General Irish politics discussion thread

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They have all signed up to being in the EU. If they aren't going to follow directives, that will cost us. That would affect my vote going forward.

The Greens have compromised their policies for tokenism IMO.

So I won't vote for them.

I have no interest in advising you on who to vote for either.

Back to the "ordinary people" crap.

IMO FF and FG would break all their green promises with out the Green party support. IMO Sinn Fein are vacant populists who turn on a dime and will go back on all their green policies if they take charge.

The Greens won't do everything but will do way more than the rest on climate issues.

Globally, aviation accounts for ~2% of carbon dioxide emissions.

As an island nation we need a strong aviation sector to be competitive.

No I'm saying they do more than the other parties.

Your absolutist argument is the same as saying don't vote Sinn Fein because it won't lead to a United Ireland instantly or maybe even in the near future.

They do more token gesturing yes. Loads of guilt tripping but will it have any real effect on climate change. Of course it won't. I think the electorate will give an opinion on that.

I’m not sure that Ryanair flights for €30 to European cities (or an hour’s bus ride from a European city) are major contributors to our international competitiveness.

A party which opposes water charges and carbon tax has zero credibility on the environment.

That's Saturday with Colm O Mongain you're referring to and I thought Kieran O Donnell did quite a good job - for once; he's severely inarticulate and lacks fluency but in that particular discussion he at least contributed more than the other two - Bacik and Martin Kenny. The presenter had a bad program - he is normally much better and light years ahead of Katie Hannon. This time he (O Mongain) kept asking O Donnell for the 'evidence' which prompted the Govt to remove the eviction ban; this was an absurd request because everybody knows the number of contested evictions would be nil while the ban was in place and would INCREASE to more than nil when the ban was removed. In other words the question was as stupid as asking, when the ban was introduced, what evidence there was that that would reduce evictions! O Mongain also played a clip where a Sherry Fitzgerald rep gave 3 reasons for evictions, the third being the increased/increasing level of Govt regulation/interferance in the market; he turned to O Donnell at that point and said the Sherry Fitz rep had said nothing about the eviction ban (adding to landlords leaving) when, in fact, that is what she had just said - too much Govt interferance.

Apparently Sinn Fein not alone want the eviction ban extended to Jan 1 (PBP until the 'housing crisis is over') but to have a three year rent freeze and do nothing about the tax treatment of landlords. Kenny and Bacik played the usual game without being closely questioned - the playbook requires one/two three anecdotes about hardship cases (real or imagined) and then a sequence of complaints about the current situation, critiques of Govt policy, what they themselves had suggested months or years ago, platitudes - nothing constructive, something that would make a practical difference.

As for the eviction ban it was a stupid policy in the first place; policy decisions in housing being led by SF are not good; when SF get into power is time enough for their policies to be implemented; it will be mighty interesting to see whether SF have a rent freeze and eviction ban in their election manifesto. There have been 6 or 7 Govt moves in the rental market in the last 3/4 years; landlords are addled and confused and don't trust the State that worse is not being planned. They're leaving in droves while they can.

But this whole schtick is just a variation of the perfect solution fallacy, Francie.

'Ireland is so small, we couldn't do as much as China.....so we won't bother doing anything'

'The average man on the street can't do as much as a large company.....so we won't bother doing anything'.

It's a total cop out. We certainly can't do much on an individual basis, but enough individuals working together absolutely can make a difference.....and enough individuals claiming that they alone can't fix it all so they can abdicate responsibility is a pretty surefire way to ensure it gets worse.

So you won't vote for a Green candidate because they are not green enough but you will vote for a party doing less than the Greens.

The truth is that you are just doing the fake concern thing to discredit a party you never had any intention of voting for.