Budget

Yet we hear that the shinners will finish us. FF/G have that job well started.

Very true, I would be hoping for a FF FG IND party government.

Probably ff and fg will stick together for the next while, they seem to pull away well. Usually before an election they would be already shuffling for position, and trying to deferentiate themselves

and what’s your plan for ruling the country.
everyone for themselves or a dictator.

The democracy we have is the foundation of society. Not perfect by any means but prefer it to Chinese or Russian rule

9 million euro being allocated forpouches for mobile phones in secondary schools. Wtf

Yep...total and utter nonsense...its not that I don't agree with the idea that phones/tech/social media etc can be detrimental to students/educational outcomes (they can also sometimes be beneficial)

It's the idea that sticking them in pouches is going to solve any real problems and spending 9 million on it somehow isn't a misguided idea at best is amusing.

Shows you the calibre of loon making decisions at the top...I assume its a norma brainwave that must not be questioned…or else a civil service/dept brainfart.

No phones allowed in our school for over a year now. Works well. No need for pouches

they are probably too inundated with shite like so many other roles nowadays to actually do the job they should be doing or too busy ensuring they don't get shafted at election time to do the right thing etc…in fact I'd say in many cases doing the right thing probably leads to not being elected

This. The electorate have no appetite for the 'right thing' and only what they can instantly gain. We get the politicians we deserve because of our short sightedness.

Politicians in a true democracy are a representative of the people. They reflect the wishes of those who vote for them.

Too easy to scapegoat the politician.

As the saying goes. Nothing as queer as folk.

It was incredibly worse in the 80's. Everything being 'hardcopy' only meant the documentation wasn't as easily verifiable/transmittable. Unless a diligent journalist got wind of something, wanted to make a name for themselves and, crucially, had little to lose, a lot more was gotten away with/brushed under the carpet. 'Social media' was the pub or mass, anything said outside those largely got fed back to the same 'institutions' one way or another. The values we see today are more these days compared to the 80's but in comparison to what people earned, the 'nod & wink' stuff in the 80's was worse. We had the church force through the building of an airport in an isolated bog and *we all went with it (the royal we).

There's never been such a selfish attitude among the Irish population as of today imo and I feel it comes from the top down.

It's bottom up. The government & Public sector aren't faceless unknowns, they're the people you know and see every day. There's been several points in our recent history that should have triggered a greater wish for a 'reset' but people aren't interested as it would mean short-medium term losses for a long term gain. We're a 'new money' electorate still.

Teagasc summary of the budget

https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/publications/2024/Teagasc-Budget-2025-Summary.pdf

Ireland west needed an airport but their were far better locations. It's an extremely limited airport with little further potential. Quite simply it should never have been built in that manner, and never built there.

It was the way it was pushed through by the church for that exact location that was an example of 80's frivolous spending. But money was found for it despite the country being a lot poorer than today. And there was plenty of cronyism in the development & building of it.

Granted the church has a lot more to answer for but that's another day.

It was left to the state to pay for, cronyism, back handers and all?? This is why we deserve a 300k bike shed.

The church bullied the state in to it, it's a bad location, badly planned and executed but we're willing to forget all that because we convince ourselves the state couldn't have done it better?