Messages

1

General discussion / Re: Is FF gone as a party?

« on: April 15, 2021, 01:06:22 PM »

If you think that the establishment parties do not get a much easier time of it compared to SF from the media you are deluded.

That's not what I said.

But there have been comments on this thread that FF and FG don't get criticised and that SF suffer only criticism.

In my opinion, the vast majority of people who hold this conspiracy theory of a view don't read the Irish Times and they don't watch current affairs programmes on RTE or TV3/Virgin, they don't watch Mary Lou being interviewed regularly on the Six-One news.

Instead they get their information from people who show them an instance of a SFer getting a hard time and/or an instance of someone from FG or FF getting a seemingly easy ride, and then they take that as carte blanche that FF and FG never get criticised! It's nonsense.
SF love supporters love this conspiracy. Us against the establishment.

I wouldn’t say any party gets a free ride, but the “establishment” parties get it much easier than SF for sure.

This "establishment" vs "anti-establishment" stuff is straight out of the Trump playbook.
SFs slogan will be "drain the bog" I suppose

What word would you prefer. "Traditional" or something else.

2

General discussion / Re: Is FF gone as a party?

« on: April 15, 2021, 11:57:02 AM »

What sort of economic policy would SF run?

You won’t get an answer to that from a SF supporter.
Someone else is going to pay for it, so it really doesn’t matter !

I look forward to seeing what they actually do. They’ll be the biggest part after the next election, absent a complete collapse.
FF and FG should of course not go into coalition with them due to their diametrically opposed policies and strategies. So they’ll need to get the parties of the left to come together, if they don’t get the overall majority. That’ll be interesting.

Any economists out there like to describe the current FFG economic policy?

Well for example, today's news on economics includes:
- projected growth of 4.5% in the economy this year
- despite the damage wrought by Covid, the economy has been resilient and tax income has held up better than expected
- Modified Domestic Demand, which focuses on the domestic economy, is forecast to grow by 2.5% in 2021 and 7.5% next year

Wheres it all going?

What the SF line of "Just to the rich"?

Pre Covid we were as close to full employment as you can get. Probably would be full employment but our social welfare payments are well in excess of our nearest neighbours.

Pre Covid, the following stats would make very interesting reason and comparisons to other countries:
- % of people who go on regular foreign holidays
- % of people who eat out in a restaurant once a month or more
- % of people who subscribe to Netflix
- % of people who have a least 1 gaming system in the house
- % of people who have a car

I've a strong feeling we'd be high up.

Certainly the UN and other bodies who do "Best places to live" / "qualify of life" analysis, puts Ireland as almost always one of the Top 10 places in the world to live and often closer to the top. In the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, we'd scraping into the Top 50.

As I've said before, FF and FG are a long way from getting everything right, but by in large economic policy in the last 30 years has been pretty good, notwithstanding the crash.

So why are FF & FG at a lower combined total of the vote than they ever have had in history? We are amongst the happiest people on earth, we have a great economy yet we are turning away from the parties that delivered it? I am not sure this all stacks up Hound.

Why did 74 million Americans vote for Donald Trump to be their president?

But in an Irish context, I believe that mistakes get focussed on much more than successes. Some people say that FG and FF don't get criticised in the media. I think that's a load of nonsense and belongs on the conspiracy thread, similar to unionists saying nationalists get special favourable treatment from the PSNI.

You might get away with the odd thing here and there, but in general mistakes are front page news, they are analysed and scrutinised and there's lot of outrage and often exaggeration.  And (apart from the exaggeration piece if that happens) that's exactly what should happen. The government should be accountable for their mistakes.
But when they get stuff right, there's not a whole heap of credit going around, "they're doing their job". Those things I listed above seem to be taken for granted by a lot of people.

