Leo Varadkar resigns as Taoiseach

The idea of the assorted Independent headbangers (who rightly belong in county councils, not a national parliament) submitting to the discipline required to govern the country is laughable.

In governance terms, Independents are a complete waste of time.

Any reshuffle is likely only to be FG ministers.

Someone will get promoted to replace simon who replaces Leo. After that changes could be minimal.

Helen McEntee and Heather humphries swapping position perhaps. Or Helen McEntee to further education, someone else to Justice and someone promoted to the vacant position

My assumption is based that all are but certainly some may not.

If they are not expect them to announce it over Easter and that they will not seek to be reappointed by the new Taoiseach.

I don't expect a major reshuffle where ministers are dropped without having said they are retiring.

They said politicians have enabled me and others to create wealth due to what politicians have done. That is utter bull.

oh I get the wealth redistribution, I think we ALL get redistribution, but wealth creation HAS to be encouraged for the benefit of all. Current politicians seem to think wealth just appears magically. They have done nothing to encourage people to create wealth for themselves and society. They have destroyed the small business sector, favouring multi-national investment. It’ll all end in tears.

To some, sure. To others, the appeal of independents is that they are not from party A, B or C. This party was explicitly set up with the aim of giving voters that traditionally voted FF or FG someone else to vote for. As noted by Kaiser, many of the candidates that have joined so far are former FF or FG activists or politicians. That's the case in my constituency, and in a few others I've checked. Given sufficient numbers, they could be useful as a coalition partner for a future government, where their aims of more rural spending, and cuts to quango spending to fund it, would be popular to large chunks of the population.

The thing is that many of them have been members of other political parties previously. Some would have walked away from parties over issues (local hospitals, etc.), while others may be a bit more opportunistic in jumping. I can certainly see where you're coming from in terms of governance, but a similar argument could be made for many government backbenchers.

Watching the news showing clips of Leo as a young politician and he was a totally different person to who he became. He actually did think about those that get up early for work.

That enthusiasm is long gone and he seems to become fully integrated and institutionalised into the political and civil service machine.

They would be a disaster in government. Public transport projects would be cancelled so as to put more money into the mica scheme to build houses in the middle of nowhere. Hospitals dotted around the country with jack-of-all-trades doctors instead of specialised centres with expert care leading to a downward trend in health outcomes. Cutting carbon taxes and excise duty so all the rural hicks can pollute the countryside, while putting a police station in every village leaving the cities to become crime centres.

I could go on and on, but everything they would do would be awful.

For Independents: they should take their hyper-localised 'issues' off to the county councils, where they belong. They are a hindrance to effective government (which we all claim to want).

Ireland's use of the whip system is much greater than other Westminister systems, though, with the amount of voting along party lines being very much an outlier when compared to other states that use the model, including the UK. In terms of actual quality of governance, an argument could be made that having the whip force backbenchers to ram through whatever half baked legislation the cabinet wants doesn't necessarily result in high quality governance either.

When you ask anyone throwing around the Quango term to identify what spending they can cut; it never gets beyond maybe 10m of random groups they dislike, though. It'll always be the NWCI, MASI etc etc.

The bulk of what gets spent through quangos is stuff that should be on the Health or Education spends, and by pushing it through an allegedly "voluntary body", the State gets some level of shielding from the consequences of their actions. Take that funding off the Quango and it goes on to the HSE or DoE budget, and not a cent is saved.

So its not something that would get any consideration in coalition or confidence and supply negotiations and wouldn't give something for them to claim as a 'win'.