The official Politics board general election poll-Which government do you want?

Elmo

The main sticking point would be economics with PDs favoring deregulation, and Labour wanting to limit the private sector. If Labour go any further right then it actually could work (I'd hate to see it though!).

This is an untruth perpetuated by the PD's that they are the only party to agree with deregulation and increased competition.

The Labour (FF + FG) government of the early 1990's brought about major changes in relation to competition.

You have to remember it takes a long time to deregulated anyone sector. Just look at the VHI and ESB, the government have been very slow to deregulate these monopolies.

The PD's came into government on the foot of major developments in Ireland a total change in society occurred under Labour in the early 1990's.

After a very conservative 1987 - 1992 FF/PD government.

We forget that the PD's where in government during one of the worst eras of the unemployment. We forget that the PD's are a hotch potch of FFers and FGers.

Labour are centre left, just because the right are now embracing free education doesn't mean that it is a right wing ideal.

Boston

I don't know, Labours pledge to tax the super rich just shows how detached from reality they are.

darkman2

I hope people realise that the Greens want to halt the roads programme, have talked about ending child vacination and want to end floridation of water.

Elmo

I hope people realise that the Greens want to halt the roads programme, have talked about ending child vacination and want to end floridation of water.

The greens have not said this what they have said (but over the cries of the PDs are hard to hear): -

They want to develop the public transport system first and then look a the roads infrasture (you will note that they have to negociate with other parties so its not a case of the greens being able to halt anything that others dont agree with).

They have denouced publicly what was said on the Last Word by Patrica McKenna and do not beleive in ending child vacination.

And they have stated that they want to see a reducution in the amount of floridation in the water system, AFAIK Ireland over uses floride in the water system.

http://www.greenparty.ie/en/election_07/manifesto_2007

And from RTE.ie

PD leaflet: Greens will raise corporate taxes
Fact: Current Green platform would NOT raise corporate taxes

PD leaflet: Greens will cut tax relief on personal pensions
Fact: It is a possibility, but the Greens would replace it with a SSIA matching contribution scheme

PD leaflet: Greens want to ban fluoridation in the country's water supply
Fact: Greens want to conduct a nationwide survey and only ban it if there is a dangerous uptake

Pride Fighter

I voted other and I will specify. Hopefully the Socialist party will win the election. I know that is impossible as they dont even have a lot of candidates running. I just thought I would make the point to be awkward.

Pride Fighter

Why dont people think sport is a serious issue? Its obvious why we suck at it and rarely win olympic medals.

brianthebard

The arts and culture aren't on the list above but I'm not complaining, there are far more important things to the general well being of a nation than the arts or sports, no matter how important they may be to an individual's life.

Dirk Gently

Pride Fighter wrote:

I voted other and I will specify. Hopefully the Socialist party will win the election. I know that is impossible as they dont even have a lot of candidates running. I just thought I would make the point to be awkward.

could go either way for the SP. might end up with none or could double their TD's to two if higgins holds his seat and daly gets in. Personally I hope daly and higgins both get in. The Dail needs the likes of the socialist party to provide some form of left opposition.

InFront

Sport could probably go under infrastructure, but you're right it is important. It's pretty significant to health, of course.

Pride Fighter

Being realistic I think they could be in the next government if Fine Gael, Labour and the Greens are a few seats short and according to the polls it looks as if they will.

Dirk Gently

I wouldn't imagine so. SP will not go into government with any party and they won’t be invited by any party either. They are socialists in the revolutionary sense of the word and would not take part in a capitalist government. They are useful agitators to have around the place though and Higgins was a one man opposition for most of his time in the Dail on many issues

If FG + LAB + GREEN don't have the numbers it will be a case of FF + ?

brianthebard

If it came down to a FG/Lab/Green government, the rainbow would be shaky enough (in the outset at least) without introducing a minority, extremely left wing party to the mix. They would be better off with some independants, someone who wouldn't rock the ideological boat any more than it already would be. And I doubt the majority of FG would ever go along with a group like the socialist party, they are just too far apart imo.

