Irish General Election - Friday, November 29th *Read OP for Mod Warnings*

We will hear loads about the intelligent Irish electorate but still we will vote back in the same bunch of clowns. The rest of Europe is swinging away from left wing and Ireland will be paddy last.

Of all the parties, not one can genuinely differentiate from each other. Even SF is a flavour of FF/FG.

The green zealots stand apart with nonsensical policies designed to self destruct an entire economy while the rest of the world picks up that slack and supplies what we lose at our extra cost.

No one seems to be coming on board with my grand plan of ignoring the establishment and not voting so I'll probably vote for one of the loons as a protest vote this time around. It's a waste of time but I cannot bring myself to vote for SF. And I say that as someone who cannot find a logical reason to argue against the armed struggle.

So what happened to the plan to go full term?

I will not vote for Sinn Fein

Will consider voting for Labour and SDs.

21 days.

Short run in time, with very few radio and television debates or discussions, to limit the opportunities for opposition candidates to get airtime.

Irish politics is about picking the least useless. Thats it

I fully expect FF/FG to be back in power after the election. Id settle for the greens being gone and the likes of Paul Murphy and Mick Barry thrown out of the dail.

It's been hinted at heavily for ages, plus FG/FF looked at polls, pretty sensible decision from their pov.

Please use your vote, even if you think its pointless or your candidate won't get in. All not doing so does, is make the main parties and their advisors even more arrogant and think they are invincible and they'll be returned to power regardless.

Change will happen but it will be slow, have faith.

It's amusing to see people complain about high rates of income tax and then glide seamlessly into a whinge about all the Irish parties being left or far left.

Overall Ireland is taxed about about the average level for an OECD country but, by comparison with others, we have high income taxes and low capital taxes.

This is the opposite of a left-wing stance. It penalises acquiring prosperity through labour and favours acquiring prosperity through capital. It's highly capitalist; about as unsocialist a tax policy as you can imagine.

International observers note that Ireland has been characterised by a succession of right-of-centre governments literally since the foundation of the state. Power has alternated between two right-of-centre parties; no left-of-centre party has never been more than a junior partner in a coalition. We have literally never had a left-of-centre government, or a government led by a left-of-centre party. We are probably the only democracy in Europe of which this can be said. Hence our distinctly right-wing tax policies.

If you don't like the tax system that is the result of a century of right-of-centre governments, then maybe consider a left-of-centre government? But it's going to be hard to do that if you delude yourself into thinking that the governments we've had all along are left-wing, and that we have left-wing tax policies.

That doesn't make any sense.

It's people voting that decides the government.

Whether you're left or right leaning, use your vote. The might not form a government or even get a seat, but they erode votes going to FF/FG.

I’d agree with this, also if you feel a vote for say SD is wasted as your local candidate won’t get in then you should think that longer term the slightly better they do the more the party is likely to expand.

Exactly, the established parties analyse every last detail of previous votes. They spot the trends in local areas etc. So if people either don't vote, spoil their vote or worse just vote FF/FG because their is no option and thinking they'll get in anyway. That just plays into their hands in the years ahead.

Show them that there is a small or growing trend of 1st pref towards smaller parties and they'll take note.

Change will happen, whether by the rise of smaller parties or even worst case scenario, FF/FG shift policy.

Also, FPV% is a factor in party funding. If you want a party to get state funding, even if the local candidate is a no-hoper, you should give them the 1 and then transfer on.

May also help them to get the expenses refund for their own campaign.

Yes right on tax, left on social policy.

Left leaning ideals aint going to pay for themselves now are they

If Trump does what he says he's going to do on re-shoring American corporations and tariffs the money is going to disappear.

The Dept of Finance warned the government before the election that in the event of Trump victory that tax reciepts could plunge within 12 months.

We need as steady a hand as possible to try mitigate and handle the damage.

If windfall corporate taxes disappear the country currently has over a €6bn deficit per year.

We're in serious trouble by the looks of it.

The only hope we have is that parties stop making promises we can't afford.

Ordinarily FG would be that party but they've just overseen the biggest giveaway budget in the history of the state.

Simply put, if you don't vote you just don't have a say in it.

And along with that, if you don't vote, you can't really complain about any kind of result.

The short term nature of politics will never deliver long term solutions. There isn’t a reward for politicians with conviction and and a willingness for change. Ultimately the black whole of government department is where the incompetence and insane level of squandering happens. They give respective ministers the two fingers when called to account.

It doesn't take away from the vote that people have. There are plenty of independents and so on that are worthy of a vote.