Limerick City General Election

Cookiemunster

LimerickCity wrote: »

We can’t vote Sinn Fein because of their history, but we will happily keep voting in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil etc despite their histories, despite everything they have ever done to this country, absolute state of that reasoning

People say there is no alternative to FF/FG. There is. Stay at home on February 8th.

So you want people who don't agree with your views to not to exercise their democratic right to vote so that your lot have a better chance of being elected? That's not how democracy works.

moby2101

stuckintipp wrote: »

Michael Ryan of Aontu is an excellent candidate, a man of the highest integrity and would make an excellent representative for Limerick City. He is the Principal of a local national school and well though of by the parents, his reputation within GAA circles is unparalleled. He will represent Limerick city to the best of his ability and will never let anyone down.

FFG, Labour, Greens have all let the country down, put their own interests ahead of the country’s, Give him a chance, you won’t regret it.

Seriously????

Just look at his cronies in LifeInstitute.
At least be up front.
No hope,

jonski

stuckintipp wrote: »

Michael Ryan of Aontu is an excellent candidate, a man of the highest integrity and would make an excellent representative for Limerick City. He is the Principal of a local national school and well though of by the parents, his reputation within GAA circles is unparalleled. He will represent Limerick city to the best of his ability and will never let anyone down.

FFG, Labour, Greens have all let the country down, put their own interests ahead of the country’s, Give him a chance, you won’t regret it.

Don't know very much about Michael Ryan but I know enough about Aontu to know that I will never vote for anyone representing them .

jonski

LimerickCity wrote: »

We can’t vote Sinn Fein because of their history, but we will happily keep voting in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil etc despite their histories, despite everything they have ever done to this country, absolute state of that reasoning

People say there is no alternative to FF/FG. There is. Stay at home on February 8th.

I think one of the reasons people won't vote for SF is because they won't trust them to be in power ........ and SF won't go into power unless they are the controlling party in a coalition so no one can get " a safe sample " of how they would be in office .

LimerickCity

Cookiemunster wrote: »

So you want people who don't agree with your views to not to exercise their democratic right to vote so that your lot have a better chance of being elected? That's not how democracy works.

An even better alternative is to educate yourself on the country's political party's instead of voting for someone who "does a lot for the local area" and NOT vote for the parties (FG/FF) that put our country in the bin in the first place.

Do you think that it is fair that SF have not been invited to participate in the leaders debate? To provide a balanced opposition to FF/FG who basically have the same policies.

In 2011 RTÉ held a 3-way Election Debate between FG, Labour and FF who were polling at 37%, 20% and 16% respectively

Latest poll demographics:

18-24yo:
SF 27, FG 16, FF 15, Greens 5, Labour 2

25-34yo:
SF 32, FF 18, FG 14, Greens 6, Labour 6

Any journalist worth their salt should now be asking questions of Virgin Media and RTÉ re their intentions to hold debates that exclude Sinn Fein and smaller parties. On the face of it this election is wide open, not the two horse race we were led to believe it was.

Cookiemunster

LimerickCity wrote: »

An even better alternative is to educate yourself on the country's political party's instead of voting for someone who "does a lot for the local area" and NOT vote for the parties (FG/FF) that put our country in the bin in the first place.

Do you think that it is fair that SF have not been invited to participate in the leaders debate?

Previously Labour have polled at 16% and been invited to participate with the two main parties.

Latest poll demographics:

18-24yo:
SF 27, FG 16, FF 15, Greens 5, Labour 2

25-34yo:
SF 32, FF 18, FG 14, Greens 6, Labour 6

Well done at moving the goalposts and not answering my question.

For your information I'm well aware of how politics in this country works thank you very much. I've been closely following elections and results for 25 years and have actually been involved in a few campaigns (for an independent before I again get accused of being FFG just because I disagree with your views).

As to the debates, well there is a debate that will have all the party leaders on Claire Byrnes show next week which will include Mary Lou. Then the following week there will be a debate between the two candidates for Taoiseach. For multiple reasons, Mary Lou is not a candidate to be Taoiseach.

It's also pointless just showing the younger person demographic seeing as they're the ones who are least likely to vote. The reason you'll see FF and FG be the largest parties again is because the other demographics do vote in far larger numbers.

s7ryf3925pivug

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Well done at moving the goalposts and not answering my question.

