26 County General Election 2020

[armaghniac]

Genuinely not having a go, as I'm not particularly up-to-speed on Irish politics and affairs, but how can there be full employment with rising levels of homelessness?
Something doesn't add up there.

Perhaps economics wasn't your strongest subject. The people in the good jobs outbid people in the less well paid jobs for the available accommodation. Employment has risen quickly in recent years and wages have risen, the amount of accommodation couldn't increase as quickly.

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

Briege Quinn on the Stephen Nolan show this morning calling on Conor Murphy to quit and Doug Beattie and Jim Allister on now doing the same. The story has now grown legs since last night and Conor Murphy could now be under serious pressure.

Odious man

[macdanger2]

How exactly did FF and FG "create the pension crisis"?
By not legalising Euthanasia?
By not making Euthanasia compulsory?

Jases Angelo you're shinnerbotism at its worst

Well first of all, I'd like to draw attention to the idiocy of this post.

You seem to be alluding to the fact that the pension crisis was a magical creation that happened out of thin air? The contradiction here is that you are ashamed to admit your FF/FG allegiance, yet you are one of their most ardent apologists here, consistently out here defending the indefensible for them.

The pensions crisis arose from gross mismanagement by both FF/FG. You obviously seem to be under the delusion that government makes no policy on pension contributions and entitlements, that government takes no role in fiscal management and that government and that government takes no responsibility for forward planning and contingencies when it comes to meeting those entitlements. A government in your eyes does not take any accountability for the gross incompetence and abuse of power that FF/FG have had throughout their control on the state.

The real roots of the pension issue are the bloated public sector pensions that the two establishment parties introduced and failed to address before it was too late and a pension crisis ensued.

Wink wink, nudge nudge politics that FF and FG engage in is the type of government that will bring you from one scandal into the next and I guess they're chuffed to know they'll still have a few village idiots like yourself to put a tick beside them in the ballot box.

The fact you're spouting on about euthanasia shows the level of intelligence of your average FF/FG hick.

It's a global issue largely related to demographic changes i.e. people living longer and having fewer children, therefore more pensioners with less working people to support them.
It is not an Irish or FF/FG specific issue.
The SF "solution" that "demographics will look after it" is laughable! The demographic changes are what has caused the problem! Mary-Lou reckons having SF in office will mean we'll suddenly revert to having 5 kids per household.

That's not true though, it's a bloated public service pension that is a crux of the matter and neither FF or FG took any steps to tackle the system until it was too late.

The old scheme, which applies to those hired before 2013, offers those on full 40-year service a pension equal to 50 per cent of final salary, index linked to future public pay increases and with a tax-free lump sum of 1½ times annual salary on retirement.

So someone on around €66,000 with full service would get a tax-free lump sum of around €100,000 on departure, and then a generous pension entitlement. This has generally been an unfunded pay-as-you scheme, though some groups, including teachers, have paid contributions. It is, on any calculation, an extraordinary perk.

First, a new scheme was created, the so-called single scheme, which pared back the entitlements for those joining after January 1st, 2013. Pensions for newer entrants are based on career average earnings, and are index-linked based on inflation rather than tied to public sector wage rises.

Second, a pension-related deduction was introduced for public servants as one of the crisis measures, and this was subsequently transformed – in slightly less onerous form – into an ongoing additional contribution to their pension (the so-called ACS).

This has left pre-2013 public servants with a sweet deal despite the fact they are paying a bit more. The civil service pension scheme website, for example, calculates that to buy the benefits available to a higher executive officer on retirement would require someone in the private sector to have a pension pot of €690,000, while for a principal officer the sum rises to €1.34 million.

Those public sector pension levels are obscene compared to the rest of Europe.

I don't disagree with you on the pensions but is any party willing to address it?

[Cavan19]

Genuinely not having a go, as I'm not particularly up-to-speed on Irish politics and affairs, but how can there be full employment with rising levels of homelessness?
Something doesn't add up there.

Because not everyone who is homeless lives on the street.  A 30 year old living with their parents can be classed as homeless. Britney who is fond of a length and has 3 kids with 3 different men and living with mammy and daddy is classified as homeless along with her kids.

[mrdeeds]

Sinn Fein are running a candidate in Cavan Monaghan who married a Garda killer while he was in jail. To say the modern Sinn Fein are not really connected with violence would be wrong.

[Baile Brigín 2]

Especially as we'll all be living in €65,000 houses, will have no tax to pay, everything will be free.......
Why didnt someone think of all this before?
Who said 1977?

