no other options but to do so, ffg are now in serious trouble, its very likely they ll 'lose' the next ge to sf, a major change in irish politics, i think both ffg will start panicking soon over this, leading them to start rectifying some of these issues....
Homework on the bus to school carry-on.
What's the solution to stopping spend on the short term? We threw mountains into the HSE and public service and just ended up with an expensive to run public service. We're lucky we got the motorways done when we did as items like the Limerick to Cork, Metro, Dart, railways etc. should be top of the agenda but it's all short term spend again.
And the opposition budgets are even shorter looking, where is the impetus for long term spending going to come from?
In a an ideal world yes, but I don't have any faith in government to spend it well.
It will be spent on keeping specific voter demographics happy. Middle class green voters, the grey vote, NGO/Charities, fines for all these treaty's that they've signed is up for and failed to hit the targets, foreign aid for Simon Coveney to promote himself and so on.
4.4bn is over €800 a head in the country. I would rather have the €800 in my pocket than self-interest politicians waste it.
The role and the size of government is getting bigger every single year. It's becoming too socialist.
Don't forget hospital beds that cost €1,000,000 euro a piece.
When you are explaining, you are losing. Great optics FFG.
Martin says no requirement to register family-owned West Cork and Dublin properties (irishexaminer.com)
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he did not have to register his holiday home in West Cork or the Dublin residence where he stays during Dáil sitting time as it belongs to his wife.
Did he decide there was no requirement or was he told that their was no requirement? Because if it's the former then that's the excuse used by previous transgressors. Either way, we're nearly rid of him as Taoiseach.