For your information I'm well aware of how politics in this country works thank you very much. I've been closely following elections and results for 25 years and have actually been involved in a few campaigns (for an independent before I again get accused of being FFG just because I disagree with your views).

As to the debates, well there is a debate that will have all the party leaders on Claire Byrnes show next week which will include Mary Lou. Then the following week there will be a debate between the two candidates for Taoiseach. For multiple reasons, Mary Lou is not a candidate to be Taoiseach.

It's also pointless just showing the younger person demographic seeing as they're the ones who are least likely to vote. The reason you'll see FF and FG be the largest parties again is because the other demographics do vote in far larger numbers.

The choice of date of the election will obstruct a lot of young voters. There was a drive to register large numbers of them, but they won't be added to the register until the 15th of February.

They can get added to the supplemental register, but that involves an additional few steps that a lot of them won't do, and a lot won't know they need to do.

My view is that the choice of date was made with this in mind. There is no question that FG would have known about it and also been aware of how younger people would vote.

s7ryf3925pivug

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Well done at moving the goalposts and not answering my question.

For your information I'm well aware of how politics in this country works thank you very much. I've been closely following elections and results for 25 years and have actually been involved in a few campaigns (for an independent before I again get accused of being FFG just because I disagree with your views).

As to the debates, well there is a debate that will have all the party leaders on Claire Byrnes show next week which will include Mary Lou. Then the following week there will be a debate between the two candidates for Taoiseach. For multiple reasons, Mary Lou is not a candidate to be Taoiseach.

It's also pointless just showing the younger person demographic seeing as they're the ones who are least likely to vote. The reason you'll see FF and FG be the largest parties again is because the other demographics do vote in far larger numbers.

I see Mary Lou's exclusion as a way of marginalizing the party. I don't think it's normal to exclude a candidate in this situation.

LimerickCity

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Well done at moving the goalposts and not answering my question.

For your information I'm well aware of how politics in this country works thank you very much. I've been closely following elections and results for 25 years and have actually been involved in a few campaigns (for an independent before I again get accused of being FFG just because I disagree with your views).

As to the debates, well there is a debate that will have all the party leaders on Claire Byrnes show next week which will include Mary Lou. Then the following week there will be a debate between the two candidates for Taoiseach. For multiple reasons, Mary Lou is not a candidate to be Taoiseach.

It's also pointless just showing the younger person demographic seeing as they're the ones who are least likely to vote. The reason you'll see FF and FG be the largest parties again is because the other demographics do vote in far larger numbers.

I am not moving the goalposts cookie. People are saying that there are no alternatives. There are plenty. Just don't keep voting for the status quo.

Both of the main parties had a 90% share of the vote in the early 80's compared to 48% in the last election. The decline in vote share is due in large part to demographics and the introduction social media.

RTE and VM showing a live debate with leaders of just FF/FG is completely unfair considering how close the latest polls are. They have basically excluded the 3rd largest party in the country from 50% of the live debates.

Eire-Dearg

stuckintipp wrote: »

Michael Ryan of Aontu is an excellent candidate, a man of the highest integrity and would make an excellent representative for Limerick City. He is the Principal of a local national school and well though of by the parents, his reputation within GAA circles is unparalleled. He will represent Limerick city to the best of his ability and will never let anyone down.

FFG, Labour, Greens have all let the country down, put their own interests ahead of the country’s, Give him a chance, you won’t regret it.

Cheers Michael.

damowill

LimerickCity wrote: »

Latest poll demographics:

18-24yo:
SF 27, FG 16, FF 15, Greens 5, Labour 2

25-34yo:
SF 32, FF 18, FG 14, Greens 6, Labour 6

Have you a link showing these poll demographs?

LimerickCity

damowill wrote: »

Have you a link showing these poll demographs?

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/poll

Poxyshamrock

Did anyone else watch the shouting match on the 6.1 news last night?

Kieran O'Donnell did himself no favours.

Cookiemunster

LimerickCity wrote: »

I am not moving the goalposts cookie. People are saying that there are no alternatives. There are plenty. Just don't keep voting for the status quo.

Both of the main parties had a 90% share of the vote in the early 80's compared to 48% in the last election. The decline in vote share is due in large part to demographics and the introduction social media.

RTE and VM showing a live debate with leaders of just FF/FG is completely unfair considering how close the latest polls are. They have basically excluded the 3rd largest party in the country from 50% of the live debates.

