Who to vote for to massively improve public transport?

So on balance, Green Party is best?

The Single Transferable Vote means that you can give those votes without worrying too much about whether your candidate will be elected.

Party for smug rich suburbanites, they consume as much if not more than the average esp if you add up their carbon from jetting off to their holiday home abroad and vote Green to feel good about themselves.

All this talk of wiping out the GP party seems to be forgetting that it was done before.

They were wiped out in 2011.

Not just knocked back, they had no TDs.

They still came back, and stronger.

It seems to me that they aren't your ordinary party.

The ideal and the ethos is so strong it can't be killed off.

Just on the thread title I'd say the GP have demonstrated a long term commitment to public transport so if you were basing your vote on that issue they'd be a good bet.

The Greens never feature high up in my voting preferences, but the discourse about them is bizarre. We're told that the Greens are near universally reviled, and every government failure no matter where or when it happened is their fault. For good measure we're presented with a childish caricature of the "average green voter" being rich, vegan, smug, urban etc.

Yet they simultaneously promise that the greens will be wiped out in the next election. This makes little sense if the generalisations listed before are true. Those who hate the greens with every fibre of their being (which, according to the internet is 99% of the population) will never have voted for them to begin with, so those votes can't be lost. And you can't claim they've been hoodwinked by the treacherous Greens changing policies after getting elected. They are open about everything they want to impose upon the public. Are you telling me there's farmers out there who only since 2020 have discovered the Greens don't like the impact intensive meat and dairy farming have on the environment?

Then on the other hand, you have the cartoon character which they present as the typical Green voter. What will make them stop voting for the Greens, if (as is claimed) they're getting everything they want? Are vegan cyclists going to start voting for SF instead for some reason?

The Irish Green Party seem accepting of being in a loop of a) get enough TDs elected and be immediately willing to go into coalition b) insist on green measures as part of the coalition deal c) lose the bulk/all of their TDs in a subsequent election d) spend a term in the wilderness e) build back up to the situation where they have TDs again and quickly return to a) above. Rinse and repeat.

It's fairly refreshing within the Irish system where not stirring the pot and retaining a seat for life has generally been most politicians core aim.

Most people seem to have issue with actually making folk pay for it though. Hence if you go into any of the threads in After Hours its folk giving out about how theres 2c being added to their Diesel

São Paulo and Brasilia actually, and the figure quoted in yesterday’s Indo was 2.34 tonnes. Quite the exaggeration!

The current government is probably the best we've had so far , admittedly of a bad lot, in terms of public transport infrastructure in that they've funded more and better services, increased ridership to record levels and have brought 3 mega projects to construction stage (or will have by the time an election is called in 12 months).

A government composed of say Labour and Sinn Fein would abandoned this in favour of PS wages and welfare increases

a government led by FF would inherently be more focused on rural issues, helping farmers dodge tax, get grants and ignore climate targets. They aren't into public transport and would probably dismantle efforts to implement camera enforcement given that their voter base drive taxless raneg rovers and feel entitled to park wherever.

Basically your preferred government, speaking in terms of public transport only, should include the Greens, FG and perhaps the soc dems. If you sleect an independent i would suggest you think urban.

You are dramatically overestimating the number that travel to support the Minister for effect. He may well have an advisor or two. Others travelling will have particular jobs to do.

If you live in Blanchardstown now, the W4 bus goes to Tallaght, introduced under the current government following Green policies on public transport.

That sums up Ryan then really...

Watched PT last night where they had the Ryanair CEO debating the airport passenger cap, with the Greens represented by Ciaran Cuffe arguing that in a climate emergency we should reduce air travel.. As Mr. Cuffe was stood there in a freshly pressed suit live from the EU's offices in Brussels.. I guess he got there by ferry, train, bus and bicycle! (not)

Ryanair argued that the Government have had decades to either build a Metro or extend the Dart line to the airport and haven't done a thing other than spend money on consultant reports.. And RA are dead right! There's not even a dedicated Bus lane to the airport, there's no direct cycle lane either and the bicycle parking facilities in the airport are 3rd world standard...