Sinn Fein alternative

We had a large group of independents in the last Government - including in Ministerial positions - and it was stable and could make decisions.

They still seem very much on the fence. Idealogically, they are pro immigration. Yet they know their support base is not.

Yes that sort of geographical/party/gender horse-trading absolutely does happen. On the flip side though hardly any of the politicians are qualified for any of the ministerial roles. Even those that have worked in the related areas prior to politics (such as doctors as Health Ministers or Teachers as Education Minister) or been opposition spokespersons. That's because being a minister is an entirely different job. It requires a different skill-set. It's part administrator, part human resources, part manager and a few other things to boot.

Some people are going to be naturally good at these things and some aren't. Probably the best way to get good at them is prior experience in the job - ideally first as a junior minister. I think throwing someone directly in as a minister, the way Foley was, is not ideal. Likewise there's no guarantee that Jim O'Callaghan would have been any good as Minister for Justice since he was also entirely inexperienced as a minister. He could have chosen to take that offer of a junior ministry and gained valuable experience which would have helped him in the future but he let his pride get in the way.

Agreed. Ministers often need to be adjudicators when it comes to disputes between different factions under their remit. If they themselves come from one of those factions that can lead to implicit or explicit bias in their decision making.

What's worse for Sinn Fein is that the likes of FG and FF can tweak things in government to make immigration harder - like the EU pact - and Sinn Fein are caught having to oppose it on the one hand while dog-whistling on the other, leaving them looking like fools.

SF, with an SF Finance Minister, are having to agree an extremely vicious budget in NI today, will be interesting to see how they defend that.

"we had no other choice due to constrained external funding" isn't something they accepted in from 2011 on but is pretty much guaranteed to be the excuse.

There is no doubt they (whether it be a DUP, Alliance, SDLP, UUP etc Finance Minister) that they are 'constrained', that would be partition and the fact they are always going to be reliant on handouts. If only there was an option to be more in control of your fate and prosperity.
Seems to be an understanding of those constraints though among those dependent on the budget allocations.

You'll never get a party that satisfies all your particular political viewpoints unless you're a loony lefty or a fascist, in which case the likes of PBP or the National Party will suit you fine. For the rest of us it's a case of picking the best of a bad lot.

My personal view is that it should always be about the economy and which party is best placed to manage it. I'm nearly 60 and in my lifetime, Fianna Fail have destroyed the country's economy TWICE - first in the late 70's under Jack Lynch and then in the late 2000's under Bertie Ahern and Charlie McCreevy. On both occasions they had a series of giveaway budgets that threw money at everyone. leaving us with a massive welfare bill that ensured that when a global recession came we were totally vulnerable. Cue massive spending cuts to health, education and other public services in an attempt to claw back the money they threw at everyone. The current housing crisis started under FF too and McCreevy's tax breaks to developers and speculators.

On both of those occasions when FF destroyed the country, it was Fine Gael, leading a coalition with others, who restored the economy to a sound basis and kept it that way. To me they've always been a party that can be trusted to manage the economy soundly. I don't accept the premise mentioned by an earlier poster that they've promoted inequality as a side effect. We have one of the most generous welfare systems in the world here (hence the flood of migrants hoping to jump on the gravy train and join our indigenous welfare lifestyle brigade) and I personally think all the constant whining about poverty is exaggerated. I do believe that they haven't done enough to resolve the housing crisis but again, FF started that and I'm not sure any party could reverse it at this stage. Sinn Fein would be far worse than FF and would throw even more money at welfare to satisfy their core supporters, many of whom I suspect are more than happy to enjoy the welfare lifestyle.

In short: without jobs and a sound economy you can't have a prosperous society or good public services. You should vote for whoever you think will do the best job there.

I did, in the end from recollection I got a refund

Water is one thing everyone needs to live, a proper water system was and still is worth investing in