Lad, what slightly irritates me is this snobbery around SF's lack of financial know how. I mean when you consider the mess the country is in today, homelessness, a childrens hospital out of control and hospital services that are almost 3rd world (to name a few) brought to you by the financial experts in FF and FG. Who are they or their supporters to throw stones. They have royally fucked the country. For christ sake FF ran it to bankruptcy and had the IMF in and their leader was a minister in that government!

You've never been to a 3rd world if you think the health service, level of homelessness and what is being spent on a children's hospital are 3rd world.

Read what I wrote again,  slowly

Health service will only get worse under SF, because they will damage the economy. Anti-European, anti-business, anti-entrepreneur = anti-jobs.
We've full employment, tax takes are booming. Tax rates are extremely low for the low paid and progressive (high) for the well paid. Minimum wage is second highest in Europe.
Health service is a long way short, but Slaintecare is the best plan we've had. Throwing money at it on it's own won't work, but finally we've a thought-out plan that should improve things considerably.

Genuinely not having a go, as I'm not particularly up-to-speed on Irish politics and affairs, but how can there be full employment with rising levels of homelessness?
Something doesn't add up there.

Not enough houses are being built, specially social and affordable housing. So rents go up. This means that those with money get first dibs and everyone below them settles for a level below what they used to, meaning eventually working families pop out the bottom.

This situation suits FG as landlords make like bandits and those impacted can't vote them out as they are homeless

[macdanger2]

Genuinely not having a go, as I'm not particularly up-to-speed on Irish politics and affairs, but how can there be full employment with rising levels of homelessness?
Something doesn't add up there.

A shortage of housing means that rents have gone through the roof so that even people with jobs may not be able to afford rent / may have f*ck all leftover after paying rent. Increasing the supply of housing (increased supply to meet demand will reduce rent) is basically the only way to resolve this but that takes time

[brokencrossbar1]

Briege Quinn on the Stephen Nolan show this morning calling on Conor Murphy to quit and Doug Beattie and Jim Allister on now doing the same. The story has now grown legs since last night and Conor Murphy could now be under serious pressure.

Jim Allister is on the Nolan Show???


FFS. People still listen to that tripe?

Whether it is opportunistic or not it does show how the media set the news agenda. They can dictate what and how news is reported. The Paul Quinn case has lay dormant for 13 years but has been resurrected a few days out from an election and I am sure there are others that could have been brought up. SF were always going to have to deal with the remnants of the troubles for a generation or more and will probably now suffer at the polling booths as a result which was always the intention. Paul Quinn's death has effectively been used as a political football for those who aren't really genuinely bothered about his family's plight for the rest of the time.

The use of the killing of Paul Quinn is opportunistic to say the least. As you say no one iota of concern have people got for poor Briege Quinn nor do they actually know the facts. I need to be careful what I say but in terms of what was said by Murphy all I'll say is that not everything is black and white. The Quinn family are being used and that's the disgusting thing about it all.

[Angelo]

Genuinely not having a go, as I'm not particularly up-to-speed on Irish politics and affairs, but how can there be full employment with rising levels of homelessness?
Something doesn't add up there.

Perhaps economics wasn't your strongest subject. The people in the good jobs outbid people in the less well paid jobs for the available accommodation. Employment has risen quickly in recent years and wages have risen, the amount of accommodation couldn't increase as quickly.

The problem is the rental market. Private landlords are making an absolute killing out of it, young people who are working in decent jobs are paying extortionate rents and unable to get access to mortgages to afford a house of their own so they will continue to be drained by the rental market. FF/FG policy has incentivised wealthy people and vulture funds to hoard residential property as investments as they can hugely profit out of a crazy rental market.

What policy have government brought in to regulate and control this rental market? Very little and the little they have has been full of loopholes as the rental market continues to rise and landlords continue to find ways to increase the rental prices.

There is also the little commented about fact that there are over 60 sitting FF/FG TDs who are residential landlords and who stand to benefit from an out of control rental market.

[armaghniac]

Those public sector pension levels are obscene compared to the rest of Europe.

The Irish public sector pension scheme is fairly typical of Europe and less generous than many places, e.g. Germany. The salaries in Ireland may be higher in some cases and of course politicians did get ridiculous pensions. 
The problem in Ireland is not public service pensions, but that so many in the private sector do not have pensions and the general pension is not properly pay related. 

[Angelo]

How exactly did FF and FG "create the pension crisis"?
By not legalising Euthanasia?
By not making Euthanasia compulsory?

Jases Angelo you're shinnerbotism at its worst

Well first of all, I'd like to draw attention to the idiocy of this post.

