Election Confirmed for May 24th (opinions on the choice of thursday here aswell)

D. Coughlan

According to a interview in tomorrow's Sunday Independent, Bertie Ahern will dislove the Dail tomorrow(29th April) for May 24th

Villain

Source?

Just seen it on Politics.ie but apparently the President is out of the county so how does that work?

Time Magazine

It is reported on www.politics.ie.

Bertie'll have to be up early in the morning to catch Mary before she jets off to America at 9am...

D. Coughlan

irish1 wrote:

Source?

Just got a early copy of the Sunday Independent thats all.

Arathorn

Thats still a Thursday, I'm really annoyed with that because I wont be able to go home and vote.

InFront

He didn't answer a journalist who asked him earlier on in the week if the election would be called over the weekend.

This could be a deliberate leak to reel people in and throw them back. All this attention over calling the election is giving Ahern an awful lot of camera attention and soundbytes and front pages.

lucernarian

I would be suprised if he showed up at Áras an Uachtarán early tomorrow morning before 6 am.

If it is to be 24th May, I think we will hear within 2 hours of now.

brianthebard

You just gotta love the username in this context....

mike65

Whens the Champions League final on? (not that Berties Man Utd will be there!)

RTE radio has carried this story.

Mike.

He's actually in the park having tea and asking for the disolving of the Dáil as we speak according to news talk 106.

24th seems to be the day-a thursday alright.

DublinWriter

Bertie just called it for Thursday 24th May:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0429/politics.html

Threads merged

Jonny Arson

So Ahern informs his propaganda machine the SINDO before anyone else that he is calling the election...... :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

No surprise it's on a Thursday..... we already knew students and people communiting from Dublin to their shoeboxes in Roscommon obviously don't carry a vote for FF so that's expected.

Well he always going to get it out of the way before the scandal coming up in the Mahon Tribunal so let the games begin!

Villain

And the countdown to the fall of the great Bertie begins, let the race begin.

Heinrich

irish1 wrote:

And the countdown to the fall of the great Bertie begins, let the race begin.

Whether he falls or not is up to the electorate but if he does not then they will deserve what will be coming to them!

It would simply give him a mandate for a further five years of fibs, smoke and mirrors. And as a bonus we will have pencils banned from Irish life. No more embarassment in County Meath, former home of High Kings at Tara.

Macha

I think it's a disgrace that the election has been called on a weekday.

In many other countries, eg Spain and France, the election is always on a Sunday, or another set day. This way, people who commute weekly know where to register to vote, ie where they will be on a Sunday.

Here, on the other hand, how is a person to know whether to register in Dublin or their home constituency?

The sooner we get rid of Bertie the better. He's about as subtle as a ton of bricks. He doesn't fool anyone

Heinrich

taconnol wrote:

The sooner we get rid of Bertie the better. He's about as subtle as a ton of bricks. He doesn't fool anyone

Unfortunately he fools far too many people!

lucernarian

brianthebard wrote:

You just gotta love the username in this context....

Haha!

But yes, my two-hour thing was a bit off. If it was late as 8.30, I'd wonder how she was to catch a flight at 9 am.

ateam

Did RTE1 bring any news coverage of the announcement?

Villain

They had a special radio programme this morning and RTE 1 on TV has a news special at noon I believe. RTE website says it will have them online shortly.

ateam

The noon programme will include Bertie Ahern's speech at 12:30 I think. The election count programme will be held on a Friday this year, will The Late Late get shelved? I think Fianna Fail will prove the pollsters wrong and return to government in a coalition with the PDs and independents.

Round Cable

Have an exam on the day, but I'll be back to vote, don't worry Bertie!

Colonel Sanders

i'll have to take a flexi half day from work but no way am i not voting and contribuing to getting FF out of ofce

Marcus.Aurelius

Colonel Sanders wrote:

i'll have to take a flexi half day from work but no way am i not voting and contribuing to getting FF out of ofce

My sentiments exactly. At last we have our chance to kick that useless shower out of power. Electorate response thus far has been very encouraging. All we can hope for now is that the people who were foolish enough, and fooled into voting for FF last time will redeem themselves with this new opportunity.

ateam

maoleary wrote:

My sentiments exactly. At last we have our chance to kick that useless shower out of power. Electorate response thus far has been very encouraging. All we can hope for now is that the people who were foolish enough, and fooled into voting for FF last time will redeem themselves with this new opportunity.

A new opportunity with Enda Kenny as Taoiseach and Pat Rabitte as Minister for Finance... NO Thanks.

is_that_so

ateam wrote:

A new opportunity with Enda Kenny as Taoiseach and Pat Rabitte as Minister for Finance... NO Thanks.

