General Irish politics discussion thread

I think it happened even less back in the day. The Press and the Indo were widely understood to be rusted on to FF and FG respectively. Nobody would have been interested in what election endorsement they might give, because in both cases the endorsement would have been completely predictable. So they didn't give endorsements. The Irish Times held itself out as independent and, for that reason, also didn't give endorsements.

…its not free money at all, its generally recirculated tax revenue, and since this is currently primarily from corporate tax receipts, happy days, of course the issue ultimately came from the deregulation of the building industry, so not the fault of homeowners at all, as most would have no way of actually knowing this at the time of building…..

…best of luck with getting recourse through the legal system, by the time such claims get knocked around the courts, and with builders and building companies that no longer exist, again, this is firmly based in political ideologies that advocate for deregulation and self regulation, this is the basis of our main political parties, and have been for many decades now…..

Why bring it up then?

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2024/0703/1457978-june-exchequer-figures/

Surplus of over €3 billion, government must be doing something right.

Was our system originally conceived by Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson)?

Budget advanced by a week, all but confirming a late October or very early November election.

Chambers is insisting its for EU reasons, but these EU reasons won't have come out of thin air three months before the budget.

The moment I heard he'd moved the budget date, I thought that meant the election is on - there's no way they are going for a Spring 2025 election.

As has been the case for every junior coalition party in the history of the state. Its not even the first time it's happened to the Greens.

It's in SF's interests to stay away from Government if they are not going to be the top dog; FFG always shuffle away and return at some point. The only good thing is that their respective vote shares don't seem to be reaching levels of old and they are being forced to work together, thus removing any doubt that they were ever really that different.

@HalloweenJack quote "FFG always shuffle away and return at some point. The only good thing is that their respective vote shares don't seem to be reaching levels of old and they are being forced to work together, thus removing any doubt that they were ever really that different."

While i agree that there is little to separate the two parties today, the difference between them historically was massive. Support for or against the Treaty was a major defining societal viewpoint and it influenced your political allegiance but would also decide your news source , your friendships , your marriage and possibly your employment. In the fifties , and even in the sixties, I remember people who wouldn't read the opposite newspaper and in our village everyone was known as either a FF or FG supporter, whether they voted or not, based on their position on the Treaty. None of this should be surprising because these people were the participants or the children of participants in the civil war or the political views around it.

Thankfully we have moved on , after a hundred years, where such distinctions (mostly) don't matter anymore.