Has urban Ireland finally a voice?

OK - and wouldnt your colleague appreciate if there was high speed trainline from Dublin to Gorey?

I'm sure commuting is one of the banes of his life.

When we say Dublin needs investment, a primary reason is improving the transport infrastructure. Better trainlines from Mullingar to Dublin. Better trainlines from Gorey to Dublin. And every other commuter town around the city.

I'm sure commuting is one of the banes of his life.

He can fix that, pretty much instantly if he wants.

He'd have to give up all the stuff that he's traded for it though……house prices, detached dwelling, plenty of room/land to look after. As another poster said, that's self-inflicted and, literally, his choice. We shouldn't be listening to him or kowtowing to his demands any ore than we should entertain similar gripes from some junkie who lives in the flats but wants a 6 bed, detached mansion with all the bells and whistles.

Why should city folk have to pay for his high speed trainline while he turns his nose up at living in a city?

The quickest way to kill this entire argument would be to de-federalise the public funds. Ringfence everything….all taxes raised in Dublin are spent in Dublin only. Same with Laois, Galway, Roscommon etc. The Healy-Raes would be up in arms before the ink was dry on any such proposal, and they wouldn't be alone.

A good point, well made.

It was the other poster I was aiming my own post at. It's a tad rich to be tugging at the heart strings over his commute when he's in a pickle of his own making. It's like giving the kids a choice between either watching a movie or getting ice-cream. Now that the movie is finished, our friend in Gorey is cribbing about not getting his choc ice.

You think it's a conspiracy theory to think that a country has an urban centre that is designed to be the centre of economic activity?

Is it not what every country does?

My contention is not that rural Ireland doesn't depend on the money filtered through Dublin to maintain modern lifestyles.

My contention is that people - who happen to be in Dublin or come from Dublin - who hold it over the rest of the country that they "create" the wealth, like some badge of honour - really are just displaying the fact they know absolutely nothing about the management of a country. The fact a former Taoiseach came out with it is the most bizarre and scary of all.

Urban Ireland does create the wealth, you said lt yourself.

We should not encourage division between urban and rural ireland and everyone has their part to play but it is still true to say that urban ireland, and especially dublin, contributes the large majority of tax revenue raised for the state.

Yes, as it's designed to be.

It's like we all put our money in the bank because it's the most efficient and practical way to keep it safe. We don't then say well done to the bank for earning all that money.

Dubliners don't work any harder than the rest of the country, and vice versa.

Most irish produced food is exported and most of the food we eat in ireland is imported.

We do need irish farmers and we do need to subsidise food production to ensure food security levels but we are producing far in excess of food security levels.

The big problem is 2030 when we start getting hit by the EU with carbon emission fines for over producing food that we never needed in the first place.

I dont know how the govt are going to address this other than helping farms diversify their output to solar or other renewables, instead of food production.

A below cost selling ban would have removed the impetus for various alcohol pricing rules. It was Michael Martin that got rid of the ban and was very proud of it, too.

The supermarkets agreed not to go to the single digit prices again - the UK ones still do at Christmas and sometimes Easter - but the 49/69c stuff is still below cost.

Well he was just setting up a rural vs urban fight and you took the bait.