Forming the next Irish Government - policies and personalities

It's a way to describe it. Look, I think there is very little credibility in any of them tbh, but FF/FG did win the election and were always going to form the govt after the way the results went. Looking across the benches, there is no credible alternative there either.

Imagine if the whole bunch had got together and formed a govt, that would have been some bunch of ragtags and a desperate struggle for a grab at power.

We can and will criticise and hold to account the govt and its make up and the individuals involved in it. But there is no credible alternative in fairness.

I agree, the alternative offered was not credible in the eyes of the electorate. That does not give the ‘government’ a free pass though, however much it and it’s supporters think it does.

Are heat pumps and gas boilers free?

They were committed to it long after Covid. And you will need a Referendum to impose your qualifications on who has a vote. 'Paying tax' is not currently a requirement, al that is required is the following:

To vote in a presidential election, you must be:

An Irish citizen

Aged 18 or over

Ordinarily resident in Ireland* and

Registered to vote

Good that you accept this has been welched on though. You can predict how a referendum might go all you want, but the fact is, the public consultation aspect was complete and the government were in support of holding a referendum and now aren't.
If 'referendums' have been removed as a democratic republican option and the citizen disenfranchised, don't you think the citizens of that republic are entitled to be told?

As said, it isn't about you personally being happy with arbitrary welching on promises. Even when the gaps in your knowledge (the actual requirements necessary to have a vote and whether or not the commitment was in a previous PFG) are filled, and you then also accept the disenfranchisement of the electorate (because the sitting government failed in one referendum) you still tow the line, I wonder what the extent of your tolerance is tbh.

If you remove referendums as a vehicle to allow citizens have their say on constitutional issues without consultation or announcement (as you have claimed they have) then you undermine the whole notion of a 'republic' and the citizen's franchise.

Again your knowledge gap is exposed, FF FG and the Greens all supported a referendum on voting rights in 2020. That you now claim (unbacked up) FF FG had their fingers crossed behind their backs as some form of vindication for welching on this promise, speaks for itself.

Really isn't hard to expose those who cannot tolerate the people having their say, those resident here or abroad.

As I said

It’s a matter of fundamental principle for me

No taxation

No representation

You can disrespect the holding of that principle as much as you want or moan as much as you want

Knock yourself out

No, oil boilers are not free and the oil to fill them is also not free, in the same way that the electricity used to power heat pumps also isn't free

But when you buy a house with an oil boiler already installed and it costs ~€10k to replace it with a heat pump, what's the real benefit? Other than being a part of the sustainable environmental solution, of course

Move to Switzerland then

You reveal so much.
The reality here, if you are right, is that FF and FG are deliberately stalling and blocking agreed items in the PFG.
Great for their supporters but trashes any integrity they have as coalitions partners.

yeah you go construct your hill of beans on that one ,ace-ing the barrel scraping, and I’ll continue to tell you FF and FG together increased their vote and seats on 2024 manifestos that did not include the item you’re droning on about

There was no danger of the Greens holding them to their commitments sadly.

I could show you members of FF and FG waxing lyrical in support of it in the Dàil but why would I bother when you will tolerate anything, any arrogant and duplicitous move they make.

Added to other rowbacks they have not a shred of integrity or a belief in anything but power and maintaining it and I don’t care if they got a super majority.

One they didn’t welch on?

You have provided zero back up for your contention that FG FF didn’t back it.
The fact is they did and they reneged on it.

Turning yourself inside out to defend that isn’t the win you think it is.