There is only an alternative is you are willing to vote left. Most people are centrist or as they get older a bit more conservative. The fact that there were 30 independents elected in 2016 (most of them from the FF/FG gene pool) shows that Sinn Fein and the hard left are not an option for quite a lot of people.

If you look at the local elections from just 8 months ago (a much more reliable bellwhether than opinion polls) they show that support for FG and FF was up slighty (around 1.5%), but SF votes dropped 5% nationally. They only got 9.5% of FPVs, while FF and FG got 26.9% and 25.3% respectively. That was despite opinion polls telling us a similar story to the current opinion polls.

I quite simply don't see a 10% increase in FPVs for SF in less than 9 months, therefore I don't see Mary Lou as a viable candidate for Taoiseach.

damowill

LimerickCity wrote: »

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/poll

Jeez thats very interesting although i am a little skeptical by them. Almost 1 in 3 young voters would vote SF. I'm not sure that would bear fruit on election day but young people are looking for an alternative thats for sure, but i see it spread amongst SF, Greens and Soc Dems. That said young people are easily influenced by their parents and will toe the 'family' line when it comes to voting

I have in recent weeks been shocked by the number of people who would vote FF, after they destroyed the country, economy crashing, the bail out, the IMF, the lies, the squandering of money, the loss of jobs and unemployment hitting almost 16%. But the poll here suggests 40% of those in the 65+ bracket would vote for them. I guess amnesia plays a part

Cookiemunster

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

Did anyone else watch the shouting match on the 6.1 news last night?

Kieran O'Donnell did himself no favours.

It was an embarrassing performance from all of them. Although the presenter was pretty poor at reigning them in.

Cookiemunster

damowill wrote: »

I have in recent weeks been shocked by the number of people who would vote FF, after they destroyed the country, economy crashing, the bail out, the IMF, the lies, the squandering of money, the loss of jobs and unemployment hitting almost 16%. But the poll here suggests 40% of those in the 65+ bracket would vote for them. I guess amnesia plays a part

Older people are more conservative and will vote for the same party no matter what they do. And they vote in greater numbers. That's why despite a drop in support for FF and FG over the last few years amongst the younger generations, it will still be a long time before any other party leads an Irish government.

keane2097

jonski wrote: »

I think one of the reasons people won't vote for SF is because they won't trust them to be in power ........ and SF won't go into power unless they are the controlling party in a coalition so no one can get " a safe sample " of how they would be in office .

I'm pretty sure this is not currently the case.

un5byh7sqpd2x0

LimerickCity wrote: »

We can’t vote Sinn Fein because of their history, but we will happily keep voting in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil etc despite their histories, despite everything they have ever done to this country, absolute state of that reasoning

People say there is no alternative to FF/FG. There is. Stay at home on February 8th.

1937 - 2020 isn't 100 years.

LimerickCity

Kylan Immense Handcuff wrote: »

1937 - 2020 isn't 100 years.

Seriously?

Treepole

Who is the social democrats candidate?
How come they aren't running the candidate who got elected to the council? Seems odd when she already has a profile?

Poxyshamrock

Treepole wrote: »

Who is the social democrats candidate?
How come they aren't running the candidate who got elected to the council? Seems odd when she already has a profile?

Jenny Blake

stuckintipp

keane2097 wrote: »

What's his policy on who should be in charge of women's reproductive systems?

https://aontu.ie/issues/right-to-life/

In the South of Ireland;

We seek that pain relief is given to unborn children during an abortion carried out after 20 weeks gestation.
We seek that comfort care and medical care is given to a child that survives an abortion.
We seek to make it illegal to have an abortion on the basis of the disability or gender selection.
We will ensure that doctors, nurses and midwives have a real freedom of conscience.
We will ensure that the abortion regime is not hidden and that a European standard of information is collected by the state.
We will seek that a mother has the choice of an Ultra Sound in advance of deciding whether or not to have an abortion

All of the above are humane and should be acceptable to any human being, cant really see how anyone would disagree with those 6 points

stuckintipp

jonski wrote: »

Don't know very much about Michael Ryan but I know enough about Aontu to know that I will never vote for anyone representing them .

would you enlighten us on what you know?

stuckintipp

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

Cheers Michael.