Economic policy over the last 3 decades has been very successful, when judged in totality. That's really unarguable, even though some very poor decisions were made by FF around the crash. And people in general would criticise the mistakes of the crash a lot more than give credit to the way the economy has gone since then. In particular in recent years they learned a lot from the mistakes of the crash which resulted in the economy surviving Covid a lot better than expected. But you see don't see too many headlines or social media posts about that.

From an academic viewpoint, I would be fascinated to see how a SF / left alliance would govern this country. I would worry (a lot) that they could jeopardise the economy and drive down employment levels, but maybe they wouldn't and it'd be interesting to see. But when I hear people say "well they can't do any worse than the current crowd", then I think "gobshite". Because certainly that's very possible!

If you think that the establishment parties do not get a much easier time of it compared to SF from the media you are deluded.

Completely agree, it is hard to consider how anyone could not see that. The last general election was a disgrace the way the Quinn family in particular were used to attack SF. Where has the championing of that gone to since. Where are the RTE employees with close links to SF?

3

General discussion / Re: Is FF gone as a party?

« on: April 15, 2021, 10:18:35 AM »

What sort of economic policy would SF run?

You won’t get an answer to that from a SF supporter.
Someone else is going to pay for it, so it really doesn’t matter !

I look forward to seeing what they actually do. They’ll be the biggest part after the next election, absent a complete collapse.
FF and FG should of course not go into coalition with them due to their diametrically opposed policies and strategies. So they’ll need to get the parties of the left to come together, if they don’t get the overall majority. That’ll be interesting.

Any economists out there like to describe the current FFG economic policy?

Well for example, today's news on economics includes:
- projected growth of 4.5% in the economy this year
- despite the damage wrought by Covid, the economy has been resilient and tax income has held up better than expected
- Modified Domestic Demand, which focuses on the domestic economy, is forecast to grow by 2.5% in 2021 and 7.5% next year

Wheres it all going?

What the SF line of "Just to the rich"?

Pre Covid we were as close to full employment as you can get. Probably would be full employment but our social welfare payments are well in excess of our nearest neighbours.

Pre Covid, the following stats would make very interesting reason and comparisons to other countries:
- % of people who go on regular foreign holidays
- % of people who eat out in a restaurant once a month or more
- % of people who subscribe to Netflix
- % of people who have a least 1 gaming system in the house
- % of people who have a car

I've a strong feeling we'd be high up.

Certainly the UN and other bodies who do "Best places to live" / "qualify of life" analysis, puts Ireland as almost always one of the Top 10 places in the world to live and often closer to the top. In the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, we'd scraping into the Top 50.

As I've said before, FF and FG are a long way from getting everything right, but by in large economic policy in the last 30 years has been pretty good, notwithstanding the crash.

So why are FF & FG at a lower combined total of the vote than they ever have had in history? We are amongst the happiest people on earth, we have a great economy yet we are turning away from the parties that delivered it? I am not sure this all stacks up Hound.

4

General discussion / Re: Is FF gone as a party?

« on: April 14, 2021, 04:36:15 PM »

What sort of economic policy would SF run?

You won’t get an answer to that from a SF supporter.
Someone else is going to pay for it, so it really doesn’t matter !

I look forward to seeing what they actually do. They’ll be the biggest part after the next election, absent a complete collapse.
FF and FG should of course not go into coalition with them due to their diametrically opposed policies and strategies. So they’ll need to get the parties of the left to come together, if they don’t get the overall majority. That’ll be interesting.

Any economists out there like to describe the current FFG economic policy?

Well for example, today's news on economics includes:
- projected growth of 4.5% in the economy this year
- despite the damage wrought by Covid, the economy has been resilient and tax income has held up better than expected
- Modified Domestic Demand, which focuses on the domestic economy, is forecast to grow by 2.5% in 2021 and 7.5% next year

Wheres it all going?

5

General discussion / Re: Is FF gone as a party?

« on: April 14, 2021, 01:05:26 PM »

I wonder is this why Itchy was demanding I tell him who I voted for?

