Dublin Fingal General Election

Allyall

Roslyn Fuller has a good idea, making it more transparent. Pledges to use the publics decision (by voting on her website I think), to vote on at least 5 issues.
http://roslynfuller.com/campaign/?page_id=464

As a candidate in the next Irish general election, I am often asked to sign up to pledges, binding me to support certain laws as a TD. However, as I will allow my constituents to have a binding say in my votes in the Dail and potentially to over-ride my positions, I cannot commit to pledges that may conflict with my obligation to implement digital, participatory democracy. This stands regardless of how much I may personally agree with the policy in question.

Anyone know anything about her?

http://roslynfuller.com/campaign/?p=516

As most people I was born in Canada and I came to Ireland as an adult

:pac:
Her flyer photograph looks like a badly airbrushed Facebook photo.

I think it's a good idea to allow voters to help make the decisions of the elected TD, as an option. But does it also imply that she doesn't really stand anywhere? As she has stated herself that her decisions can be overruled.

mahoganygas

Allyall wrote: »

I think it's a good idea to allow voters to help make the decisions of the elected TD, as an option. But does it also imply that she doesn't really stand anywhere? As she has stated herself that her decisions can be overruled.

Direct democracy sounds great in theory. But politics isn't always black and white. For example, it takes an incredible amount of time to accurately word a referendum question that can be sufficiently answered with Yes or No.

Legislation debated in the Dail often contains reams of details. It's our legislator's duty to study, criticise and debate the wording of each act.
By handing the big decision over to her constituents, she's effectively passing the buck and expecting them to read the law in intricate detail. Sounds like a handy number.

How many people read the fine print when they sign an online petition to 'Give medical cards back to our Kids' for example?

She also gets to blame her constituents and claim she was only doing what she was told. Very similar to how Shane Ross's alliance intends to prop up a government on a vote by vote basis.
It's a bit too spineless for my liking. If you want to sit in Dail Eireann then you should be willing to stick your neck out for ALL of the big decisions. Not just the nice ones.

Vote for a candidate who has an opinion and will make a stand for that opinion.

jwwb

You seriously think that any backbencher is allowed to have an opinion let alone act on it?

mahoganygas

jwwb wrote: »

You seriously think that any backbencher is allowed to have an opinion let alone act on it?

It sounds idealistic, I know.

But I think like-minded individuals will gravitate toward parties with similar ideologies.

Look at the Green party for example.

Certainly the lines become blurred when you see fathers passing their seats onto their sons or career politicians who are there for the pension.

But I still like to think that there are politicians out there who are genuinely interested in what they do. A bit optimistic? Possibly. But I have faith in the system. More or less.

dslamjack

How Proportional Representation works -- If you’re a first time voter - or even if you’re not - you may be slightly confused by the Irish voting system.
Along with Malta, Ireland is one of the few countries to use PR-STV, or Proportional Representation with a Single Transferable Vote, to elect their national parliament.
Considered by some to be the fairest option - it is, as it’s name suggests, proportional - it can also be a complex one.

errr - I think I get it,thank gawd the counting is done for us ....http://www.breakingnews.ie/discover/how-proportional-representation-works-722182.html

Arthur Daley

It is so tight for that last seat. And some thought the sinn feiner was unelectable after her interview on rte refusing to condemn jerry mccabe's killers. To think when jerry mccabe was killed 20 years ago this summer, sinn fein didn't have 1 TD in the south.

dslamjack

Originally posted Arthur Daley--It is so tight for that last seat. And some thought the sinn feiner was unelectable after her interview on rte refusing to condone jerry mccabe's killers. To think when jerry mccabe was killed 20 years ago this summer, sinn fein didn't have 1 TD in the south.

