Election to be called Fri - predict outcome

It's about whether you think FF and FG are good at housing. It's whether you think SF would be even worse.

Personally I think SF should have promised less as it would still look way better than FF/FG's terrible record but held off the criticism that it's fantasy stuff.

Public sector building for social housing Data, it's not difficult, like how it was done in the 60's and 70's, The results will be tangible. Give the councils use it or lose it funding, believe it or not, there are some very efficient councils out there, some councils, not so much

Both just trying to mitigate the damage the issue will inflict on the government parties. Hard to see what more they can do given where we are…

That is a far more complex issue and rightly, shouldn't be a priority, although should have nationwide plan for re-generation in places like you mention.

Your post just reminded me that the LPT is due actually. 😚

I agree with you, but there can be huge costs involved in regeneration, and regeneration is notoriously slow. I think Ballymun was in the region of 30 years, now i know that is an extreme example considering of what was needed to be done and the population, but we need houses(now), in and around the big cities of Ireland (& commuter belts)

To do that, we would have to ban one-off housing in the countryside.

Rural people get into their cars and drive past their local villages to shop in the bigger towns.

Absolute joke if Seoige gets elected.

She's all but gaurenteed to be elected!

This is already happening in the towns and villages. Especially in places like Cappamore and Buttevant which are considered "commutable distance" to a city.

But it will only work in the commutable villages because the whole history of human existence has been transitory. Sorry to say but some of rural Ireland is just gonna die as people move away from farming. It's inevitable and normal.

Who is Helen McEntee losing her seat to?

Roderic O'Gorman was last man elected in 2020, so he's definitely at risk. But Leo Varadkar got 19.4% of the vote then, I can't see all of that transferring to Emer Currie (the sole FG candidate this time), so there is votes out there that he might be able to pick up. Ruth Coppinger will take votes from his left and a second Fianna Fáil candidate will take votes from the pro-government side, so he's definitely in trouble. Being party leader and being very visible will help though.

Sinn Féin got 2 seats in Dublin Mid-West in 2020 and it's now a 5 seater. Even with the drop in Sinn Féin support in the polls, it'd be a big surprise if he lost his seat.

Brian Stanley - I agree here.

The only time a huge surplus worked for a major party was the election of Cyprian Brady in 2007.

Bertie Ahern got a monstrous surplus and Brady was way back on 939 votes (2.7%), and benefitted from huge transfers from Ahern. It stands as the lowest number of first preferences and lowest percentage of first preferences to ever be elected. Generally it is very unusual to see that work out.

More common is the managing of the vote to balance out candidates. The most spectacular of these was the election of 4 FG TDs in Mayo in 2007. FG had 65% of the first preference vote but managed to win 80% of the seats thanks to expert vote management.

Don't know who Helen is losing her seat but she will struggle to keep it, People are still mocking her over the whole "Talbot Street is safe" while walking around in the middle of the day flanked by guards.

SF in Dublin Mid West where adding an additional candidate for this election, as far as I've heard that has now been shelved.

Mark Ward will lose his seat to Glenn Moore (If he runs) He seems to be growing in popularity with the Ireland for the Irish crowd that would normally be a SF United Ireland group in the North Clondalkin area. And losing numbers from the actual working class in the area, by choosing to campaign during working hours…. just look at their social media platforms, all the door to door knocking is done during the day. Either they cant be arsed with those out working or they are too afraid to face them.

Should be interesting to watch the outcome for Dublin Mid West as they have an extra seat up for grabs, a few new faces in the mix and the most popular candidate in the last local election (Ind) has now moved to Labour.

I think Gino Kenny (PBP) should be fine, it's the same people who vote for him every time and they're not being swayed by anyone else in that area.

Going on my own cons, i fancy Riada Cronin is doomed also(SF did atrociously bad in all area's of KN in LE), Joe Neville (FG) was very popular in the LE, and Naoise (FF) could also win a seat, maybe Aidan Farrelly can scrape through for SD given how hard they are canvassing with along with Catherine Murphy

Well there has been a massive increase in rural buses specifically targeting villages off the main routes and the Greens have just pledged a lot more.

Some of the services will even reroute to the "McMansions" if you call them.