Forming the next Irish Government - policies and personalities

All gone quiet in the media re this this process over recent days. Lots of lengthy, ruminative phone conversations between the main players away from the Leinster House over the holiday period I'd imagine…

The economic crash is still fresh in the minds but apparently some think this is the best place to live in the world. And I haven't even mentioned our terrible weather. Ireland is a great country and a good place to live but it still has many gaps, huge areas of deprivation, very slow civil service and poor infrastructure. Most of the people immigrating to Ireland are coming from low income countries. People from higher income countries are less likely to come here. So that sort of indicates how good or bad we are as a place to live.

I agree that there is a consensus now in Irish politics and very little ideology. I would extend that beyond FF and FG and include pretty much every party in the Dail with the exception of the People Before Profit crowd who want an end of capitalism. They are considered a fringe lunatic party that nobody takes seriously.

The consensus has led to problems and laziness. Look at how they couldn't even be bothered to form a government before Christmas because they were tired after the election.

I think the ball is very much in FF and FG hands, FF in particular as FG choice is either agree to support FF, when asked, or go into opposition.

FF & FG together have considerable options. They can initially rely on no independent wanting another election. Even without a formal agreement they would be sure of some of the independents. And, ultimately, if the demands are too high they can always turn back to Labour or SD.

I would think that neither Martin nor Harris are working on detailed policy matters, that is surely the business of the background staff. All they need is a document that they can parade as the 'program for government'. As they both stood on a platform of 'more of the same' it should be a trivial task to copy and paste a suitable document.

The future problem for FF and FG will be keeping their own backbenchers happy. Giving either cabinet or junior ministries to the independents means there is less to go around for the the backbenchers. Those benches can become very restless over a five year period.

The closest thing we'll get to a mid term election is the Presidential Election next year, which many people choose to ignore.

completely agree, increasing taxes alone will not solve our environmental issues, but taxation does need to be a part of this process, but not be the ultimate 'incentive', the state does in fact need to step up and start heavily investing in our long term infrastructure needs, which means heavily borrowing!

…with an aging population ,we ve no choice but to continually keep increasing health spending, not doing so will just produce worsening results!

…noting, as we age, we all need a functioning health system, which includes you!

…i.e. the last thing you personally need is an even more dysfunctional health system when you get into your 70's and 80's!

…so careful what you wish for!

…oh and we also need to keep increasing spending on all the other stuff you mentioned to!

I used health as an example. I don't disagree with your assessment on health, but unfortunately as we all know there will be little change without capital outlay somewhere along the way. And absolutely on the other points you make re needed expenditure. I was just pointing out that contrary to the post I replied to, we really do need the apple money for so many things.

The country will go backwards.

But higher taxes won't help us reach our targets either. What you're suggesting is let the citizens pay for governmental failure.

But what's new I suppose?

https://www2.hse.ie/services/find-urgent-emergency-care/

We already have that, with a range of minor injury clinics and out-of-hours GP services.

Yes, anything that reduces that should be paramount, but if some people don't use minor injury clinics and out-of-hours GPs and still turn up at A&E out of a sense of entitlement or a false belief that care will be better, then that is where we should start, using existing resources more effectively and efficiently rather than spending more money, especially when, with the youngest population in the OECD, we are spending more per capita on health than most.

Educating people on what is the best solution (effective and efficient) for health needs is most important. That will be a struggle while there are still politicians and lobby groups looking for full A&E and cardiac and maternity and specialists in every small town in Ireland.