Yes indeed,and who would have ever though we would live to see the day that Martin mc Guinness and Ian Paisley would shake hands,not only that but share power,and laugh and joke together -- it was the equivalent of Stalin and Hitler doing tea together,but thank God for the peace process,and with it the responsibility for people on both side's of the border to make it work.
We can't forget the past,but we should learn from it and move on,if we keep dredging up the past then we will end up back at square one,God only knows it was the continual banging on about a battle 200 years ago and the annual reliving of it that were partly to blame for a lot of the trouble in the first place.
As I've said before Gerry and Martin have seen Sinn Fein establish its self in the republic as one of it's main party's.
It is only a matter of time before Sinn Fein is in government,they are astutely diligent in their management of their vote,and their grooming of the younger vote with competent young and appealing candidates will ensure they are part off or will form a government in the next ten years.

TrueIt

Is Barry Martin a write-off?

Tropheus

TrueIt wrote: »

Is Barry Martin a write-off?

Could be in the shake up for the fifth seat, but I doubt he will make it across the line.

TrueIt

Tropheus wrote: »

Could be in the shake up for the fifth seat, but I doubt he will make it across the line.

I can see him doing surprisingly well by getting a lot of votes and some transfers from Clare once she hits the quota, it will be interesting to see how much he gets. But as you said he will most likely fall short.

Nodster

I can see Cllr Barry Martin polling well, he's been vocal on a wide spectrum of issues. As a few have posted, it's a wide open race for that fifth seat - in my eye's it'll be interesting to see who fills the last two seats for Dublin Fingal.

LeoB

Only had 2 canvassers call here. A rep from Clare Daly who was a very nice man and Darragh O'Brien last Saturday who I was very impressed with. Kept away from this thread until I met someone out this evening and asked me where I had been.

I find this very hard to call but....
Clare Daly
Darragh O'Brian
Brendan Ryan
Louise O'Reilly
Barry Martin or possibly Tony Murphy could cause an upset.

I find it hard to see either FG candidates returned. While there is a massive need for stable government they have not endeared themselves to people. I know in this area 2 schools have been pushed back down the list, St. Josephs in Rush and St. Michaels house special school in Skerries and that alone has influenced me. Children with special needs being left out again. They are the only 2 I wont be voting for.

I have found listening to debates on radio that Enda Kenny and F.G in general are very negative towards Sinn Fein and their candidates, bordering on pathetic. Just mud slinging. Most lads in work are sick of this also and it has not done F.G any favours.

I am not sure a Dail full of independents would be good for us and a few are as nasty as anything that went before them.

What has surprised me is the amount of people who are, or say they are voting F.F. Michael Martin has been good on various T.V and radio shows and he has gained a lot of support. While people are still angry there was a certain cohort in F.F who people wanted rid of and they seem to have brought forward some decent young politicans. I also think Sinn Fein with a new leader would be serious contenders. Gerry Adams has been amazing through the peace process and to bring his party this far in the face of the constant crap he has to listen to from established parties and sections of the media but then need a new face.

Agree with previous comments about health. There is no quick solution to waiting lists or people on trollys and I dont see it been much better in 5 years time. Two things I feel we need are 1) more beds, 2) We need E.Rs around the city where people go as a first port of call rather than A & E. X-Rays, minor injuries etc to keep people out of hospitals. This would free up vital staff. To go into Beaumont or the Mater and see junkies and drunks falling over old folk is sickening and wrong.

Housing. We need to give local authorities funding to build houses with their own staff, like it was years ago, not some developer who is creaming off serious profits. The council have built some great estates around north Dublin and one off houses for people who had a site. It kept people in their communities. Every village and town in Fingal have had these one off sites

tobsey

martinn123 wrote: »

If I am reading this right, PP are now calling the last 3 seats

Alan Farrell, 4/11
Brendan Ryan, 4/11
James Reilly 4/12

How has Reilly fared so bad in the eyes of the bookies, that he scrapes in last.