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/sinn-fein-under-pressure-to-reveal-location-of-its-secret-voter-database-40306631.html

So sssentially, FFG are outraged that SF have an electronic database of voters? I enjoyed the bit in the article which notes that all parties get an electronic copy of eh....the electoral register of voters.

It's like the Indo have reached peak desperation.

The register is available online, and just consists of a name and area where you live. I think the issue would be if SF is storing personal information about voters on top of just the name. People get annoyed with Big Tech doing that, and advertising tracking companies, and it likely violates GDPR. So it should raise eyebrows if a political party is doing that.

The Data Protection commissioner gave a bollocking to several TDs in the past, I don't see why SF should be any different, and holding the database outside of places respecting GDPR would be definite problem.

It might be interesting to ask SF for a copy of all information held about you.

Why do people quote GDPR as if it is the answer to anything personal data related. Business and organisations are allowed to store personal information which has been captured with the knowledge of the person for its intended uses is legitimate and does not break GDPR rules. You can argue away to your blue in the face about what is a legitimate need for SF to hold certain data but only people in that or any organisation know what the need is for it. Business and organisations also have a legal obligation to protect that data such as ensuring only people who need it have access to it, that the data is stored in a safe and secure manner or that people are not carelessly leaving print outs etc of personal information lying around the place in offices or elsewhere and so forth.

You are forgetting an important formula that is used in the Indo offices which makes your argument void

S + F = BAD

6

General discussion / Re: Is FF gone as a party?

« on: April 13, 2021, 12:30:03 PM »

I wonder is this why Itchy was demanding I tell him who I voted for?

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/sinn-fein-under-pressure-to-reveal-location-of-its-secret-voter-database-40306631.html

I didnt demand anything. You are just too ball-less to say incase we laugh at you voting for a corrupt ex FG minister or a man who got elected to allow a few bog men in Roscommon to cut turf.

BTW - you could stick up two new articles every day from the Indo criticising SF, last week it was some nonsense about their twitter admin living abroad which this week is an important article on plans to make it illegal to have your parties twitter posts from abroad.

7

General discussion / Re: Is FF gone as a party?

« on: April 13, 2021, 10:53:08 AM »

When I read all these long posts I cant help but think that they are all based on the assumption that the rules of the game are the same as before. They are not - social media for one is massive now. Another, traditional media which to date has been aggressively biased against SF will soon realise that they are actually committing suicide doing this. What happens to FFG when Claire Byrne and Miriam O Callaghan start being fair and neutral in their interviews???

There's something you don't have to worry about, the establishment have these people in their back pocket, their A game is the smear campaign and even then its piss poor to average at best

As you say social media is a huge game changer in this day and age and I feel SF have an edge here

O'Callaghan in her haste to sideline fairness and objectivity will do more good for SF than harm, but it is sickening to watch at times, same as that gimp Tubridy

Well it certainly hasnt had the effect they were looking for and instead has damaged these institutions. But when will it dawn on them that the next minister they go with a begging bowl to may be a SF minister?

8

General discussion / Re: Conspiracy Theories

« on: April 13, 2021, 08:59:53 AM »

Is there not missing a whole segment of the triangle for Jim Corr and Gemma O Doherty? Bat Shit Crazy conspiracy theorist I think its called

9

General discussion / Re: Is FF gone as a party?

« on: April 13, 2021, 08:58:05 AM »

Firstly I haven't read all of this thread but a few very general points as a nosey nordie.

FF come across rightly or wrongly as a fly boy party. Their TDs must be 90% male. A lot of their Politicians appear to want to be Politicians for the trappings and standing that goes with it without actually wanting to do any work. That doesn't work nowadays and it is one of the key reasons that their voter base is going to SF. SF know how to be active and be seen in the community.

They seem to be lacking real talent. Donnelly, Foley and Darragh O'Brien just don't seem up to it. Stephen Donnelly is a car crash every time he opens his mouth.

