Sinn Fein and how do they form a government dilemma

Low turnout election this time around for sure but I don’t buy the SF line of the younger voters not coming out. If you know your support base hinges on a younger demographic then you target them to get them out. If it’s doing earnest TikTok’s to urge people to vote or just sending buses around to colleges or wherever and getting people to the polling station, so be it. If they couldn’t be arsed voting now, who says they’ll be bothered either in a GE!

We already run a huge budget surplus. Just because there is extra money does not mean there will automatically be extra houses.

What you describe is not a costed plan. Thats my point. SF do not have a validated & costed plan to uplift new home construction above its current level.

33k homes were built last year and 36k are predicted this year, with 41k next year.

I am not saying the numbers are perfect but I am saying they are improving year on year (they are not remaining static and without achieving "better results", as you claimed above. New home output is growing by 10%-15% each year).

There is simply no logical or empirical evidence that SF would be overseeing the construction of >41k homes by 2025; especially considering they will drive the primary investment streams out of residential construction!

Therefore, I would confidently expect FFG to oversee the construction of more homes than SF over the next 5 to 10 year period.

Happy to accept evidence to the contrary; but yet to see any.

2 seats in Europe and 75,000 FP votes in MNW. Talk of demise is of course exaggeration. More apt chat for the Greens.

SF know they had a bad day.
But demise talk is pub talk of the deluded punch drunk on the fact their side didn’t get a wallop.
The GE is a different ballgame as the RTE exit poll found. 46% said they will likely vote for a candidate from a different party than they did in the LEs.
It probably won’t temper the gloating but it should.

We already run a huge budget surplus. Just because there is extra money does not mean there will automatically be extra houses.

We are a wealthy nation, we shouldn't have the amount of homeless that we do

What you describe is not a costed plan. Thats my point. SF do not have a validated & costed plan to uplift new home construction above its current level.

The plan might not be coated (it was at the time of the 2020 GE) but at least they have a plan. The current govt pat themselves on the back for reaching 2018 targets so their plan clearly isn't working, if they indeed have one

33k homes were built last year and 36k are predicted this year, with 41k next year.

According to the Taoiseach there's 50k homes planned for next year, which is great and much needed because of their policies on housing in the past

I am not saying the numbers are perfect but I am saying they are improving year on year (they are not remaining static and without achieving "better results", as you claimed above. New home output is growing by 10%-15% each year).

Improving from a near -zero base, am I meant to be impressed?

There is simply no logical or empirical evidence that SF would be overseeing the construction of >41k homes by 2025; especially considering they will drive the primary investment streams out of residential construction!

Yeah and there's logically no way FFG will solve the housing crisis

Therefore, I would confidently expect FFG to oversee the construction of more home than SF over the next 5 to 10 year period.

If FFG are returned to power at the next GE, yes that's most likely what will happen as 1 new home will definitely be built in the 5 years following the GE. If SF lead a leftist govt it's highly possible

Happy to accept evidence to the contrary; but yet to see any.

See above

It was in their 2020 GE election manifesto, I'd imagine there won't be a new one until the next GE manifesto. But good luck finding the FFG equivalent at that time.

Bonkers really, we see how bad FFG are on housing, SF give an alternative and unless every penny is accounted for you want to stick with the parties of failures

Barry Cowen got elected to the European parliament last night, the drink-driver brother of Brian Cowen. The mind truly boggles

It wasnt costed in the manifesto. It was vague. It still is vague. Thats my point.

I understand your frustration with the house building and of course, we would all like to see more homes being built.

But i just dont see a scenario in which SF oversee the delivery of more new homes vs the current govt, thats all I am really saying.

The "failure" to deliver as you call it, is still likley to hit over 40k new homes next year and is likey to keep rising.

We are still building Galway City every 12 months across the country and are expanding that output further.

April saw over 18k commencents, thats the highest ever number recorded.

In summary, more needs to be done, I agree. But we are moving in the right direction and we have a formula that delivers and is expanding year on year.

A SF govt would destabilise the process and very quickly lead to a fall off in those numbers; notably via the triggering of an exodus of funding capital; not to mention the employment reduction and job losses that would follow that exodus of capital.

And we havent even talked about where SF would magic up the necessary public sector construction workers; in a country of full employment.

SF's headlines comes across as very pie in the sky.

Just like the 300k projection for house prices in Dublin. Never going to happen and just not thought out. Nobody working in the indusrty would realistically give that projection merit.

In opposition, SF have turned to populist headline grabbing soundbytes; but with no depth of thought or realism attached to their statements.

That's not the govt I think would best serve the country.

But of course, we are all entitled to our own opinions and I respect yours, even if I may not agree with it.

The good news is that we both want the same thing. More homes for people. We just differ in how to go about it.

What exactly are you expecting, 25 page costings of every nut, bolt and ml of concrete to be poured?

i simply don't see a scenario in which FFG oversee the delivery of more new homes vs a SF led one. They have proven this time and time again

Yes 40k homes would be fantastic, if we were living in 2019. Two things they could do to make quick differences is hire more people in An Bord Pleanala and stop this policy of council planners giving permission willy-nilly so people don't feel a need to go to ABP.

FFG's headlines also come across as very pie-in-the-sky. Didn't Harris say 50k homes to be built next year after 30k last year, only for it to be rubbished by his own housing minister? He'd be doing well is all I'd say

Ye, that's what i mean.

Funchion surely would be potential cabinet material?

Please stop looking at SF and please concentrate on the Greens. This is just a temporary voter readjustment for SF…

Well given that what you mention above are government policies and SF have never been in govt you would be wrong on that one

Yes but it's not a function of the elected representatives of those councils. The only thing the councillors can do is make submissions for or against them. When it comes to council housing they have a bit more power but at the end of the day it's the civil servants that get the work done to varying degrees of success

Could somebody point to where or when a costed plan/or even a plan has solved the issue,

I won't hold my breath.

Are you arguing that all spending plans and policies should be uncosted?

Just because SF keep pantsing themselves when they do reveal the costs?

There have been multiple government plans that have solved or alleviated issues (whether it's health budget spending, tackling deficits, building a Luas extension, paying any public sector cost increases), those plans will all have been costed before being put in action (and sometimes the costs are wrong as we have seen with the NCH, or any SF budget presented which gets taken apart quickly).

Even if you take housing, costed government plans to increase the number built have been working as the completion numbers have been rising year on year.

When SF promised to increase housing when in charge of Dublin City Council, they utterly failed.