General Irish politics discussion thread

Last comment on this.

You were predicting what another party would do if faced with the same 'issue' and posting a FG TD's view that another TD was implicated in the 'issue'. Yet you pretended you didn't know what the 'issue' was.

I'm sure then like me you would vote them out?

Not what I asked.

Thanks for the heads up. My fault, post edited.

The sheer hypocrisy of the Sinn Fein stance on this stands out a clear mile.

In the North, they are responsible for a policy to take disability payments off those in nursing homes that nearly 20 years ago was stopped down here. In the heat of a "scandal" the mob will shout down this comparison but when it comes to elections, people will pay more attention to the "alternatives" that Sinn Fein are offering.

Did you miss where I called for sanctions on SF over their expenses lapse? No excuses made, no deflection.

The problem here is the constant deflection to SF whenever the government are in trouble. It has of course just happened again when the Greens continued support for a government party and Minister who ignored the fact that they were doing something they knew was illegal and their callous disregard for survivors of M&BH's was the topic of a post.

'but SF' is not the answer.

Yes, we actually did miss it, because you spend a lot of time just copying and pasting news items of the day from Twitter and having a go at the government. Tomorrow it will be another tweet about something else.

Not really much of a discussion now is it.

I have some respect for Michael Martin even if i disagree with him. Instead of trying to winkle out of this by claiming he didn't know about it, he looks like he is going to defend it. We'll see how that fares out.

But as these personal stories begin to tumble out it is going to be an uphill battle to not ship a lot of electoral damage.

The performance of the public finances continues to astound. A surplus of €2.8 billion in one month is fantastic.

When you consider also that the numbers on the Live Register continue to fall, huge credit must go to the government for the way they have managed the recovery from the pandemic.

Last year they made a surplus, put money into a reserve fund, brought down debt and introduced some one-off measures to address the cost-of-living issues. You can't ask for much better than that, and it is far better than governments in the past have done.

The biggest problem with this statement is quite apparent if one only looked at who the governments of the past were, Blanch.

Hardly a shining endorsement to say, 'well they're not quite as sh*te as they were'.

As always, my caveat that I certainly don't think SF are the answer, least of all when it comes to the economy applies.

You have hit on a real problem. There is a real risk that Sinn Fein will scare the pigeons so to speak, and they will fly away.

The resulting crash will have been all of our own making, which makes it worse than any previous economic shock, which were all due to external factors.

Of course, we are in a democracy, and if people want to vote for that potential car crash go ahead, it will certainly be a wild ride but a bit like getting into a car with a drunken driver, you might get home quicker and safely, but that ditch looms larger.

I don't think it will surprise anyone that the AG has found in favour of the government here. This will cause more anger and damage to the government IMO

If my 'agenda' is being a voice for those callously treated by the state, happy with that agenda TBH.

I don't need to like a politician to appreciate something they do.

hahaha reducing premiums, hahaha, yea right!

27% fall in the last five years

SF wouldn't countenance allowing people with highly questionable histories be part of their party, right...

Just hard to take the righteous indignation on this seriously given all you are willing to over look in SF, I'm sure most would agree.

It really isn't embarrassing for the Taoiseach, it is nothing for him. I'm sure he'll be happy to use it against FF during the next election campaign though.

There is one law for Sinn Fein and one law for everyone else.

Sinn Fein can have politicians with dodgy pasts in leading positions, other parties can't.

Sinn Fein can amend their electoral expenses returns four or five times because of "oversights" but everyone else is guilty of corruption when they do it.

Sinn Fein can't be criticised on the basis of their record in government in Northern Ireland, but even Labour who have not been in government here since 2016 can be criticised on the basis of their record.

It goes on and on and on.

No righteous indignation here. I signed up to the GFA and didn't introduce glass ceilings after.

They were asked to enter democratic politics and all indications from the vested monitors say that they have. If that changes so too will my vote.

Not getting involved in deflection. Open a thread on it if you wish to discuss the IRA.