Reilly is slightly ahead of the other two with those odds. You need to get 12 to win 4 with him, just 11 wins 4 for the others. If the top 5 in those odds get in I'll be happy.

tobsey

mahoganygas wrote: »

I have been undecided throughout this election but I'm starting to form an idea of how I will vote. If I was to vote today this is probably how I would mark my card:

Reilly FG
Farrell FG
Ryan LAB
O'Brien GRE
O'Brien FF
Clifford Lee FF
Molloy REN

I'm undecided on who to give my 1 and 2. Who do you think would benefit better with my transfer?

If SD ran a candidate I'd consider putting them 3.

I have the top three there in the reverse order and then probably following with the rest in the same way.

Allyall

I'd be Surprised if James Reilly got in, and I'd be very very surprised if Alan Farrell got in.

I performed a search on both, and removed their respective
Personal/Political Party/Wikipedia/twitter/Facebook/Linkdin
(That sh*t saves a lot of them)
They show some interesting results. Definitely helped me make some decisions.

After that I'm stumped.

I was just looking at 'Our Local Councillors'

It looks like somebody has been having some fun stretching and pushing the photos.
The heads on some of them . A few at the top, and the bottom 6 seem to be the only normal ones

AndyBoBandy

Received a leaflet yesterday from Clare Daly asking for my area to give Martin my number 1 preference so she must be pretty confident in her own seat.

She was convicted of he Dhannon airport security breach wasn't she? So she is a convicted criminal?

kennyb3

I think 1 FG candidate and possibly 2 will be returned.

I think certain people are basing their assessment on their local area, where more left candidates are possibly favoured. There will still be very strong FG support in Malahide, Pormarnock, Skerries etc. I also think people are letting social media influence but we have to remember there is a huge number of pensioners to vote and they will vote for the more 'traditional parties'. This is part of why FF is on the come back imho.

It seems with FF's rise again the electorate has such a short memory and forget what they did to this country. The higher taxes and lower public service spending over last 5 years is clearly due to the €17bn annual deficit inherited which couldn't just be a magiced away with a click of the fingers. This short memory really seems to be harming FG/Labour.

At the end of the day you would think people will see lower debt to GDP ratio, lower unemployment and a nearly balanced budget (coming from €17bn deficit when they took over).

I see it on facebook - people saying FG/Labour wrecked the country. By what metric? Virtually all economic statistics are improved and with this will lead better public spending and a feed through to an improved health service. It takes time though.

You can't be 5 years removed from such a huge budget deficit and expect things to be massively improved. I really think the timeline and bigger picture needs to be looked at and remembered. Not last week, month or year.

I honestly don't get voting for independents in a general election - I want to chose who has the power over the economy not who I can lobby to get a school built. It's that type of back yard economics that I don't like. We should be working for the greater good of the country not just our own area/back yard. I really want to use my vote to help chose the next government in the best way I can. I totally understand why people want to do it, it's just not for me.

And I'll never ever vote for Sinn Fein given their leader, their history with the likes of Gerry McCabe, Slab Murphy, Liam Adams, Marai Cahill. The list goes on.

Overall the choice isn't great to be honest but I'll probably reward FG for putting the public finances back on track and ensuring some friends could return home from abroad to jobs even if it came with a lot of external (ECB) help. They could have botched the whole thing and done a Syriza like SF wanted but didn't.

They've been a steady if unspectacular governing party.

tobsey

Good Post. Why are FG getting the rewards for a steady performance rather than Labour though?

kennyb3

tobsey wrote: »

Good Post. Why are FG getting the rewards for a steady performance rather than Labour though?

Different expectations from their core I assume.

Labour voters not happy with certain cuts, water charges and property tax.

More centre to right voters understand more the need and background to them and they don't go against their core values?

I'll still 'reward' them and give Brendan Ryan a high preference.

martinn123

I gave Brendan my No 1 last time out and Clare Daly N0 2

To be honest I am disapointed in both, and will not give them any preference this time
labour has assisted in some of the most hard hitting cuts to the lowly paid, and Soc Welf recipients.

