The accelerating fall in Sinn Féin support

True. But neither do SF.

Aye. But same can be said for any party.

no. this is why we have such a housing issues, immigration, health etc. the other parties take turns being in power and dont make anything any better.

SF are pro immigration and anti big business, which will result in fewer homes being built than the 30k a year we see today.

Lower tax takes from anti FDI stance will result in less spend on health.

So SF move the needle backwards on all of those metrics. Not forwards.

Pro immigration? Of course. Pro bad immigration policies (which is whats happening in ireland now) - no, they are against that. Anti big business? The idea of a UI is a fantastic economic objective. The rest of your post is your opinion and you are welcome to it. But it basically means nought really to the argument.

You have no idea what SF will do when they are in power. just admit it and stop pretending you know how things will pan out.

im pretty sure the party with such a profitable land portfolio making them the richest political party in the country, will figure out how to run the country in a few that we all benefit.. Taxes for example - might go up. But maybe if they did, there might not be doctors fees etc. Im just using those as examples, but various different changes could happen than combined all work together to bring greater benefit.

Im pretty sure given the chance they'll do it, and do it right. Look at their journey so far - I say they are currently unstoppable. We'll ether find they arent the baddies we are lead to believe and in fact are good for the country, or they are as bad as the rest. Im betting they'll be better.

I have no idea what SF will do about anything. I only care when they decide on something that I would disagree with. So far in general they represent the general political views I hold so right now, they are the party I vote for. I find I naturally think much the same way anyway so I would hope they'd look at other countries and even how they deal with land ownership. What hapopened with immigration is the irish government wanted to be the good boy of the eu again and made overreaching agreements to take in refugees - plus brexit is letting real illegal immigrants to get here.

so really the question is how do you stop the illegal immigrants getting here (after setting a good immigration policy). The answer to that is work something out about a border into the north

I would say its likely they will get an offer in government - but in what way I dont know. ideally I wouldnt like to see they go in as junior partners - they have to be able to affect change as I would hope they would be making changes and wouldnt want it being watered down. In a perfect world I'd like to see SF with a consortium of other people oriented, socially minded, unbiased people - but I think that would be a large stretch. Worse case a ff/fg mix and SF as junior. They'd just try and paint SF with all the failures, like both parties have done to labour, SD etc etc over the years

How is this nonsense?

Our social protection net is fantastic in this country, supports are there for everyone.

Employment opportunities are plentiful, anybody who actually wants to work will be able to find work of some sort, perhaps not their first choice, but if you want work there is work available.

Travel options and emigration options should someone desire are much more readily available now than they were in the past, intercontinental travel is cheaper than in the past, FaceTime / zoom / WhatsApp makes keeping in touch with people on the other side of the world so easy and free at the point of use that it makes distance largely irrelevant.

Knowledge at our fingertips. Do not underestimate the opportunities this gives young people these days, I'm not that old but when I was thinking about my future you couldn't just look up things online like you can now.

I know you are going to mention housing, but you know what, it wasn't so easy 20 years ago either, we did it by not having holidays, giving up all sort of social life, taking every single cent we had and pooling it, fanciful luxury's like a can of coke were impossible to afford, we didn't have a tv for the first few years until a friend gave us an old tv when they got a new one, this was 2004, so please don't tell me it is difficult now, it always was difficult, I'm sick of listening to people complaining that it is too expensive whilst they have a holiday or two in the sun each year and a new car, doesn't work like that.

see, what you are assuming there is incorrect. Im not going to try and correct you, but you are making ill thought out arguments. I have yet to see any single party to ever present a full roadmap predicting what laws they shall make and how they shall deal with laws, law making, taxes etc etc. They all make their selling points know for the election, but theres no actual detailed details. ever. Stop expecting SF to do that. And stop underestimating them.

They are losing support because they are not backing the agendas that some want, and those are the kind leaving. The ireland for the irish crowd, and its all them there foreigners fault types. Good riddance say I. I'd say a good number of those transferred from FG. Right wing facist xenophobic stuff

SF have said they want to increase taxes.

I think the ireland for the irish types were SF voters to begin with.

I would think its the younger more educated voters that were annoyed about housing and wanted a different path that were tempted to vote elsewhere, but now realise SF wont solve their housing issues at all.

I worked for ericsson and my swedish counterpart, ont he same money as me, had more cash in their pocket. higher tax - but other benefits. Im not saying sweden has a good tax system or anything like that, but I am saying 'raising taxes' isnt enough words to form an opinion on what SF will be doing with taxes or how it will affect anyone. there are many moving parts and giving out because they 'want to increase taxes' without any further info isnt when you should be making your mind up about anything.

I think the ireland for the irish types were SF voters to begin with.

Not the ones I know, to be honest. But you keep thinking that way if you want.

What policies do you think SF will introduce that will benefit the country economically?

What have you read in their manifesto that makes you believe this to be the case?

These are the questions I am yet to see a SF voter answer.

The typical response is "well, they cant be worse than the current govt"

In other words, they have no clue and no answer. (not saying thats the same for you, but it is my experience with SF voters)

I dont know. I'll wait until they have the proper resources to show what they're going to do. I dont need to think of what I want - I need only know what I dont want. It'll be up to SF to present their ideas and I will either agree with the or I will not agree with them. Manifestos mean sweet fa. they are electoral promotional brochures with no details. they are no good.

I agreed with a good chunk of what they've done over the years and I'll keep that support until they let me down the way both FF and FG have let down their core support. You are silly to think SF arent prepared for elections or prepared for government. Again - you are underestimating them and Im not going to derail you from that. You can repeat whatever rubbish you read in the indo or whatever - personally I'll wait until they actually let me down. Like, 'ireland is full' for example. If they had got behind that then they'd lose my support. is it all being terribly badly run? yes it is. thats the problem. the government have let us down (again).

When the party President is on the army council of a terrorist organisation, it certainly makes it easier to convince them to put down their arms. He also acknowledged that armed conflict was not working, the only way to achieve their goals was through peaceful means.

I give them no credit for that, it was an act of self preservation. SF were/are the mouthpiece for a terrorist organisation, it’s just that today they are more polished. I could not, I will not ever vote SF for that reason alone. The fact that they are bluffers with no real policies that they can substantiate just means that there is also a modern day reason to also not support them.