FG's first year in Government....your opinions

AudreyHepburn · 09-03-2012 10:31AM #1

Now I am probably opening a huge can of worms here but I am curious as to peoples opinions of FG/L's first year in government.

For me, I feel that they were lumped with a situation they didn't cause and although their decisions have been tough to take, there really aren't any other options they can take.

EK never promised miracles because he couldn't It took Fianna Fail nearly 20 years to bring us to the point we are at now, it is totally unrealisitc, in my opinion, to expect EK and Co to fix things in a year or two.

It breaks my heart to see people struggling but I firmly believe that the governments decisions, while hard to swallow now, will be pay off in the long run.

Toby Take a Bow · 09-03-2012 10:34AM

I can't see anything in EK's previous policy statements that would in any way suggest they would have handled the situation any different from FF. This is shown to be true in that they voted for the bank bailout.

FG have managed (up until now, I would think) to have a nice shiny PR campaign which has hoodwinked people into believing that they are something they aren't. I think a lot of people are waking up to this now.

hoodwinked · 09-03-2012 10:40AM

down with the government?

isn't that the standard response?

seriously though i think they are doing ok, obviously they could have done better, but then a certain amount of money wasting is to be expected from any government, they don't need to over tax though, if they start wasting money as much as the last lot, then maybe the statement above is accurate!

My name is URL · 09-03-2012 10:45AM

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

EK never promised miracles because he couldn't It took Fianna Fail nearly 20 years to bring us to the point we are at now, it is totally unrealisitc, in my opinion, to expect EK and Co to fix things in a year or two

They may not have promised miracles, but they promised to do a hell of a lot which they have failed to do.

There's a few articles on TheJournal about the progress (or lack thereof) made by the government n their first year

http://www.thejournal.ie/how-has-the-government-really-done-in-its-first-year-this-is-how-377826-Mar2012/

Biggins · 09-03-2012 10:49AM

10% progress.

90% lies, MASSIVE u-turns, spin and traitor actions of allowing foreign countries/bodies to run our country!

hoodwinked wrote: »

...if they start wasting money as much as the last lot, then maybe the statement above is accurate!

What do you mean "IF" ???

http://www.joe.ie/news-politics/current-affairs/is-the-eu-presidency-really-worth-e70m-to-ireland-0021162-1

Reports today suggest that Ireland plans to spend €70m for the Presidency of the Council of the European Union over the next year, even though it exceeds a spending cap.

What could we, as a nation, do with €70 million? Take a few people off hospital trollies? Build a new school or two? Or host the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for a grand total of six whole months? Six months or, if you’re a numbers man, that works out to cost around €385,000 for every day that Ireland holds the top seat.

However, we might be overshooting the mark already. The €70m that has been allocated is double the €35m spending cap which was imposed by Denmark to help and deliver a ‘low cost’ presidency, which is only fair what with Europe down the crapper, and all that.

A report in the Sunday Times suggests that the Irish Government has allocated €25m in spending for this year, in order to ‘prepare’ for the presidency, and €35m for 2013, but expects the total to be in excess of €70m.

talkinyite · 09-03-2012 10:50AM

Boobs. The standard of living hasn't increased but emigration and the price of living has, so yeah not too good.

ArmaniJeanss · 09-03-2012 10:53AM

Would be reasonably happy with their first year. 7/10.

flash1080 · 09-03-2012 10:55AM

We'd be in a far better position with FF running the show, it was FF who brought us the good times.

Sykk · 09-03-2012 10:56AM

Some people expect a full recovery when breakfast rolls are selling at an all time high and the pubs are jammed Wednesday to Sunday.. Those people will never be pleased.

Mr Benevolent · 09-03-2012 10:57AM

Death to FG, LAB, FF and SF. Me for dictator.

ejmaztec · 09-03-2012 11:02AM

flash1080 wrote: »

We'd be in a far better position with FF running the show, it was FF who brought us the good times.

Is that why they've barely got enough TDs for a pub-quiz team?

Biggins · 09-03-2012 11:02AM

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

...It breaks my heart to see people struggling but I firmly believe that the governments decisions, while hard to swallow now, will be pay off in the long run.

It breaks my heart to see that so many are just accepting the (maximum?) 10% good they might be doing and at the same time willingly overlooking the other 90% of pure crap they are doing/saying!

Yet when others give out and protest their 90% disgusting actions, they are put down as 'moaners, begrudger's, whiners, etc...'
Some people gave out about Charles Haughtey, Fianna Fail, Albert Ahern and co, and they were treated the same. "Aaa... sure they are a bunch of moaners, as Bertie said, they would be better off killing themselves!" (I paraphrase)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfjGSfuSQpA

..Yet years later when the real price of their 90% (approx) bad actions became evident to the public - the same sheep public that supported these fools, scratched their head and said "How did this happen? and "How was this allowed to happen?"