Pride Fighter

Probably true. Joe Higgins would be a great character in the cabinet though.

Múinteoir

darkman2 wrote:

I hope people realise that the Greens want to halt the roads programme, have talked about ending child vacination and want to end floridation of water.

Wow, someone who actually swallows everything the PDs say without question. I thought people like you were were like the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, but it seems not.

Pride Fighter

Your health is your wealth. That is an old saying. The fact sport is not a major issue is just wrong. If we had a more active population the health service would save billions each year. Our current minister for health opposed the construction of a proper sports venue (the so called Bertiebowl). I wonder how much activity she does? She probably has private health insurance anyway.

Pride Fighter

Muinteoir is right, the PD's propaganda is attempting to smear the Greens as the PD's leader is in a dogfight to get re-elected in his own constituency and the Greens are one of his main rivals. The Greens would want the roads programme to go ahead but they would encourage Hybrid cars and buses to go on them.

nesf

brianthebard wrote:

If it came down to a FG/Lab/Green government, the rainbow would be shaky enough (in the outset at least) without introducing a minority, extremely left wing party to the mix. They would be better off with some independants, someone who wouldn't rock the ideological boat any more than it already would be. And I doubt the majority of FG would ever go along with a group like the socialist party, they are just too far apart imo.

FG/Lab/Green will be fairly shaky as is imho. Adding in another party could make it untenable or very weak if FG didn't have enough of a margin over the rest of keep things on a fairly even keel. As is, I hope if the opposition coalition gets in that it is FG/Lab, or at worst a very strong FG and a weak Lab and Green. Otherwise it could be fairly problematic (i.e. how long will the parties stay in "coalition-friendly" mode before reverting back to their standard policies which could be quite at odds with each other).

nesf

Pride Fighter wrote:

Your health is your wealth. That is an old saying. The fact sport is not a major issue is just wrong. If we had a more active population the health service would save billions each year. Our current minister for health opposed the construction of a proper sports venue (the so called Bertiebowl). I wonder how much activity she does? She probably has private health insurance anyway.

The issue surely is that while encouraging young people to get involved with sport and stay with it is a good thing for the health service (at least as far as I remember), converting the present sedentary middle aged masses is probably less efficient than improving the present health service to compensate for their sedentary lifestyles.

Invest money in at grass roots level is a good idea though in my opinion. Especially at primary and secondary school level.

Pride Fighter

You speak sense but we also need the facilites to host international events in various sports. These events can inspire the young to take up sport giving them a better and healthier life. It is just ridiculous that with all our wealth every single ex eastern bloc state in the EU has better sports facilities than us.

nesf

Pride Fighter wrote:

You speak sense but we also need the facilites to host international events in various sports. These events can inspire the young to take up sport giving them a better and healthier life. It is just ridiculous that with all our wealth every single ex eastern bloc state in the EU has better sports facilities than us.

We are a tiny country though in population terms. If you are talking about one off national arenas then yes we're probably never going to equal some countries simply because it wouldn't make sense to spend that much on a sports facility in this country (as a percentage of our tax take).

Personally I'd much prefer to see more money invested in regional facilities than one big national one. Then I don't live in Dublin which would mean that I probably wouldn't get much benefit out of one big national one anyway which would sway me a bit.

Pride Fighter

We can all benefit from bigger sports facilities. International standard facilities should be built for most sports.There is no reason why they should be all in Dublin. The greater Dublin area has about 40% of the nations population and should have 40% of the world class facilities. The other 60% should be distributed evenly throughout Ireland. With lower land prices elsewhere it makes sense.

wow sierra

Unbelievable that the Economy wasnt on the original list - I thought this was a serious poll..........