Clare while she helped Mick expose the Garda affair, she sought publicity with her Shannon invasion, ( wearing a High Vis Jacket so she could be seen ), and recently has offered ( with others ) to put up bail, for a terrorist suspect,
so no.

My vote was borrowed from F/F to give them a kicking last time, this time they are getting it back

Whoever you vote for..........get out and vote......

jwwb

kennyb3 wrote: »

I honestly don't get voting for independents in a general election - I want to chose who has the power over the economy not who I can lobby to get a school built. It's that type of back yard economics that I don't like. We should be working for the greater good of the country not just our own area/back yard. I really want to use my vote to help chose the next government in the best way I can. I totally understand why people want to do it, it's just not for me.

Just remind everyone how the health centre ended up in Balbriggan?

kennyb3

jwwb wrote: »

Just remind everyone how the health centre ended up in Balbriggan?

Are you saying it's a good thing or a bad thing? Something that should have happened or shouldn't have? Why do I have to remind everyone? I've made my feelings pretty plain and clear have I not? Did I somewhere condone this sort of thing? Perhaps you'd point out where?

I don't know the ins and outs of the Balbriggan centre but I think my post makes clear how I feel about voting in a general election and that we should be looking to the best economic management of the entire country as ultimately the level of tax we paid, the amount of jobs available and the amount of money spent on public services will depend on the overall performance of the country economically.

That should be pretty clear to people. Look at the position post the Celtic Tiger bust - it didn't matter the party each and every one of them had to find €12-€15bn over 4 - 6 years.

Perhaps you'd like to put something intelligent and detailed to the discussion.

kennyb3

martinn123 wrote: »

Whoever you vote for..........get out and vote......

+1 to this.

I'll vote before work tomorrow. Great to see the polling stations open so early.

TheDoc

Walter H Price wrote: »

will be Renua,Fine Gael and Labor 1,2,3 & 4 for me

I've no time for independent's and the looney left alliance before profit or what ever their calling themselves this week, Sin Fein or any other coed that think the solution to all the ills of the country are the cause of "elites" or the 1%, give it a rest lads.

Probably wont give Fianna Fail a vote this time , i don't know if i could trust hem not to sell their souls to Uncle Gerry, to get back in to government but at the same time a Fine Gael Finna Fail coalition would be an improvement on Fine Gael / Labor and the most stable government based on the polls, but could Martain , Kenny and O'Dev suck it up and leave the civil war stuff in the past ? i just don't know.

I would have voted Fine Gael 1 and 2 but i don't have much time for Reilly or Farrell.

Interesting you use that as the reason for not considering the left, but you are giving your first preference to a party who's economic policy is to hope to the heavens that Irish business' draw down €4BN to benefit from the lower tax rate, and if they don't we move straight into economic suicide with the exchequer drying up, which will result in new tax measures needing to be brought in.

Nevermind it's a party who'se economic advisor is a myth, and one of the biggest false prophets this country has ever put on a pedestal. It is "likely" a socialist policy would destroy this country, a Renua policy would be a guarantee.

I say this as someone who simply cannot fathom how people consistently vote Clare Daly or hold any ideaology to socialism in the modern era, but Renua has been a massive red flag from pretty much day one announcement.

TheDoc

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

Would a FF/FG coalition be so bad? We don't have any other strong parties and they might just keep each other in check. Anyway, I'd rather of have that than a load of Independents who don't know the first thing about how to run a country (Mick Wallace springs to mind!)

Regardless of who gets in, water charges are a necessary evil in my opinion.

The parties are barely distinguishable anyway. Martin is a much more confident and prominent speaker for me, and has led the party excellently from looking on the outside, considering the anger among the public they should have been wiped out. They sit here now in a very strong position going into tomorrow.