The youth in Ireland would appear to see Housing as one of the key issues in the South, yet this government stopped construction? If they are serious, like really serious about effecting real change to young peoples lives then surely this is an area they make and exception for? That just something simple that demonstrates you're on the side of the people.

SF will win a landslide next time out and who could blame people for voting for them? FF and FG have been terrible at managing certain aspects of the State. Especially housing.

FF are in real bother. If SF can drop the "Up the RA" angle and become a bit more palatable then 55 - 65 seats, maybe even more, is highly likely.

+1
That’s a truly excellent post. I’d only quibble with your assessment of SF’s prospects at the next GE.
I’m not going by my personal views here, btw, I’m looking at the polls.
SF were taken completely by surprise with the returns of the last GE. As someone else pointed out, one of their successful candidates was on holidays on the day of the election. He, and most of the country, hadn’t seen this coming. The hard fact is that  SF did extremely well by default- not on the merits of their policies.
At best, the consensus was that they’d tail in behind FF, FG in that order and a bit of a gap behind the big two.
That is going by polls and the views of political correspondents.
The Bobby Storey episode seems to have done them serious damage- this may only be short term btw. They had been trying to impress on the electorate that they had become a fully constitutional party that had severed its connections with its paramilitary roots. Then along came Bobby Storey and the party reverted to type. Again this isn’t just my opinion, the polls reflected this.
How successful will they be at the next CE?
Again, it’s hard to predict as we have no way of knowing what’s going to happen between the present and the election. However, the party is running neck and neck with FG in current polls and have been so for sometime. (Both are around 32%.)
If that holds true going into the next GE, you would have to fancy FG finishing well ahead.
Why? Because of our Single Transferable Vote system.
SF isn't transfer friendly - a lot of their votes are “plumpers,” People who plump for SF are not inclined to give their lower preference votes to any other candidates - and the same is true in reverse.  Unless SF gets a very high % of first and second preferences, they won’t pick up enough third and lower preferences to stay in the race. The odds are that if a candidate is elected without reaching the quota, it won’t be a SF candidate.
Another big issue is that FG and FF have well established party electoral systems in every constituency in the land. SF is still building a party structure in all electoral areas. It will be a case of waiting and seeing but going by the results of the last GE, I wouldn’t bet the family silver on SF being the biggest party in the republic next time out.

That's well put Lar. Also SF only ran one candidate in each constituency were as FF/FG ran at least 2 so this is one of the main reasons why so many of the SF candidates who were elected did so by topping the poll. Even Mary Lou wasn't confident enough to run a 2nd SF candidate in her own constituency. If they run more candidates they'll split their vote and as Lar pointed out previously thy're not transfer friendly so it will be tough to get 2 candidates elected in alot of constituencies

Should SF run two candidates in a constituency, I'd expect the total SF vote to increase. Should one candidate be eliminated, I'd expect the bulk of the SF candidate's transfers would go to the other SF candidate.

When I read all these long posts I cant help but think that they are all based on the assumption that the rules of the game are the same as before. They are not - social media for one is massive now. Another, traditional media which to date has been aggressively biased against SF will soon realise that they are actually committing suicide doing this. What happens to FFG when Claire Byrne and Miriam O Callaghan start being fair and neutral in their interviews???

10

General discussion / Re: Is FF gone as a party?

« on: April 12, 2021, 11:49:14 AM »

It might upset Itchy and other Shinners but in a democracy people can vote in order of preference for any candidate on the ballot paper.
This applies to Roscommon/Galway as well as all other Constituencies.
Also the ballot is secret and we're under no obligation to accede to Itchy/Shinner demands (no less) to say who we gave our votes to.
Itchy getting very "Sidish" in his generalisations.

Thats all true Rossfan, I just think you are a bit of a coward not telling us. It doesnt upset me in the least, I think our democracy is one of the best their is.  Its not like I know who you are or anything. You go to fair lengths criticising other parties and posters and I suppose one way of preventing anyone shining a light on your own electoral choices is to keep them a secret. But like you say, its up to you if you want to vote No1 for an ex FG corrupt former minister and No2 for a fella who has one interest in politics and that is protecting Turf cutting.

