FF/FG/Green Government - Part 3 - Threadbanned User List in OP

The Greens? Yeh, I remember them. 😁

Very quiet ATM as coalition partners. I would have thought they would have been pursued for comment. Are they quietly seething or quietly hoping it goes away.

The Dáil is on holidays, the government isn't... I hope.

Are you saying the entire Green party is 'on holidays' because here is their twitter and there seems to be somebody at home there:

Seemed to be no problem getting a comment from them a few days ago on different matters.

I think it is distinctly odd myself. Every party in the Oireachtas has had something to say on this, but the Greens seem to be silent unless I have missed something.

Perhaps the Greens are even more divided than they first appear. There are some who may be very angry with Troy and FF about this but the pragmatic Greens are in control and they don't want to rock the boat. If the Greens concentrate on Green issues and leave this to FF/FG then it may not have any immediate impact on their support. It is surprsing that none of the journalists following the story have tried to get a quote from the Greens. However, the Greens are in government and may not want to jeopardise that. They won't want a flashback to Eamon Ryan being forced to defend an FFer in the Dail.

Regards...jmcc

The Greens know that many of their seats are due to SF transfers. It wouldn't make sense for them to become too closely identified with FF/FG. What they are doing, ironically, is closer to FF's old trick of being in government while pretending to be in opposition. The big problem for the Greens in the next GE is the lack of the Greta Thunberg fanaticism that had a lot of gullible voters vote Green thinking that the Irish Greens were as Left wing as the continental Greens. The problem for the Greens would be if one of the Leftist Greens decides to go on a solo run and criticise Troy. The Turf War showed exactly what FF/FG thought of the Greens. The LNG terminal is a major policy issue for the Greens but there is likely to be a backlash that will send the Greens back to the electoral Stone Age in terms of seats due to energy poverty and insecurity. Any squabbling between FF/FG and the Greens over it would also provide a far more effective deflection from Troy Story. This government is far from stable.

Regards...jmcc

There may be a poll published this weekend. The whole thing is destroying FF's credibility on the Housing issue (not that it really has any) and making people think of it as the property developer party again. It is a perfect storm for FFG. There's Ukranian refugee crisis in the middle of Housing crisis with Irish homelessness figures peaking. Then there's the student accommodation crisis because Ukranian refugees were moved into student accommodation as a temporary measure. And to top it off, Troy Story emerges. The pre-Troy stuff could be plausibly blamed on other factors by FFG's friends in the media but Troy Story is totally self-inflicted. The problem for FFG is that voter anger.

Votes that might have been solidly FF/FG are now in play and may shift to SF or go Independent. FF and FG remember all too well what happened to Labour in 2016 (37 seats to 7). The Water Tax was a factor in that but Housing has the capability to destroy FF and FG in terms of second or third preference votes. This voter anger, if it gains momentum, would make a lot of the projection spreadsheets based on previous voting patterns useless. I predicted what was going to happen with the 2016 GE on another forum and called the spread between the largest of the Big Three parties and the smallest. It did not go down well with some FGers. I even got called a closet FFer for effectively saying that FF would do well in 2016 (FF more than doubled its number of seats in 2016).

The current worst case scenario isn't just a rebalancing of the Big Three party model. It is the possible emergence of a completely new model with one large party with a majority (SF), two smaller parties (FF and FG), some Independents and some micro-parties. It may even force FF and FG to consider merging though a new party that draws from FF, FG and Labour could also be formed. FFG supporters may be very upset with this worst case scenario.

Regards...jmcc

Yep things are going pear-shaped.

Big mistake letting Eamon Ryan loose. May be a resignation in the offiing.

Regards...jmcc

About time Eamon.

"The report has been referred to the Attorney General for consideration, as required by the Commissions of Investigation Act, as to whether publication would prejudice any criminal proceedings in progress or pending. Upon receipt of the advice of the Attorney General, the Taoiseach will arrange to publish the report and lay it before the Oireachtas as soon as possible." is a direct government quote on this.

The Commission itself has been extended to the end of October to deal with cost applications and to investigate other transactions.

Did you actually read the article you posted?

The Government (and an FG minister at that) were trying to bring in the pay rise by way of an Employment Regulation Order - but some employers in the security sector (Top Security, Morbury and Las Security) are the ones trying to block it.

Nice of Eamon to keep the lights on for us this winter, something to look forward to I guess.

Troy gone