...It was because ye allowed it to happen you idiots!
In your rush to only see the minor good they might have did, you stupidly constantly failed to see (or didn't want to see) the utter rot they were/are doing at the same time!

...And SURPRISE!!!
The same crap is happening again!
Don't say you weren't warned AGAIN!!!

thephantom1 · 09-03-2012 11:03AM

Sykk wrote: »

Some people expect a full recovery when breakfast rolls are selling at an all time high and the pubs are jammed Wednesday to Sunday.. Those people will never be pleased.

+1

bijapos · 09-03-2012 11:09AM

AudreyHepburn wrote: »

For me, I feel that they were lumped with a situation they didn't cause and although their decisions have been tough to take, there really aren't any other options they can take.

EK never promised miracles because he couldn't It took Fianna Fail nearly 20 years to bring us to the point we are at now, it is totally unrealisitc, in my opinion, to expect EK and Co to fix things in a year or two.

It breaks my heart to see people struggling but I firmly believe that the governments decisions, while hard to swallow now, will be pay off in the long run.

They were responsible for the crisis where they had influence, namely in the councils voting in crazy rezonings that contributed to the bubble. Their form of auction politics as in high spending, low taxes and tax reliefs for all is no different to what FF did.

Kenny at the last GE promised stuff he knew he couldn't deliver just for the sake of votes here and there (Roscommon Hospital for e.g.) and continued the same gombeenism thats been going on here for ages.

He had a chance to get a better deal on the bailout, he failed, he now has another good chance with the Fiscal Treaty coming up, lets hope he makes use of it.

Ironically the biggeer decisions that really affect us are the ones introduced by FF/Green under the Troika in 2010, FG/Lab are just trotting along.

flash1080 wrote: »

We'd be in a far better position with FF running the show, it was FF who brought us the good times.

Troll away, nobody is listening. :rolleyes:

Jerry Jordan · 09-03-2012 11:16AM

Bar the household charge which is an unjust charge to bailout the banks , i think Fine Gael are doing ok in the circumstances they were handed. Im not a skinflint and I can afford the household charge, but its the principle that is stopping me paying it. Plus the fact only 145,000 homes have paid out of 1.5 million homes. Also the fact the the charge is going to change based on valuations and we have not been told by how much it will increase etc is stopping me paying too.
But all in all they are trying their best and the household charge is the only factor im unhappy about. If i had a spetic tank i would be unhappy about that too though. It makes me unhappy that im paying high taxes and USC here and we have no real good services in return. We are a highly taxed country with nothing really for the tax. Theres no hospital in the county i live in. I have to go to another county to have my baby, im pregnant. But thats all the fault of the last government.

mike65 · 09-03-2012 11:21AM

They were dealt the worst hand of any government in the states history, they have'nt made things any worse on the macro level, indeed things are better - Ireland is no longer considered a basket case/next Greece by global investors.

On a personal level things have got worse but thats because of the massive hole left by the previous government, a hole that has to be filled. One can argue about how best to bridge the gap between national income and expenditure until the cows come home and I can certain see areas for improvement but I'm not going to hammer FG/Lab after 12 months.

Freddie59 · 09-03-2012 11:26AM

Absolute hypocrites. Proof - if ever it were needed - that someone needs to watch the watchers. Those charged with change are the ones most affected by it. So nothing will change.

The Golden Circle will go on and on. Until one day there is no longer the money available to fund it. Then we will become, possibly, Libya. But without the oil.

alphabeat · 09-03-2012 02:38PM

a complete bunch of Sh1tbags

and i voted them in

Sh1tbags

AudreyHepburn · 09-03-2012 02:45PM

I think a lot of the problem is that everyone was expecting miracles that could never and would never happen. They hoped for too much, too soon.

It took the best part of two decades to bring the country to where it is now. Things will not improve overnight nor did anyone ever say it would.

I will concede that a lot was promised at Election time that has been delivered yet. But I think this may have been a case of simply telling us what we wanted to hear, and not what was right, in the same as EK said we were not responsible for the recession.

Chucky the tree · 09-03-2012 02:50PM

bijapos wrote: »

They were responsible for the crisis where they had influence, namely in the councils voting in crazy rezonings that contributed to the bubble. Their form of auction politics as in high spending, low taxes and tax reliefs for all is no different to what FF did.

Kenny at the last GE promised stuff he knew he couldn't deliver just for the sake of votes here and there (Roscommon Hospital for e.g.) and continued the same gombeenism thats been going on here for ages.