11

General discussion / Re: Is FF gone as a party?

« on: April 12, 2021, 09:35:30 AM »

Tubberman is spot on.
The North has little to do with how most in the 26 Vote.
The 14% new voters SF gained between May 19 and Feb 20 were mainly a dissatisfied 2 fingers to the establishment younger cohort.
FF are still the Builders party going by the Housing Minister's proposed new Legislation.
They may survive as the kingmakers in Coalitions if they can maintain 15 to 20 seats.

Spoken like a true closet FF voter. This is the rare breed I'm telling you about. I dare say Lar is one too. They'll publicly agree on all their ills but when they get into the voting station they'll heat their daddy and grand daddy's whispering to them to tick FF.

The younger generation dont give a shit about this tradition but the FF boys can not bring themselves to face reality and so they talk about losing votes due to protest.

Well Itchy, one more time you are barking up the wrong tree. (And that's not the first time either!)
I voted SF in the last GF.
I taught for years in Finglas and, over the years, many of my past pupils became SF activists and through some of them I got to know Dessie Ellis. Through him I got semi-friendly with MLMD and I generallly trust  her on most things. Buit I am wary of the party's republican past and when I saw the massive turnout for Storey's funeral, with no regard for Covid restrictions, I decided that SF isn't the party for me. The links to the past are still too strong.
With regard to what I have said about SF's showing in the last GF, I ivite you to point out anything I said that is incorrect. Throwing insults all aroud like a windmill in a hurricane is no substitute for cold, hard facts.

If your moral barometer is horrified by people attending a funeral good luck finding someone else to vote for. Homeless crisis, no housing for young people, golfgate it goes on and on.

Here’s the windmill in action again!
I’m still waiting...give me a single instance where you say I was wrong about SF in the last GF. Can’t be simpler than that.
My moral barometer isn’t bothered about funerals one way or the other. But this was no ordinary funeral at no ordinary time and damn well you know it.
Just as you can’t half turn off the gas or half kick someone up the hole, you can’t half observe stated government safety restrictions.

I've no idea what you are asking me to point out to you, what you said about SF in the last GF? What's this about?

As for the funeral, you've just bought a load of propaganda shoved down your throat by the usual suspects. Were you similarly outraged by John Humes funeral for example, or the garda funeral. Its totally up to you who you vote for but voting because of a funeral ranks up there as one of the daftest reasons I've heard yet.

What has John Hume's funeral got to do with alll this? Sf preached one thing about Covid restrictions but on this occasion practiced something else.
This is what I said about SF in my first post:I personally like MLMD but I don’t think SF is anywhere near becoming the dominant force in the republic- not yet anyway.
Coming into the last GF, they were lagging well behind in the opinion polls. They did very well because FFG was useless. "
And this is what you had to say to Rossfan:
"Spoken like a true closet FF voter. This is the rare breed I'm telling you about. I dare say Lar is one too. "
I have asked you to prove what you have to say about me. You didn't get it from what I had said about SF's current standing in the opinion polls or anywhere else.

Ok, so GF is General Election? You mean GE? No matter

It was presumptuous of me to assume you had been a former FF voter, I based it on nothing more than your history of posts and your estimated age. No more. If I was incorrect, and you have never voted FF/FG then my apologies. I am not from Glan either.

Regarding funerals, my point was that there have been many embarrassing events on COVID for almost all parties. The government parties have made a hames for more  than anyone else. Our Taoiseach offers zero leadership. We had golf gate. We had the storey funeral then which was blown up by a media who is totally in bed with FFG. So one parties slip up (for want of a better word) was blown up 10 times the level of other parties. I threw hume and garda funerals in to show just how difficult it is to control funerals of people. For whats its worth I think SF were very wrong to support that funeral. However, would I stop voting for them based on just that when all the other parties have been up to just as bad if not worse - No.

