Forming the next Irish Government - policies and personalities

Absolutely not. All in all I can say is, without my other half I'd be a mess in reality.

Replying to dulpit, sorry meant to quote.

One question has been asked, why, when this committee knew several days out that there would be power outage the likes of which we have never seen before, was the EU not asked for the available resources/equipment before the storm hit. And of course supplementary questions arising out of that. A look at what they did well would be good too.
The Independent TD Ciaran Mullooly has produced backed up information about this that counters Michael Martin's kneejerk cover story.
It is too serious a failing, if true, to be making excuses, telling porkies about. I'm listening to a health professional questioning and criticising the HSE and it's preparedness/response on the radio now too.
The place for proper examination/accountability is not on the radio, it's in the Dáil and it's various committees.

Hugh MacNeill

Is that 'Hugo O'Neill' Jennifer Carroll O'Neill's husband?
What exactly has his contribution been that qualifies him for the Senate? He seems fairly anxious to get in.

Always have to have the last word, eh? Thought you were done?

And I thought I told you to stop putting words in my mouth?

Terrified, am I? What was that about sealioning again? I'm not terrified of anything, I'm actually proud that we are one of the most progressive and equitable societies in the history of the human race.

You never pointed out evidence of anything, I asked you and you said it was impossible, remember? Course you do, you're deliberately being obtuse to show how much of a good little boy you are. Then you dodged every single follow up question because it scuttled your entire argument.

The circus is definitely in town.

Friends, is it sexist to give a job to person A over person B based solely on their sex instead of their ability to do the job?………..Yes, yes it is. In fact that's pretty much the dictionary definition of sexism. Next question, please.

We're back to equity of access versus equity of results. Women aren't barred from running for office. They have equal ACCESS to becoming a candidate as any man. Lamenting the fact that people didn't vote for those women and they should replace someone who WAS voted in is not only sexist, it's undemocratic. Subverting the will of the electorate in order to satisfy some fictional utopia………tell me, how would you feel if you went for a job and were told "sorry, we don't have enough members of the opposite sex on board, so, even though you're the most qualified, we're gonna give it to your woman sat beside you"?

I think we're all expected to kid ourselves that there's not decades of well-documented evidence in Ireland and abroad showing barriers to political participation for women. Maybe they're only visible to those who are able to see beyond the end of their nose to how things work for other people.

And it's quite hilarious have far you have to change what I actually said, and what actually happens in recruitment in order to make up stuff to get outraged about.

You'd really have to wonder what terrifies you so about women getting fair access to public representation and indeed all recruitment.

Nobody else to replace her as the candidate probably. She does come close sometimes - under a vote out in this Seanad election, under 40 out at elimination in the last GE, 160 out at elimination in 2016.

SF TD in Dublin West lost I think 4 council elections before becoming a councillor and 5 Dail elections (3x by-elections in two constituencies, he's not been going since the early 90s!)) before becoming a TD, building his vote each time; so it can work.

In your opinion.

So you can afford to run your home using fossil fuels and you bought a generator… yet in the same token carbon taxes is making it unaffordable to run anything with fossil fuels??

Snide insults and more putting words in people's mouths aside, you'd really have to wonder how much faith you have in your own argument when you have to resort to telling other people they are terrified in order to make yourself feel better. Desperation seems to be setting in.

They already do have fair access to political participation. Anyone can put themselves forward as a candidate. Anyone. What barriers are stopping a woman from running in a general election in Ireland? You keep talking about evidence, then when asked to put up or shut up, you turn around and say it's impossible to provide conclusive proof of social change…..so which is it? Seems like you change your tune based on how much of a shitshow it makes your entire argument. Quelle surprise.

women getting fair access to public representation and indeed all recruitment.

You're not looking for fair access though, through your own admission. You're looking for equal representation in the final outcome. Well, that's what the assumption is, seeing as you have refused multiple attempts to explain your position on this. It takes a special kind of idiot to refuse to elaborate on their position, ignore all questions on it, refuse to explain their POV, refuse to provide evidence (and indeed claim that it's impossible to provide such evidence) and then chastise others for acting in bad faith. I mean, take a look at your behaviour throughout this thread, it's like debating with a 4 year old.

So here's one final attempt:

Two people apply for a job, one male and one female. The male candidate is much better qualified and has twice the experience of his female counterpart. However the team they'll join is 95% male, so management decide to hire the woman, because of a quota in place.

Do you think this is fair? Or sexist? What are your thoughts on this scenario?

Cue "I refuse to engage in your bad faith………"

You're only refusing to do so because it exposes your blatant hypocrisy.

The money is already there. We are producing corporate and personal tax hand over fist. Economy booming, full employment, running multi billion surplus.

Yet we've creaking infrastructure. Poor emergency response to a natural disaster.

JThe money is being squandered and pilford at a criminal rate.

I assume you are not living in an area affected by the storm. There are many solar panels in pieces after being ripped off of roofs.

Herein the west we had the same power cuts and communication back out when we had a snow fall before Christmas. So not once in 80 yes, but twice in little over a month. Irish water knew that they could be cut off from mains power. Why did they not have sufficient generators available? Or even enough to meet some of the demand.

Mobile phone networks were also down. Why didn't they have backup power for the vital network . All services and the government seemed to advise people to log onto websites for information. But the mobile network and the very expensive national broadband network the government rolled out failed to work because there was no backup power.

One of the few communication channels people had was the radio on battery powered transistor radios or on their phones. But RTE failed miserably in being the source of information, especially over the weekend when they resorted to the usual programme instead of having dedicated broadcasts providing vital information to people in their homes cut off from everyone else. In vast areas of the west , even the 99 emergency lines would not work.

And, as I say, this all played out in December during a snow fall so the government cannot claim ignorance of what could happen. The area affected was much bigger but the lessons were there for government, mobile networks, rte, and Uisce Eireann . They just preferred to ignore it.

Are you being facetious?

Boards.ie ,a dying entity, is largely populated by unrepresentative cranks and moaners and exaggerators

Must have missed that survey.

I didn't buy a generator, I have it in years and need it for work anyway. I have turf and timber on my own land. I buy coal for emergency situations like last weekend.

So again, quit with the hogwash, most of the country uses fossils and have to. Your attempts at countering my arguments on what the govt has done to change not just mine but their own departments need for fossils is pathetic at this stage. The sheer volume of hired in generators for their own businesses is testament to that.