I think the banking inquiry that FG setup as nothing but a FF bashing device with tax payer money, has totally backfired, and for a large majority who didn't really comprehend what happened with the crash, its become a bit clearer now, and people are starting to realise that if FG were in place at the time, the same thing would have happened more or less(even more evident by this governments embarrassing attempts to negotiate with the IMF)

At some point people are going to have to really just realise and accept what a Labour party as a junior party means. Reneging on all their policy and opinions to just get themselves in there, and claim some cheap wins here and there.

A working FF/FG government is so obviously the best combination that could come from this election to not just maintain a recovery, but really give it a shot in the arm. The fact that they keep ruling out working with each other is probably leading to a hung Dail in my view, as I think Labour are going to get decimated, and when push comes to shove SF will have the same problems they always have. When it comes to marking the paper, their legacy issues and concerns over integrity and honesty, and questionable economic policy, will mean their early vocal support will jump ship.

TheDoc

koutoubia wrote: »

If Social Democrats had a candidate I would give them my number 1.
Pity as there isnt.
I wont even put a number near Daly this time after her antics at Shannon.

Yeah I've been massively disappointed there was not SD candidate. A manifesto I could really get behind and a vision for Ireland that is a real change and something I could get behind and support.

I'll never understand Daly's support. Maybe it's a Swords specific thing, after she slandered pretty much an entire raft of the residents, but her constant questionable antics and stunts and flakey policy and opinion makes it tough to understand her popularity.

Dizzyblonde

TheDoc wrote: »

A working FF/FG government is so obviously the best combination that could come from this election to not just maintain a recovery, but really give it a shot in the arm. The fact that they keep ruling out working with each other is probably leading to a hung Dail in my view, as I think Labour are going to get decimated, and when push comes to shove SF will have the same problems they always have. When it comes to marking the paper, their legacy issues and concerns over integrity and honesty, and questionable economic policy, will mean their early vocal support will jump ship.

I completely agree with you.

TheDoc wrote: »

I'll never understand Daly's support. Maybe it's a Swords specific thing, after she slandered pretty much an entire raft of the residents, but her constant questionable antics and stunts and flakey policy and opinion makes it tough to understand her popularity.

I've never voted for Daly and I never will. Whatever appeal she may have had in the past must surely have died out after her antics at Shannon, and the fact that she seemed to spend her days hanging around at the back of the Dáil with Mick Wallace like a pair of naughty teenagers, scruffy looking and dressed inappropriately.

jwwb

kennyb3 wrote: »

Perhaps you'd like to put something intelligent and detailed to the discussion.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/primary-care-centres-how-locations-were-chosen-1.534926

You were very against the backyard economics of independents I was pointing out that this was not limited to independents but there was a clear example of the cronyism and corruption be a minister right on our doorstep. Hope this is intelligent and detailed enough

kennyb3

jwwb wrote: »

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/primary-care-centres-how-locations-were-chosen-1.534926

You were very against the backyard economics of independents I was pointing out that this was not limited to independents but there was a clear example of the cronyism and corruption be a minister right on our doorstep. Hope this is intelligent and detailed enough

Well why not just come out and say that in the first place rather than beating around the bush.

You are right it's not limited to independents nor is it limited to any one party. I commented on this on page 9 of the thread already where I wrote:

'but don't be naive enough to think it's unique to one party or another. Unfortuntately it seems to be an Irish cultural thing. Just look at your points above, SF and Slab Murphy, the last few FF government's, Mick Wallace and his vat 3's and you'll see that.'

It's not something I like and definitely don't condone. It's not unique to independents, not unique to particular parties and not even unique to politics.

Clearly my overall point was that by voting for a party your much more likely to be part of picking who you want to run the country. It's a general election not a local one.

kennyb3

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

I've never voted for Daly and I never will. Whatever appeal she may have had in the past must surely have died out after her antics at Shannon, and the fact that she seemed to spend her days hanging around at the back of the Dáil with Mick Wallace like a pair of naughty teenagers, scruffy looking and dressed inappropriately.

+1, I'd like to know something about her actual achievements and not just her media profile.