Now on Rossfan. He declines to confirm who he voted for. Well one of the independents was Denis Naughton for example. A man of FG stock. A man who was a minister and had to resign over in appropriate meetings with bidders for the national broadband plan. He came in No 2 in the polls in Roscommon/Galway. A bit like Michael Lowry, it doesnt matter to some people the calibre of who is voted in as long as they "look after" you.

12

General discussion / Re: Is FF gone as a party?

« on: April 11, 2021, 11:14:59 PM »

Tubberman is spot on.
The North has little to do with how most in the 26 Vote.
The 14% new voters SF gained between May 19 and Feb 20 were mainly a dissatisfied 2 fingers to the establishment younger cohort.
FF are still the Builders party going by the Housing Minister's proposed new Legislation.
They may survive as the kingmakers in Coalitions if they can maintain 15 to 20 seats.

Spoken like a true closet FF voter. This is the rare breed I'm telling you about. I dare say Lar is one too. They'll publicly agree on all their ills but when they get into the voting station they'll heat their daddy and grand daddy's whispering to them to tick FF.

The younger generation dont give a shit about this tradition but the FF boys can not bring themselves to face reality and so they talk about losing votes due to protest.

Well Itchy, one more time you are barking up the wrong tree. (And that's not the first time either!)
I voted SF in the last GF.
I taught for years in Finglas and, over the years, many of my past pupils became SF activists and through some of them I got to know Dessie Ellis. Through him I got semi-friendly with MLMD and I generallly trust  her on most things. Buit I am wary of the party's republican past and when I saw the massive turnout for Storey's funeral, with no regard for Covid restrictions, I decided that SF isn't the party for me. The links to the past are still too strong.
With regard to what I have said about SF's showing in the last GF, I ivite you to point out anything I said that is incorrect. Throwing insults all aroud like a windmill in a hurricane is no substitute for cold, hard facts.

If your moral barometer is horrified by people attending a funeral good luck finding someone else to vote for. Homeless crisis, no housing for young people, golfgate it goes on and on.

Here’s the windmill in action again!
I’m still waiting...give me a single instance where you say I was wrong about SF in the last GF. Can’t be simpler than that.
My moral barometer isn’t bothered about funerals one way or the other. But this was no ordinary funeral at no ordinary time and damn well you know it.
Just as you can’t half turn off the gas or half kick someone up the hole, you can’t half observe stated government safety restrictions.

I've no idea what you are asking me to point out to you, what you said about SF in the last GF? What's this about?

As for the funeral, you've just bought a load of propaganda shoved down your throat by the usual suspects. Were you similarly outraged by John Humes funeral for example, or the garda funeral. Its totally up to you who you vote for but voting because of a funeral ranks up there as one of the daftest reasons I've heard yet.

13

General discussion / Re: Is FF gone as a party?

« on: April 11, 2021, 10:26:14 PM »

Tubberman is spot on.
The North has little to do with how most in the 26 Vote.
The 14% new voters SF gained between May 19 and Feb 20 were mainly a dissatisfied 2 fingers to the establishment younger cohort.
FF are still the Builders party going by the Housing Minister's proposed new Legislation.
They may survive as the kingmakers in Coalitions if they can maintain 15 to 20 seats.

Spoken like a true closet FF voter. This is the rare breed I'm telling you about. I dare say Lar is one too. They'll publicly agree on all their ills but when they get into the voting station they'll heat their daddy and grand daddy's whispering to them to tick FF.

The younger generation dont give a shit about this tradition but the FF boys can not bring themselves to face reality and so they talk about losing votes due to protest.

