Will you vote for Fianna Fail?

[Aoise]

Just posing a question here really to southern voters.  Due to capitalism failing you so badly as is evident by whats happening globally at the minute, would a more leftist party not be an option?  Could it really do any worse than what has happened at the minute?

Instead of blaming one party or Government, is it not possible to just look at the Celtic Tiger as an economic whole and realise that is was doomed to failure from the beginning?  Just wondering what people's opinions are!

[muppet]

The sneaky FF voter, none have the courage to even comment as to why! You'll get the same at the elections too.

Is rising Mayo God Help Us not reason enough?

O don't worry about me I have left the country with hundreds of thousands of others, I can't hack those FF snakes any longer. At least my emmigration helps FF in their OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT POLICY OF EMMIGRATION.

Where'd you end up? Is it nice? Is there any work? Sure if it's all ok we'll all go out there.

The U.K. don't worry another few months/years under Fianna Fail and you won't have to leave to be in the United Kingdom.

Really, I thought it was a FG Mayo TD that stood up in the dail recently and said we should hand the country back to the british queen when her visit happens.

Silly rhetoric from a spoofer. However it is typical of Irish politics that we argue about what an irrelevant someone in the opposition said, while those in power actually hand over sovereignty while denying it.

[bennydorano]

Switch things around and hypothetically imagine FG had been in power for the last 13 years. Do people genuinely believe that things would have worked out much differently?

This is the line FF have been feeding us for the last few years "well we might have fucked it up but it would have been way worse if it was FG"
How?
His could things possibly be worse for Ireland than it is now?

Would FG not be seen as the more further to the right of the 2 parties??  That being the case there's no way on this earth anything would have been different, in theory there would have been even less regulation and I would have said thngs would probably have been worse, but I fail to see how it could be much worse.

[bennydorano]

I think you are kidding yourselves to think anything would have been done differently to any meaningful degree.  Polticians are all brown enveople merchants to some extent.  No way FG would have turned the money tap off either.

[muppet]

Switch things around and hypothetically imagine FG had been in power for the last 13 years. Do people genuinely believe that things would have worked out much differently?

This is the line FF have been feeding us for the last few years "well we might have fucked it up but it would have been way worse if it was FG"
How?
His could things possibly be worse for Ireland than it is now?

Would FG not be seen as the more further to the right of the 2 parties??  That being the case there's no way on this earth anything would have been different, in theory there would have been even less regulation and I would have said thngs would probably have been worse, but I fail to see how it could be much worse.

Ah the old shur there is nothing else so we have to vote FF.

Right wing regulation, or lack thereof, was the PDs territory.

FF were the partnership party which has left the Public Service bill €30 Billion more than the revenue.

Looking back the PDs and FF were a lethal cocktail of the worst of both worlds.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

The sneaky FF voter, none have the courage to even comment as to why! You'll get the same at the elections too.

Is rising Mayo God Help Us not reason enough?

O don't worry about me I have left the country with hundreds of thousands of others, I can't hack those FF snakes any longer. At least my emmigration helps FF in their OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT POLICY OF EMMIGRATION.

So let me get this right, you have abandoned your country and then you choose to come on here to pass comment on those who choose to stay? That seems like the good old fashioned patriotic thing to do alright.

O I get it Ulick you want me to come back and join the other 450,000 on the live register, now that would be really patriotic. I have had to leave the country I love because of those FIANNA FAIL c***ts, I HATE THEM AND AM ANGRY, I NEVER WANTED TO HAVE TO EMMIGRATE, f**k THEM b**tards AND THE HORSE THEY RODE IN ON. IF YOU VOTE FOR THESE PRICKS I HATE YOU TOO.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Switch things around and hypothetically imagine FG had been in power for the last 13 years. Do people genuinely believe that things would have worked out much differently?

This is the line FF have been feeding us for the last few years "well we might have fucked it up but it would have been way worse if it was FG"
How?
His could things possibly be worse for Ireland than it is now?

Its the old Fianna Fail line alright and the Fianna Fail genepool are stupid enough to lap it up, I am always surprised that other voters can fall for it too.

[magpie seanie]

To be honst our whole political system and our society is broken. Fianna Fáil are the biggest example of this because they have had the uncanny knack of being in power for so long. I will never support them again and am embarrassed I did in the past. But the problems run deeper than FF. If they were gone inthe morning someone else would fill the vacuum similarly and the proliferation of idiots in this country would continue to accept it.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

To be honst our whole political system and our society is broken. Fianna Fáil are the biggest example of this because they have had the uncanny knack of being in power for so long. I will never support them again and am embarrassed I did in the past. But the problems run deeper than FF. If they were gone inthe morning someone else would fill the vacuum similarly and the proliferation of idiots in this country would continue to accept it.