Well look at our alternative;

1 - Willie, when minister did shag all for the city and county, was a parody laughing stock
2 - Collins, another family dynasty seeking to preserve the status and contacts they've amassed. We all know what Gerry and Michael got up to
3 - Jan O'S, she was moved from ministry to ministry when in Gov as she was so weak and couldnt grasp her briefs
4 - Frankie, wasnt good enough to get the nod for Labour so jumped ship, tried to join FF to be second candidate but was deemed unsuitable
5 - FGs Kieran and Maria, weak politicians in the Senate, hoping to get some crumbs from the Good work done by Noonan.
6 - Quinlivan; brother of 'essential cog in RA'. Now to be fair he does work hard for the people who may vote for him
7 - Green Leddin; no motorway needed for limk to Cork, a handful of cars will suffice for every village, party was major player in ruining the country when they turned a blind eye to FF and their excesses
8 - Soc Dem candidate, Jenny Blake; they are a social issues party, they rely heavily on two well know good leader but powder puff after that. its a party that is rife with factions due to competing desire for each social issue to be more important than the other.
9 - AAA/Far left....free cash and entitlements for all, lets plant a few more money trees

LimerickCity

stuckintipp wrote: »

Well look at our alternative;

1 - Willie, when minister did shag all for the city and county, was a parody laughing stock
2 - Collins, another family dynasty seeking to preserve the status and contacts they've amassed. We all know what Gerry and Michael got up to
3 - Jan O'S, she was moved from ministry to ministry when in Gov as she was so weak and couldnt grasp her briefs
4 - Frankie, wasnt good enough to get the nod for Labour so jumped ship, tried to join FF to be second candidate but was deemed unsuitable
5 - FGs Kieran and Maria, weak politicians in the Senate, hoping to get some crumbs from the Good work done by Noonan.
6 - Quinlivan; brother of 'essential cog in RA'. Now to be fair he does work hard for the people who may vote for him
7 - Green Leddin; no motorway needed for limk to Cork, a handful of cars will suffice for every village, party was major player in ruining the country when they turned a blind eye to FF and their excesses
8 - Soc Dem candidate, Jenny Blake; they are a social issues party, they rely heavily on two well know good leader but powder puff after that. its a party that is rife with factions due to competing desire for each social issue to be more important than the other.
9 - AAA/Far left....free cash and entitlements for all, lets plant a few more money trees

Has anyone seen Niall Collins since the election was called?

Both himself and Timmy Dooley appear to be taking a back seat for FF.

s7ryf3925pivug

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

Jenny Blake

Wondering if anyone has heard of her prior to this? I know she was pushed as being "very well known". I hadn't heard of her myself.

What I have heard about her:
She did/does work with Novas, which is a homeless charity. I understand that included advocating for psychiatric care for people with symptoms of substance abuse (they are often rejected on those grounds although the two conditions often occur together).
She was involved in some way with the protests in Shannon.
She's a married lesbian from a working class background.
She apparently comes across as both being nice and as having a forceful personality.

keane2097

stuckintipp wrote: »

https://aontu.ie/issues/right-to-life/

In the South of Ireland;

We seek that pain relief is given to unborn children during an abortion carried out after 20 weeks gestation.
We seek that comfort care and medical care is given to a child that survives an abortion.
We seek to make it illegal to have an abortion on the basis of the disability or gender selection.
We will ensure that doctors, nurses and midwives have a real freedom of conscience.
We will ensure that the abortion regime is not hidden and that a European standard of information is collected by the state.
We will seek that a mother has the choice of an Ultra Sound in advance of deciding whether or not to have an abortion

All of the above are humane and should be acceptable to any human being, cant really see how anyone would disagree with those 6 points

Yeah, no thanks

Aontú is completely pro-life, and seeks to remove the legalisation of abortion. However given the time this will take, we see essential steps that can be achieved while we make our way back to being a nation that values all its children equally. To that end:

damowill

Treepole wrote: »

Who is the social democrats candidate?
How come they aren't running the candidate who got elected to the council? Seems odd when she already has a profile?

I was quite surprised myself, as Elisa O' Donovan did extremely well for a first time candidate in the local elections and has since boosted her profile. My guess is she probably feels she is better suited to being a Councillor rather than joining the riff raff in Dail Eireann.

s7ryf3925pivug

damowill wrote: »

I was quite surprised myself, as Elisa O' Donovan did extremely well for a first time candidate in the local elections and has since boosted her profile. My guess is she probably feels she is better suited to being a Councillor rather than joining the riff raff in Dail Eireann.

She's doing a degree (might be a masters) so I think it's that she wouldn't really have capacity to be a TD as well.