Well Itchy, one more time you are barking up the wrong tree. (And that's not the first time either!)
I voted SF in the last GF.
I taught for years in Finglas and, over the years, many of my past pupils became SF activists and through some of them I got to know Dessie Ellis. Through him I got semi-friendly with MLMD and I generallly trust  her on most things. Buit I am wary of the party's republican past and when I saw the massive turnout for Storey's funeral, with no regard for Covid restrictions, I decided that SF isn't the party for me. The links to the past are still too strong.
With regard to what I have said about SF's showing in the last GF, I ivite you to point out anything I said that is incorrect. Throwing insults all aroud like a windmill in a hurricane is no substitute for cold, hard facts.

If your moral barometer is horrified by people attending a funeral good luck finding someone else to vote for. Homeless crisis, no housing for young people, golfgate it goes on and on.

14

General discussion / Re: Is FF gone as a party?

« on: April 11, 2021, 08:07:27 PM »

When I was young I would have jumped for joy if FF was wiped out: they stood for everything I saw bad about Ireland: a land of brown envelopes, too much power for the church, the narrow mindedness that blocked divorce in 1986, awful planning which had its apotheosis in ghost estates, zombie hotels, and bank bailouts, and of course high emigration of youth. That’s a bygone Ireland fir the most part so it doesn’t seem quite the celebration now. Ireland is a centrist country so a centrist party could always make a comeback. Fine Gael seemed dead and buried at one stage and those of us who were Labour voters at time thought Ireland was about to go Left/Right and to a more adversarial two party parliament like UK. But Irish people are not as binary as those who study politics in places like UCD and Trinity like to think. Of course they are thinking the same again with Left Right Sinn Fein/FG battles of the future. FG did come back from dead all those years ago by cornering a lot of the Libertarian voter, liberal on social issues, and liberal on free market economics, and retaining gentleman farmers down the country. FF however are badly lost at moment, but it is nothing a new charismatic leader could not solve. The bastards.

Well its true that they have without doubt (and leaving party allegiances asdide) the worst leader they have ever had and the worst Taoiseach the country ever has seen, missing in action in a global pandemic. But where will this new charasmatic leader come from, I dont see anything but the same old same old in the party ranks. And thats a good thing.

15

General discussion / Re: Is FF gone as a party?

« on: April 11, 2021, 07:34:40 PM »

You justr cannot be serious! The sight of little Aaron, a five year old, having to eat his dinner off a pavement in Dublin cost FG thousands of votes.  There wasn't a shred of concern for the homeless and FG had a totally ineffectual mimistert, Eoghan Murphy, who was losing hands down to the Sinn Fein spokesman on houising.
I mean alll this happened in the very recent past  and there's any amount of links you can reference.
The aspersions you cast on the homeless are without foundation- if you google a few reports in any half decent   newspaper, you won't have to trawl far to get the truth.
FG did not cause the homeless situation in the fierst place. There had been a lack of social housing for years before they took over but, by God, they made a bad situation much worse.
And another thing, the oul' platitude that FG was always ready to do their public duty and were ever ready to step in and restore the country's finances after a spell of FF mismanagement at the helm doesn't stand up to scrutiny because every time they succeeded FF in government they got dumped on their arses next time around!
Enda was the first FG taoiseach to win a second time in ofice.

And why does Aaron have to eat his dinner off the footpath in the first place? What were Mammy (and Daddy if he was lucky) doing about it? What were SF going to do about it, with their money-tree economics? Who was minding the kids when those two hit off to Dubai for 'cosmetic surgery' last week? When it came to doing the time for it, they objected, saying there was no-one to mind them. Of course, provision has to be made for providing emergency accommodation and housing for genuine cases. How many times do you read of addicts having beds in hostels and preferring to sleeping rough instead. There simply has to be more of an onus on people in this nation to look out for themselves and not to be encouraged to look for the easy way out of social welfare and free housing constantly.

Spoken like a true FG man. I'd prefer to take my information about the terrible increases in homelessness and the reason for same from the many heros on the ground dealing with it. Using an obscure example to try and paint a general picture is the stuff of FG.