Of course he did. At the previous election in 2002 Noonan promised to curb spending and said Fine Gael would take a sensible approach to it, we all know what happened their. Fine Gael got hammered and Noonan had to resigin. Kenny realised you have to give the Irish electorate what they want if you want to be voted in - and that's populist nonsense.

fishy fishy · 09-03-2012 02:56PM

nobody was expecting miracles.

However the cheek of them to promise this that and the other before the election and after they election the come with the "fooled ye - it's never gonna happen"

the only GAINS I see that they have made is the average two stone they have all put on since being elected.

pragmatic1 · 09-03-2012 02:57PM

Doing better than the last shower but thats not saying much.

Lone Stone · 09-03-2012 03:03PM

They appear to be selling our sovereignty and restricting our freedoms (looks at sean sherlock). I think democracy is long dead in Ireland. And for some reason no one can be arsed to do anything about it and when we do it get's no news coverage again il point to the protest's 80,000 signatures against acta. Some thing is very wrong in Ireland.

We change government but we get the same decisions i think Ireland like Greece needs a completely remove all the weed's that have rooted itself in our political garden and plant some new seed's because things are just going to get messier if some thing isnt done soon.

But i dont think this is just happening in Ireland its the same in all the western countries lately and thats a more worrying concern.

bleg · 09-03-2012 03:11PM

Load of sh!te to be fair.

EarlERizer · 09-03-2012 03:15PM

The only thing that seperates them from the last lot is 'G' other than that,same o same, broken promises,lies lies and more fookin lies.

Seriously they've done next to nothing to stem the tide of misery,all their pre-election bullshyte has proved just that! All we did was replace one king of spin with another.

Spacedog · 09-03-2012 03:43PM

I'm more dissapointed with Labour than FG. Labour promised more than FG in terms of making banks and bond holders responsible, then settled to playing the role of hatchetmen of public services.

Also the Labour Party's support for Irish SOPA and ACTA, both signed by Sean Sherlock, clearly in the pocket of the international media lobby. no Government TD replied to tens of thousands of e-mails with anything more than a copy paste of Sherlocks speech. Marian Harken Labour MEP being the only exception in this regard.

KeithAFC · 09-03-2012 03:47PM

From the outside looking in, they seem to have done a bad job. I think Fianna Fail would have been a better option to sort out the mess which some say they created. I don't think Fine Gael are up to the task and the taoiseach seems to be too lightweight on the political front as they say.

I really think Fianna Fail can get back in again and with some new ideas and fresh candidates, they can improve the situation and move the Irish Republic forward. Time will tell but I predict Fine Gael to not be as great as some might have predicted.

Einhard · 09-03-2012 04:28PM

Toby Take a Bow wrote: »

I can't see anything in EK's previous policy statements that would in any way suggest they would have handled the situation any different from FF. This is shown to be true in that they voted for the bank bailout.

FG have managed (up until now, I would think) to have a nice shiny PR campaign which has hoodwinked people into believing that they are something they aren't. I think a lot of people are waking up to this now.

In the run up to the 2002 election, the FG election manifesto criticised FF's fiscal policies as madness. Exchequer spending under FF was 13% ahead of inflation; FG proposed to reduce this to 2%. They also decided to stick by their principles regarding benchmarking, and criticised the policy in quite trenchent terms, even though it cost them votes in the public service.

To state therefore, that we would have arrived at our current situation had FG been in power rather than FF is, I think, to ignore all the available evidence. If FG had been elected in 2002, spending would have been much reduced and this, in itself, would have helped deflate the housing bubble. Unfortunately however, the Irish people in their inestimable wisdom, decided that fiscal profligacy was wiser than fiscal rectitude and delivered their opinion on FG's modest proposal in such a devestating fashion as to almost wipe out the party.

To answer the question: I think this government have done a reasonable job under the circumstances. The policies for which they are most criticised- cutbacks, property taxes, not burning bondholders- are those that were well flagged in advance. One might disagree with the policies, but one can hardly complain that they're breaking promises on these issues.

There have been mistakes, of course. But I find it most refreshing to hear ministers come on air and admit candidly to those mistakes, as Ruairi Quinn did over cutbacks in education. He looked at the issue, decided to row back on some cuts, and admitted that it was his fault. After all the blame shifting and refusal to take responsibility under Cowen in particular, it's most refrshing to see this kind of attitude.

Furthermore, I think kenny is doing a good job. He's not exactly the most inspiring of leaders, but he's competent and seems to be on top of his brief. More to the point, I don;t cringe in anticipatort embarassment every time he opens his mouth as I did with Cowen.

