Sinn Fein and how do they form a government dilemma

We all know you are SF till you die, but have you even read their last election manifesto? Their math does not math. Should they get into power (potentially with some weird leftist consortium - imagine Paul Murphy or RBB with even a sniff of power)- one of 2 things will happen. 1. They ride the exchequer until the arse falls out of it and do not make it to the next election or 2. They talked their way in government, dont do anything they are screaming from the rafters about, hang around long enough to get those ministerial pension entitlements and get booted out the next election.

Sinn Fein as we have seen is all noise. Once you start to question them on how it will work it falls to pieces. Once you get past the faux outrage show by Pearse on every topic you end up with nothing. I thought the guy was a good TD but honestly he has dropped down the ranks very quickly.

Of course some people lap up the faux outrage, the ripping of his mask off to show how outraged he is etc. Not me. The alternative budgets that have come out would be an embarrassment to any other finance Minister. The huge deal they made about taxing everyone over 140k to pay for all the gret work they would do, then a few months later it was 100k. Today? well who knows. That's a 28% error. Unbelievable. Nobody can excuse such a huge error and once that happened Pearse should have been moved out of Finance for Sinn Fein but sure who else do you put in?

For the same reason SF arent doing it, they are all terrified of the grey vote and having to explain properly to the country that the pension system as it currently works will be unfundable by 2040 without HUGE income tax increases.

You can disagree all you want but the facts are we are at 4:1 workers to retireees now and will be at 2:1 by 2050. Far too many people are still 100% reliant on the state pension and there will simply not be enough tax payers to fund it based on current rules in 20 years time. If we doubled our birthrate tomorrow things might be recoverable but we would still have a rough 10 years before the people born start working and paying tax.

So it's safe to say FF/FG/Grs are not dealing with this timebomb.

Will you vote for them? What about you @Clo-Clo @[Deleted User] is it a deal breaker for you?

Well FG were trying to by pushing for increases to the pension age which FF and SF were against and thus the idea was scrapped, SF are also against the prsi increase. So currently SF oppose all solutions and offer no alternatives that i have seen.

I dont know who I will be voting for yet but FG are the only ones talking sense on this issue.

Yes they were and the pension time bomb existed back then however was far less of a priority as you might remember there were other more immediate financial issues to deal with?

Since 2016 they have had it as an issue to deal with but were hamstrung by FFs reluctance to deal with it as their voter base is the oldest.

Also as I said they are introducing the PRSI increase to help but imo it still wont be enough yet SF are still against it. Do you have anything to say about SF having no solutions while opposing all the current ones suggested by the politically independent fiscal advisory council?

SF agree to the pension age increase if people can opt to retire at 65 (specifically people in jobs were it is not possible to work beyond that age without huge pain and discomfort) and they want employers to bear the brunt of the PRSI increases.

I think it is false to say they have no solutions. 'Solutions, you don't agree with' might be a better way of phrasing it.

So that rules out SF and the current governing parties.

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You do know currently members of the Dáil can retire at 50?

Senior TDs can start claiming gold-plated pensions in their 50s | Independent.ie

Here is what she said again:

Surely that is more apt for a party in power since 2011 who claim to be concerned about this issue and who only today managed to windowdress a bit?

So you added in the word 'maybe'?

You are a piece of work DaCor, I'll give you that. The leaps you make and present as facts are gas.

SF is making it up on the hoof.

Their latest Manifesto doesnt mention pensions at all.

For the 2020 GE manifesto, there is a bit about retiring at 65, but little if any on how to fund it.

So contrary to what has been said, they are not against a rise in the pension age, they are ok with it if the vulnerable are protected and she wasn't talking about TD's who can retire at 50.

She never said boo about maybe, but your agenda is already well established, you want to give a certain picture so you make stuff up.

Everyone has an opinion or as you like to say "agenda"

Who knows what Sinn Fein policy is to be honest, it seems to change like the wind on every topic.

What was it someone called them before, the "flip flop party".

In their latest "alternative budget" they talk about speeding up the transition to renewable, at the same time they are trying to block wind farms in planning. "Flip flop" best description

Gerry is so afraid of the court case that he is trying to get it thrown out without that evidence being heard.