You are right Magpie, there are quite a few below standard Candidates/TDs/Senators in all the parties. I think we really need to vote in as soon as possible either Fine Gael, Labour, Sinn Fein (I personally hope not) or a combination of 2 or all 3. I'm not sure I want to see Independents or non-party whip - gene pool Indos. We need to do this to drive Fianna Fail out and keep them out. I am not saying that this is the perfect option this is the only option. There may be a need in the future for new parties (not FF under a different name), an amalgamation or break up of existing parties, but a certain level of reform may be needed in the 3 main (current) opposition parties too. We need to reform the Dail and Seanad (or get rid). We empower local councillors so those who really want to help their fellow Kerryman, Portlaoise woman, Dalkey neighbours etc. can do it at a local level and do not hold back the national agenda. We need to reform our banks, our courts, our education system, our health service (I would love to see us try and move towards an NHS style system, a dream I know), most certainly our political system, certainly our trade unions and public sector. We need to invest in R & D, the sciences and maths. 

[andoireabu]

Not too up on my southern politics. Can someone tell me what the Seanad does?

[INDIANA]

Not too up on my southern politics. Can someone tell me what the Seanad does?

reads legislation for the Dail. In reality it does nothing. It is a massive waste of money. Has no powers. Run by rinky dink wannabe politicians

[andoireabu]

Not too up on my southern politics. Can someone tell me what the Seanad does?

reads legislation for the Dail. In reality it does nothing. It is a massive waste of money. Has no powers. Run by rinky dink wannabe politicians

I'm guessing they don't earn minimum wage either?

[INDIANA]

Not too up on my southern politics. Can someone tell me what the Seanad does?

reads legislation for the Dail. In reality it does nothing. It is a massive waste of money. Has no powers. Run by rinky dink wannabe politicians

I'm guessing they don't earn minimum wage either?

between expenses- 60k easy. in reality its more.

[muppet]

To be honst our whole political system and our society is broken. Fianna Fáil are the biggest example of this because they have had the uncanny knack of being in power for so long. I will never support them again and am embarrassed I did in the past. But the problems run deeper than FF. If they were gone inthe morning someone else would fill the vacuum similarly and the proliferation of idiots in this country would continue to accept it.

This is exactly it. FF are only part of the bigger problem. They simply abuse it better than the other parties.

On a positive note, we now have a real chance though to reform the entire system from top to bottom. Left leaning ''tax the 'rich' (i.e. middle class) and hand it out to our voters policies'' lead to huge waste and inefficient public services and should be ignored (I would argue for free Health and Education, and back to work assistance for the unemployed, but that should be about it).

The chart showing where the money went between 1995 and now was fascinating. More money went to single mothers than went to into construction i§n Health (Hospitals etc.) and Education (Schools). Right leaning tax breaks for big (political) investors hoping benefits 'trickle down' are a large part of what got us into the mess we are in, and can't continue. The cosy relationships between Government and the Unions and in particular between the Government and the media (they were in the bar that night with Cowen and had no intention of reporting it) have to be broken. Even this week we were relying on foreign media to tell us what was actually happening in our own country. What is the point of having freedom of the press if they won't use it properly?

We really need qualified people put in charge of the Ministries and other important positions. Look at Mary Coughlan. Look what Harney has done to Health. Look at Neary the non-regulator.

A smaller Dáil whose function would be to appoint non-political to the important positions would be better than what we have. In Mayo we recently had a County Council made up of mainly Estate Agents. That shite can't go on either. It is like electing very hungry bears to the fishery board.

[muppet]

This is exactly it. FF are only part of the bigger problem. They simply abuse it better than the other parties.

On a positive note, we now have a real chance though to reform the entire system from top to bottom. Left leaning ''tax the 'rich' (i.e. middle class) and hand it out to our voters policies'' lead to huge waste and inefficient public services and should be ignored (I would argue for free Health and Education, and back to work assistance for the unemployed, but that should be about it).

There is a very strange view in Ireland of what left leaning actually is. How can you tax a middle class who have no money? There is a big difference in being left leaning and wanting to tax the middle class.

Zap there are a small amount of very high earners in this country. The left want to increase taxes to tax the 'rich'. The impression/spin given is to tax these people. These very high earners/wealthy individuals usually escape through tax breaks and even if they are hit for the high tax rates there are so few of them that it makes little impact on the State's finances.

The reality is the 'Left' talking about taxing the rich means increasing the top rate of tax. That taxes almost all of the middle class. This increases the tax take enormously because of the huge number of taxpayers it hits. This extra tax then tends to be used for the benefit of precisely those who have not paid it.