Could the government be doing better? Undoubtedly. But I think much of the criticism going their way is unfair. On Journal.ie yesterday for example, the government were being exoricated in the comments section for the loss of jobs at AIB. Lots of talk about FG hypocrisy in seeking to make jobs a central plant of government policy, and then allowing the jobs to go at the bank. When I asked should the taxpayer pay salaries to workers who weren't needed, there was silence and misdirection. Such criticism, and much that I see directed at this government is incredibly poorly thought out- it's as if people just want to b!tch and will utilise whatever's at hand as a vehicle through whcih to do so. Thus FG are perfidious for the property tax- even though it was in their manifesto; thus the government are cheats and liars for refusing to burn bondholders- even though neither party claimed they would, and FG claimed exolicitly in their manifesto that they wouldn't; thus we have people slamming Kenny on AIB jobs, while acknowledging that it's a logical development.

It's far too easy to just lash out with mindless criticism; far harder to actually put forward solid objections to real policies, and substantiate them.

EarlERizer · 09-03-2012 04:51PM

KeithAFC wrote: »

From the outside looking in, they seem to have done a bad job. I think Fianna Fail would have been a better option to sort out the mess which some say they created. I don't think Fine Gael are up to the task and the taoiseach seems to be too lightweight on the political front as they say.

I really think Fianna Fail can get back in again and with some new ideas and fresh candidates, they can improve the situation and move the Irish Republic forward. Time will tell but I predict Fine Gael to not be as great as some might have predicted.

In fairness Keith there's overwhelming evidence to back up what 'some' say! I don't think anyone was predicting a FG masterclass in how to run a country but more rather the nationwide displeasure of what FF had let happen tipped the scales in favour of the opposition,it wasn't a landslide victory for FG outright,they gained support,Labour gained support & even SF gained significant support.

I do believe FF will be back,maybe not in the next election but definitely the one after,there's still a few too familiar faces knocking about from the last shower and still a very bitter taste in the peoples mouths.

FG/Labour had a monumental task in front of them,we all knew it,no matter who came into power it wasn't going to be easy but they've continues to shoot themselves in the foot by back tracking on almost every election promise they peddled to the people,coupled with what they have implemented i.e. cutbacks to the most vunerable of our society,we're just been fed more bitter tasting fodder as they continue to deal us another slap in the face.

I don't know who could or how or if there even is a way to turn things around but the fact is whoever steps up they need to get the people onside AND keep them onside by delivering whats needed for the country. Infact I believe a large majority of the electorate need to look at how they vote and why,we've a share of the blame here too.

I was disgusted to see messers Aherne & Cowen been greeted like hereo's at the recent FF shindig,those pair should be languishing in jail for what they've done.

p.s.
from the inside looking around,they done a woeful first year thus far!

_Gawd_ · 09-03-2012 05:15PM

Biggins wrote: »

10% progress.

90% lies, MASSIVE u-turns, spin and traitor actions of allowing foreign countries/bodies to run our country!

What do you mean "IF" ???

http://www.joe.ie/news-politics/current-affairs/is-the-eu-presidency-really-worth-e70m-to-ireland-0021162-1

It's quite sad that the plebs get to pick a new master every 5 years and then spend those next 5 years in fear of what their new master might do to them. You couldn't make it up - there is an easier way though, self government.

kevmy85 · 09-03-2012 05:18PM

Jerry Jordan wrote: »

Bar the household charge which is an unjust charge to bailout the banks , i think Fine Gael are doing ok in the circumstances they were handed. Im not a skinflint and I can afford the household charge, but its the principle that is stopping me paying it. Plus the fact only 145,000 homes have paid out of 1.5 million homes. Also the fact the the charge is going to change based on valuations and we have not been told by how much it will increase etc is stopping me paying too.
But all in all they are trying their best and the household charge is the only factor im unhappy about. If i had a spetic tank i would be unhappy about that too though. It makes me unhappy that im paying high taxes and USC here and we have no real good services in return. We are a highly taxed country with nothing really for the tax. Theres no hospital in the county i live in. I have to go to another county to have my baby, im pregnant. But thats all the fault of the last government.

Yes the household charge is unfair in terms of it being a flat tax. This has been promised to be replaced next year with a progressive property tax - I'll wait till then to judge them on this one.

Sceptic tank thing is annoying - I think it was rushed in due to pressure from Europe and the threat of heavy fines/penalties. Not fully thought through but again it is something that should have been done in the previous 13 years or so.

As for us being a high tax country it may be true at the moment but it could be argued that part of the problem during the boom was that we weren't taxed enough (or at least with a broad enough base). Anyone earning less than €20k essentially paid no tax bar motor tax, excise duties and VAT.

Overall I think they are doing ok - I'll wait for longer to judge them on a fuller basis. They have made missteps - promising not to close hospitals before the election (FG) and promising to burn bondholders (Lab) was stupid. A U-turn on college fees isn't great by the education minister and a couple of smaller issues would annoy me. Having said that FF/Greens annoyed me more in a fortnight that this crowd have done in a year.

FG's first year in Government....your opinions

Comments