Local/ EU elections who will you Vote for

Whether its a new road, new cycle lane, new parking charges etc, it is all only an initiative.

There is barely a single initiative that everyone agrees with, so it isnt true to say all local decisions made by the few are for the betterment of the many.

If that were the case, perhaps we should reverse the voting power so that only non-citizens can vote. Sure, what difference would it make?

I'm unsure how anyone can look at the UK/Continent and say 'oh Ireland would be better if we were like them'.

With SF being essentially wiped out in the LE can we now expect record amounts of planning for new house builds to go through without SF councillors scuppering house building plans?

Ah I see.

That’s unfortunate.

I didn't say that all local decisions made by the few are for the betterment of the many. I said some are. Public representatives are not delegates sent to a conference to vote a particular way. They represent us across a range of issues, not all of which are predictable before being elected.

The number of TDs is determined in the constitution with reference to the population of a constituency, not the number of taxpayers. So, that's not going to change. If your point is that Dáil franchise should be widened to include taxpaying non citizens, then you can advocate for that, but I don't see any appetite for it, or chance it will happen.

Most people don’t have any issue with legal migration or legal migrants, people have issues with people playing the asylum system at the taxpayers expense. There is a big difference between the two. Most voters don’t want either an extreme left (PBP) or the extreme right (NP).

We're off topic on this, so I'll just add one more comment. Personally, I would be against that. Voting for the national parliament is a privilege of citizenship imo. But, I'd be open to making it easier to gain citizenship by naturalisation - not so much the rules or requirements, but in terms of the administrative obstacles and the costs. We've come a long way since you had to stand up in the district court, between the drink drivers and the shoplifters, but I'm sure we could do better. I was surprised to see a UK poster who's living here decades, was put off primarily by the cost. Though he can vote in a GE but not in the Euros. The experience of my work colleague was that it was a real slog over a period of years.

Our biggest issue in housing for years now is politicans blocking housing/apartments and not letting the process happen, no project will get approved if a TD and especially a high level TD like Mary Lou sticks an objection in

I haven't read in detail but the plan is to stop projects been stuck in courts for years with randomers rejected

The project above was rejected by Mary Lou and someone living in Foxrock, nowhere near the actual location of the apartments/housing.
Mary lou just rejected because SF reject everything to making housing crisis worse. Nobody knows why someone who lives in Foxrock and has no attachment to the project decided to reject, but similar has happened on lots of projects

Just call FG’s Marion Agrios

I’ve heard she can make those objections go away (for a small fee of course)

Regardless of who blocked what, there are a huge amount of developments without any local infrastructure or schools planned along with them. That is what people object to.

In the area I know best of Kildare, Naas and Newbridge, each of those towns are creaking at the seams with traffic, lack of schools and no extra doctors. Absolutely no plans are in place to deal with this and an Bord pleanala overruled objections and pushed ahead on the basis of need.

Already these new residents are moaning of lack of school places and doctors. Lots of reports of people travelling back to thier original places to get a doctor. Kildare town is getting a new school but it's an amalgamation of existing schools so not new places. Newbridge is building up a story on the existing schools to expand capacity on a road infrastructure that currently doesn't work. Naas got one new school. Each town is expanding faster than the infrastructure.

Foxrock residents clearly have the cash and means to object to the same lack of development that has been foisted on other areas. Nobody of sound mind will complain if the infrastructure is developed at the same time as the new developments. Devalue of your home due to extra homes nearby is something that the very wealthy complain about. It's not a usual complaint, nor a valid one.

Apart from wanting to make the housing crisis worse so that they (when/if in gov) can solve it, why are SF objecting to every housing project?

I'm aware that I'm asking the wrong person, but you seem to have an understanding of it- like, - what would they say themselves as their reason?

Genuine question I've wondered over.

What did people vote for?

Housing? Health? Crime?

If you're talking about local elections, two out of three of those topics have nothing to do with local authorities.

Delighted to see the end of the I4C, Independents for Communism. They can now stand in the general election as the P4P, Puppets for Putin, I'm sure his anonymous social media interference machine is already cranking up, though they must be stretched with the UK and French elections looming. Wallis and Grommet might even try the byelections, which look like a runner to me. There's no way the government want to put the electorate through a marathon before Christmas, but a few tasty local sprints will provide some entertainment.

There won't be a single by-election

They've nothing to gain having an early election, unless they target early September, but the TDs won't want that. A post budget perhaps, but better to wait till Spring. Consequently, they should get the by-elections done with, not make them a post budget issue. They've nothing to lose, and perhaps 3 seats to gain.

Consequently, they should get the by-elections done with, not make them a post budget issue.

They have 6 months to call the by-election which is January 16th. There won't be any, it'll just be a general election.

Youd imagine there will be a cabinet reshuffle. However, those stepping down as ministers will still be TDs and it won't require a by-election.