You seem to be alluding to the fact that the pension crisis was a magical creation that happened out of thin air? The contradiction here is that you are ashamed to admit your FF/FG allegiance, yet you are one of their most ardent apologists here, consistently out here defending the indefensible for them.

The pensions crisis arose from gross mismanagement by both FF/FG. You obviously seem to be under the delusion that government makes no policy on pension contributions and entitlements, that government takes no role in fiscal management and that government and that government takes no responsibility for forward planning and contingencies when it comes to meeting those entitlements. A government in your eyes does not take any accountability for the gross incompetence and abuse of power that FF/FG have had throughout their control on the state.

The real roots of the pension issue are the bloated public sector pensions that the two establishment parties introduced and failed to address before it was too late and a pension crisis ensued.

Wink wink, nudge nudge politics that FF and FG engage in is the type of government that will bring you from one scandal into the next and I guess they're chuffed to know they'll still have a few village idiots like yourself to put a tick beside them in the ballot box.

The fact you're spouting on about euthanasia shows the level of intelligence of your average FF/FG hick.

It's a global issue largely related to demographic changes i.e. people living longer and having fewer children, therefore more pensioners with less working people to support them.
It is not an Irish or FF/FG specific issue.
The SF "solution" that "demographics will look after it" is laughable! The demographic changes are what has caused the problem! Mary-Lou reckons having SF in office will mean we'll suddenly revert to having 5 kids per household.

That's not true though, it's a bloated public service pension that is a crux of the matter and neither FF or FG took any steps to tackle the system until it was too late.

The old scheme, which applies to those hired before 2013, offers those on full 40-year service a pension equal to 50 per cent of final salary, index linked to future public pay increases and with a tax-free lump sum of 1½ times annual salary on retirement.

So someone on around €66,000 with full service would get a tax-free lump sum of around €100,000 on departure, and then a generous pension entitlement. This has generally been an unfunded pay-as-you scheme, though some groups, including teachers, have paid contributions. It is, on any calculation, an extraordinary perk.

First, a new scheme was created, the so-called single scheme, which pared back the entitlements for those joining after January 1st, 2013. Pensions for newer entrants are based on career average earnings, and are index-linked based on inflation rather than tied to public sector wage rises.

Second, a pension-related deduction was introduced for public servants as one of the crisis measures, and this was subsequently transformed – in slightly less onerous form – into an ongoing additional contribution to their pension (the so-called ACS).

This has left pre-2013 public servants with a sweet deal despite the fact they are paying a bit more. The civil service pension scheme website, for example, calculates that to buy the benefits available to a higher executive officer on retirement would require someone in the private sector to have a pension pot of €690,000, while for a principal officer the sum rises to €1.34 million.

Those public sector pension levels are obscene compared to the rest of Europe.

I don't disagree with you on the pensions but is any party willing to address it?

I don't know.

But I think pulling up SF on it when ignoring the parties that caused it the first place is as blinkered as it gets.

[five points]

The use of the killing of Paul Quinn is opportunistic to say the least. As you say no one iota of concern have people got for poor Briege Quinn nor do they actually know the facts. I need to be careful what I say but in terms of what was said by Murphy all I'll say is that not everything is black and white. The Quinn family are being used and that's the disgusting thing about it all.

Briege Quinn has been blue in the face for years calling for political accountability for the torture and murder of her son.

[Angelo]

Those public sector pension levels are obscene compared to the rest of Europe.

The Irish public sector pension scheme is fairly typical of Europe and less generous than many places, e.g. Germany. The salaries in Ireland may be higher in some cases and of course politicians did get ridiculous pensions. 
The problem in Ireland is not public service pensions, but that so many in the private sector do not have pensions and the general pension is not properly pay related.

The problem is that for decades the 26 had bloated public sector pension entitlements that were completely unfunded by public sector workers. That is absolute incompetence of the highest order from the two establishment parties and the reason for the current crisis.

[north_antrim_hound]

shock horror, the establishment and there national media lapdogs are trying to smear the new kid in the playground. The Quinn family will feel justified to bring it up now when opinion suggests SF are on the cusp but as snap says the West Brit control freaks won't give a toss for the Quinn case in a weeks time. Lost a lot of respect for Miriam O Callaghan last night, seem intent on badgering Mc Donald at every turn and constantly talking over her. Hope the southern electorate see all this for what it is and vote accordingly.

[Angelo]

Sinn Fein are running a candidate in Cavan Monaghan who married a Garda killer while he was in jail. To say the modern Sinn Fein are not really connected with violence would be wrong.

As have the Labour party in the past.