Elmo

FG/Lab/Green will be fairly shaky as is imho. Adding in another party could make it untenable or very weak if FG didn't have enough of a margin over the rest of keep things on a fairly even keel. As is, I hope if the opposition coalition gets in that it is FG/Lab, or at worst a very strong FG and a weak Lab and Green. Otherwise it could be fairly problematic (i.e. how long will the parties stay in "coalition-friendly" mode before reverting back to their standard policies which could be quite at odds with each other).

We all seem to be of the opinion that the FG/Lab government under John Bruton was not successful. That government brought about huge changes, for the first time we had a surplus and unemployment was on the way down. As did the Labour/FF government which started the Peace Process. Labour do well in government IMO no matter who they are in government with. Labour need to start acting like their own party rather then a FG Lefty hybrid.

Remember FG went into Government with DL and DL merged with Labour after the election.

This idea that FG/Lab government wouldn't work because of lack of experience at Ministerial level is a load of bull**** since many of the current government never had a ministerial position before entering government in 1997 or 2002.

I am voting Green.

andy gaw

The European union and politicians views on it. I believe we are being controlled more and more by un-elected commisioners, whose main concern is big buisness, and I would like to know off every candidate how they or their party can regain some of our independance, as it stands our T.D's are virtually redundant, because all decisions must be ratified by the E.U.

Mick86

Pride Fighter wrote:

is just ridiculous that with all our wealth every single ex eastern bloc state in the EU has better sports facilities than us.

Makes you wonder why they're moving here in such numbers doesn't it.:D

I'm really mystified why many more people aren't worried about the corruption issue. What does Fianna Fáil have to do before the people call a halt?

brianthebard

nesf wrote:

FG/Lab/Green will be fairly shaky as is imho. Adding in another party could make it untenable or very weak if FG didn't have enough of a margin over the rest of keep things on a fairly even keel. As is, I hope if the opposition coalition gets in that it is FG/Lab, or at worst a very strong FG and a weak Lab and Green. Otherwise it could be fairly problematic (i.e. how long will the parties stay in "coalition-friendly" mode before reverting back to their standard policies which could be quite at odds with each other).

Um, that's what I said.

Elmo, who said the John Bruton government was unsuccessful? Not I.

Mick86

Pride Fighter wrote:

The Greens would want the roads programme to go ahead but they would encourage Hybrid cars and buses to go on them.

http://www.greenparty.ie/en/policies/transport

The Green Party believes that the Transport 21 plan provides a usefullong term financial commitment to spending on transport projects by future governments. We will work within the plan's spending parameters but will shift spending priorities within the budget, to promote public transport, cycling and walking.

Roads

Honour existing road contracts but direct the NRA to set a new roads investment policy where priority is given to road safety and environmental and urban planning measures rather than providing for projected increases in road capacity

Elmo

The roads are a major problem and none of the polictical parties have yet to fully suggest a good programme for the extension of the roads.

From what I can see all roads lead to Dublin. We will end up over developing dublin (which has already happened) and forget about the rest of the country.

In 20 years time I wouldn't be surprised if we have one big road going from Galway to Dublin which would provide people who work in Dublin the ablity to afford houses in "communter" towns.

Let face it Portlaoise is set to become a subburb of Dublin, if it hasn't already.

Elmo, who said the John Bruton government was unsuccessful? Not I.

No but you believe that a Labour/FG government could never work when Labour/FG have work very well in government.

Anyway it was 5 years of the Dick Spring government.

brianthebard

Elmo wrote:

No but you believe that a Labour/FG government could never work when Labour/FG have work very well in government.
.

I never said that, I said a FG/Labour/Green/wild card government would be very unstable and liable to collapse. That's not the same thing.

Sully

Health Service is my main issue. We need a proper health service to assist the sick, and not make them sicker.

Crime is my second issue. To many thugs are running riot and finding loopholes in the law to escape conviction. Even if they cant, judges are being far to easy on them and we need tougher and longer jail terms. Our prisons are a mess and in some cases have to much freedom.

Economy / Enviroment. Main two for my third issue. We need a good economy to survive, but also a good enviroment to survive.