cruais wrote: » Its a joke...or do we run the risk of paying a humour tax now?
nm wrote: » Is everyone watching Primetime? 24hr vigilante style surveillance going on in some areas against and blocking Irish Water installations. The workers are claiming they've been spat at, shouted at, intimated, driven at, blocked in, etc.
geeksauce wrote: » Saw it for a couple of minutes last night about 11, who was your one on it in the studio. The lady with the short red hair who was anti water charges, I thought she was completely useless, great at dodging questions yes but completely and utterly useless at answering any questions directed to her. The couple of minutes I saw of it she was asked 'the price of providing water per year is €1billion, you want to scrap water charges so how do you intend to fund the provision of the water services' Her answer was something along the lines of 'well at the last by-election the AAA did quite well' Seriously though how in the hell does anyone listen to the likes of her and think she talks sense, wants to abolish water charges yet cant explain how the provision of water services will be funded once the charges are abolished, ridiculous. The other chap on it then makes a point of saying that it is intended to invest €1billion per year for 10 years on repairing and upgrading the water system. She interrupts him and says 'sure you spent €500 million on installing water meters, so why didn't you use that money to fix the broken infrastructure'............. Why you fcuking idiot? Well because it is going to cost €10billion to fix it so using that money still leaves it short by about €9.5billion, but of course there is no point asking you how this will be funded as you will no doubt start talking about some recent by-election.
yipeeeee wrote: » Her answer and just like sinn feins answer was, tax the wealthy rabble rabble. Which just means middle income get hit again and pick up the burden. Exactly what sinn fein will do if they get in. Populist bull****. Of course a load of people will swallow it.
_Kaiser_ wrote: » Kenny always goes missing at times like this.. his handlers are no doubt terrified of what he might come out with when not safely behind a closed door or hurling childish barbs at the opposition in the playground we call our national parliament. FG won't see a 2nd term though - by the looks of it this mess will drag on into the first half of 2015, FG/LAB will stage a real giveaway budget in October, and they'll be relying on people getting euphoric over that and the 2016 celebrations to carry them but I can't see it. The much vaunted "recovery" has yet to be felt by most people and the Germans are under pressure now in their own domestic economy which has led to a wider EU recovery petering out already. We'll be back to where we were in 2011 with an "anyone but the current shower" mindset - EXCEPT with anger against FF still very real (and deservedly so), the question will be where electorate goes next...
Little CuChulainn wrote: » If there's one thing I think everyone can agree on it's that Enda is the weakest leader our country has ever had, with the possible exception of the time he stuck it to the church in a speech.
yipeeeee wrote: » Property tax letters have started arriving through doors. This should be good!!
geeksauce wrote: » I would have loved to hear how exactly she intended to fund the provision of water services as well as repairing the system in place at the minute, unfortunately her knowledge of the subject didn't seem to extend beyond, 'the public think water charges are bad, so if I say water charges are bad they will elect me'
Red Pepper wrote: » I got talking to someone who's private company provided consultancy on the setup of Irish Water. He said they made the same mistakes as the Health Boards and HSE - when they amalgamated the health boards there should have been "efficiency layoffs" but the unions won out and the HSE was left with a bloated bureaucracy. This in turn led to hugely complicated systems and processes with zero value add roles being created to keep back office people "busy". The same has happened in Irish Water with too many people transferred from local authorities to Irish Water creating a logistical and bureaucratic mess for a newly setup utility. He also said the people transferred often had the wrong skillsets and were a little "shy of hard work". They wanted and needed good project managers, asset managers, engineers, PR people and environmental science types but that did not materialise initially. He said they are now scrambling to hire sufficiently qualified people from private industry.
Red Pepper wrote: » +1...it was a great speech and exactly what the church needed but he has done nothing else and his leadership has been dire.
Larbre34 wrote: » No, in fairness, Cowen turned out to be the weakest by a distance, couldn't cope at all.
Kenny is not a stupid person, and is by all accounts a hard worker and was very astute and savage around the events of the heave against him. I just don't think he is particularly savvy, spontaneous or reactive and rewarding goons like Phil Hogan and James Reilly for loyalty and seeing the results of the calamities they brought about have permanently scarred him. What he says domestically carries no influence.
And to bring this back on topic, let's not forget that rather than abolishing quangos as was promised, he's in fact created another HSE in IW.
geeksauce wrote: » That is it exactly, populist bull**** is spot on, people seem to genuinely believe whatever the opposition politicians tell them and then continue to act surprised when they don't live up to their pre-election promises. The whole aim of a politician (any politician) is to get elected, so the easiest way to do that is to see what item the public are passionate about, i.e. water charges at the minute and side with the majority in order to get elected. I would have loved to hear how exactly she intended to fund the provision of water services as well as repairing the system in place at the minute, unfortunately her knowledge of the subject didn't seem to extend beyond, 'the public think water charges are bad, so if I say water charges are bad they will elect me'
Cuttlefish wrote: » If you watched Prime Time last night you would have heard what people are saying and it is quite simple....Enough is enough Is that very hard to comprehend?
Lucy and Harry wrote: » A citizen being raped by the IMF and IW and FG has a right to shout 'enough is enough and no' or do you think we should all lie down and think of England.
Cuttlefish wrote: » If you watched Prime Time last night you would have heard what people are saying and it is quite simple....Enough is enough Is that very hard to comprehend? USC - crippling LPT - Hitting people hard Water Charges - the final straw for most people You agree in your statement above that promises were broken by FG and Lab and I am talking in general terms here not about Water charges in particular. You can say the same about labour and their election chant.... "Labours way or Frankfurts ways"
Barely There wrote: » Some people are just more comfortable dealing in soundbite politics and solutions to pretty complex issues. So please, shout out whatever makes you happy - you have that right, and it helps the rest of us easily identify those worth listening to and those worth ignoring.
geeksauce wrote: » Yes all politicians lie, its how they get elected, yet the electorate seem to think that things will be different if we elect a different politician next time. The couple of minutes I saw of Prime Time were when your one with the red hair, probably a member of the AAA or PBP was dodging questions. It's all well and good saying the goal is to abolish water charges yet having absolutely no idea about how you will fund the provision of water services as well as repair the existing infrastructure doesn't really cut it imo.
Lucy and Harry wrote: » You are saying only people that agree with you are worth listening to.