And why is that?

timmywex

To_be_confirmed wrote:

Haha!

But yes, my two-hour thing was a bit off. If it was late as 8.30, I'd wonder how she was to catch a flight at 9 am.

its not like she has to check in her bagage two hours before like the rest of us plebs

Glenbhoy

Jonny Arson wrote:

Well he always going to get it out of the way before the scandal coming up in the Mahon Tribunal so let the games begin!

Mahon starts tomorrow and will suspend in a week or so apparently, will that be time enough? Do they have anything? Bertie in today's Sindo seems to suggest they do.

Marcus.Aurelius

ateam wrote:

A new opportunity with Enda Kenny as Taoiseach and Pat Rabitte as Minister for Finance... NO Thanks.

If you can't see what the FF/PD govt has done then you shouldn't be allowed to vote. The celtic tiger continued for this long thanks to the last rainbow coalition, which abolished fees for 3rd level. They could see the beginning of something great. Graduates were churned out and got jobs easily as the economy took off, stabilised and fed by these very graduates.

FF got in, taxed the population to death by stealth, ran the economy into the ground, let hundreds of multinationals leave, and claimed it was all OK, as the building industry (purely internal and greedy) flourished. We've lost our knowledge-based economy, and Bertie and co are so corrupted now, they couldn't fix it if they tried, their hands are in so many pockets and so many big business leaders have their hands in the govt's pockets.

The building industry is slowing, and we are at risk of being left with nothing at all. It's insulting that Bertie and co claimed all the glory for themselves, and raped us and the economy. If we are so rich,

Why are people dying on trollies in our third world health system?

Why do we have so little spare cash?

Why is the tax rates (and stealth taxes) so high?

Why are road deaths being ignored?

Where are our speed cameras? (400 of them??!!)

Why are we so stupid that we can't see what they've done to us?

irishash

just read the news this morning (early riser) and was not too shockd to see bertie set the election for thursday the 24 of may. it is a slap in the face to hundreds upon thousands of people in this country to hold the polling on that day. lets list the people he is making it hard for to vote :

1.college students - a lot of college exams will be in full flow during this week and what student is going to jepordise their studies to vote (hopefully all)

2. people who work and live in areas that they are not from - so i live in dublin, work in dublin. i am registered to vote in westmeath. going to be hard for me to get home to vote. going to cost me money, time, effort. going to have to get back to dublin before the night is out. so bertie has just cost me 10 euro there, 10 euros back and 20 euro in taxis to and from the bus stop to the polling station. thank bertie - can i send you the bill for that ??

And before anyone tells me that it is my own fault to live in dublin, its not - policies of this goverment have forced me to find a career in dublin. to the people that say i should register to vote in dublin - why should i ?? i would prefer to be represented in the dail by someone from my own area, with my concerns on board (and on a slightly ironic note, i live in north dublin, in berties area !! so if i was registered here I would have a vote in his own fate)
could i not comute to work i hear someone shout ?? NO NO NO i dont want to get up at 6am every morning and get home at 7.30. i dont want to have to pay huge amounts of money for that privilege either.

3. the eldery, the sick, the disabled - because of the way health services are set up - most outings, appointments, health checks are carried out on weekday (primarly tues, weds and thurs) to minimise cost. so anything that has been organised for that day will either a. be cancelled (at high cost) or b. go ahead (and screw it - it is only an election)

i could go on and on and on - but i wont because there is no point. the only thing that can be done is to vote. shove this decision in his face. get out there and prove to bertie that he can not rule us like a dictator - he cannot be allowed to go against the people HE SERVES and do whatever he likes. i hope every student that can vote will vote - i hope colleges will put off exams due to be on the friday after the election to enable students to get home to vote without worry of how to get back in time for more exams.

i hope........for a better ireland where i do not have to type this out.

murphaph

Personally I think our rates of personal taxation are just about right. I'd be opposed to any further tax cuts on primary income. VAT rate is at the upper end but the real problem there is that far to many items are considered for luxury (21%) taxation. Even basic safety equipment like motorcycle helmets (exempt from VAT in UK and many other jurisdictions) fall under the luxury rate. I think the real real problem is still how the money is spent, rather than how it's generated. Still lots of waste. I was one of the ones duped by FF last time. I'll vote for anyone but that smug sh!te Lenihan in Dublin West this time. He'll still get in, as will Burton and Higgins in what is probably the most difficult constituency to see change. Still though, even of his vote falls it'll send a shot across the bows. Varadkar I'd say has a chance in Dublin West however.