General Irish politics discussion thread

FFG, Independent Ireland and mayone one or two independents looking like the most likely outcome for the next general. FG members will be licking their lips in excitement at the prospect fo another ring wing partner government partner for themselves.

Worrying times ahead for immigrants though.

You object to calling it a "Hit job" when it was straight out of FG oppo research? Being factual does not make it less of a "hit job".

Any independent journalist would have done two things - Firstly, ask the authors an obvious question - Have other parties done the same as SF?

In this case, the answer is "FG Councillors support with gusto local objections to planning permissions"

A recent example: https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/secret-councillors-meeting-to-block-500-homes-being-built-on-prime-site-in-the-capital/a251268172.html

The dezoning was led by Fine Gael councillors, even as its Government struggles to meet housing needs.

Secondly, any decent journalist would ask those concerned for their comments/reactions before publishing a one-sided piece for the benefit of their rivals.

So, this was a hit job on the eve of a by-election and it failed even basic journalistic standards. That is as much a criticism of the IT as of the individual journalist.

Why? They three of them are like three peas in a pod. There's a reason a large chunk of the Independent Ireland candidates are ex- FF. Independent Ireland are basically FFG with a more outwardly dislike of immigrants but even in the last year FG having to getting on that bandwagon.

In reality the soft left parties have little in common with FFG.

Labour has continually betrayed it's electorate by propping up FF or FG in government at every opportunity, so it's proven to have much 'in common' with FFG. It would have no issue doing so again. The SocDems have proven to be more reticent, but I suspect that will change, too, and they'd be happy to enter government with either FF or FG if the circumstances arise.

I also think that FF/FG would rather do business with Lab/Soc Dems as they would be more stable than II who have some mavericks in their ranks.

They seem to exist solely to help implement FG policies by pretending they believe in something completely different.

What are their policies? Deciminating disability allowance and Unemployment benefit? Becusse that's what they did the last time they were in government.

The last the they were in Government this was the conclusion on an internal report on their performance.

The Labour Party failed to maintain public trust, mishandled key policy decisions, ran badly judged publicity stunts and agreed to legislation which was damaging to democracy, a damning confidential internal report has found.

Among the key findings of the report into the party’s time in Government between 2011 and 2016 are: that the Labour should have done more to help the most vulnerable.

The fact they even needed to carry out a review to tell them this would set off alarm bells.

In reality, if they didn't go into Government they would likely be the strongest party in Ireland now and would have hoovered up all that anti government supprt that SF did and they'd be going into this election very likely being the strongest, most popular party in Ireland. Instead they're on 5% because all the Labour TDs tared about was themselves.

The independent regional group Naughten Grealish Lowry etc. would be likely bedfellows for FF & FG if they are in need

My opinion of opinion polls has never changed, they are NOT votes. You seem to think they are, that's why I corrected you.

No I haven't. They are what they are as is a EU election or a Presidential election…only comparable to themselves.
A local election is different to a GE.

The greens got 7.1% of the vote, hold 7.5% of the seats. I think their viewpoint by going into government has far exceeded their vote share. That's what parties should do. Take the opportunity when it's there.

The only time I'd argue it shouldn't have happened was Labour in 2011. The decisions that government were going to take were largely pre-determined anyway. They should have stayed out and provided responsible opposition and would now likely be one of the 3 big parties.

I'm not anti immigration and I'm sure as hell not a potential Aontú voter but Peadar Tobin's take on it seems a lot more sensible to me than gushing about a massive increase in deportation orders when the same numbers show the majority of them weren't actually enforced.

Deportation Orders were up a massive 140% alright, but of the 1792 Deportation Orders signed, there have been 98 enforced deportations and 648 voluntary returns. Of the 1792 Deportation Orders signed, to my reading it suggests 1046 of them haven't actually been actioned in any way.

The obvious counter to this is that I wouldn't trust that any of the Opposition Parties would have any higher numbers than the above, bar perhaps the various Nutter Brigades who'd love to chuck anyone darker than Coastal Glow on the Dulux Colour Chart out.

I'd be more impressed with some demonstration of making the process more efficient than I would be with raw deportation numbers myself though; I'd rather see we were deporting people correctly and efficiently than concern myself with an absolute increase in numbers.

Should be noted also that deportation orders would be very much on the low side across the entire EU. No country is deporting high tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people a year Trump style (it's a hugely expensive and time consuming procedure). Our current deportation figures are in and around other EU states numbers per capita.

Our methods are more discrete and is to cut off payments.

Any figures on how many Ukrainians have left after their payments were slashed by 80%.