The Presidential Election

[beanaseireann]

Anyone interested ?
Personally I think they should abolish the office.
Far too expensive to waste run for just a figurehead.
No candidate appeals to me.

None appeal to me including Michael D.

I'm the same honeyrider

The office is necessary, and the president and council of state have a role - it's not all rubber stamping and ribbon cutting. The president is supposed to be the ultimate representative if the people and the guardian of the Constitution.

I am a big fan of Michael D personally.

Michael D is the only credible candidate imo. Plus my kids love him and keep checking that I’ll vote for him!!

Though I do think 14 years is too long.

We should have a referendum to reduce to 5 years, then if someone gets in twice it will be for a max of 5 years. There is some terrible ageism in the campaign , Casey is channeling his inner Trump, and will probably pick up votes this week with his comments.

The idea of a seven year term is to leave a sitting president irrespective of general elections and changes of government.

Casey is a shit-stirring charlatan, and it is a sad thing that someone like him should get airspace. The only thing more despicable than Trump is a Trump wannabe.

I'm uninspired by the lot of them except Casey who I agree is repulsive. I like Michael D in theory but he seems to have gained a smugness over the last few years which I find off-putting. That said, he's the only one of them with the knowledge and understanding the role needs. I agree with math that we need the Presidency, but we need better quality people who want to be in it. I'll vote for him for lack of a better alternative.

Michael D was always smug. He came across badly on Pat Kenny's radio show last week though he'll still walk the election.

Quite a number of people that I've been talking to yesterday and today are saying they're going to vote for Casey as he's not afraid of ruffling the PC brigade.

I agree with Caseys comments about Travellers. Does anyone else?

I can see why people might vote for him now - like a protest vote.

Michael D has had seven years - that's a very long time... And what has he done? What will he be remembered for? I think it's time for a change..

Michael D has had seven years - that's a very long time... And what has he done?
Michael D has spent a shed load of the taxpayer's money, money which he will not account for. He and his wife have lived the high life and he hasn't done much else imo. He'll get to do it again for another 7 years, without apology, if he is allowed.

I think Michael D and the wife are on a real cushy number.
He didn't speak out enough against the awful austerity measures we had to put up with. He could have stuck his neck out.
Now those same people who led us into recession - bankers, developers, auctioneers are back making shed loads of money again.
The Irish Times had a feature on the big players in Irish property. Sickening to see some names who were there pre recession now on huge money/ bonuses.
I never liked him as a politician anyway.
He's a real smoked salmon socialist.

Michael D has always been a champagne socialist. He's such a hypocrite and didn't hold back in the past saying the Aras shouldn't be a retirement home for retired politicians yet there he is ensuring that's what it is.

How arrogant of him not to reveal his spending until after the election.

It's not the role of the president to speak out on anything. The role of the president is defined in the Constitution. S/he is not some sort of national fairy godmother.

One former president , Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, sent what was then the Emergency Powers Bill 1976, to the Supreme Court because he had been advised and he himself felt after serious deliberation that the bill infringed on the rights of citizens. This decision (under Article 26 of the Constitution) was called a 'thundering disgrace' by the minister for Defence of the time (Paddy Donegan, FG) and resigned because of the minister's disrespect for the office and the role of president. President O Dalaigh had done exactly what the Constitution allowed him to do, in consultation with the Council of State, and got shit thrown at him and at his office by a very arrogant member of a very knee jerk reactionary government. It was very clear from letters exchanged between the minister and the president immediately afterwards that Donegan was not sorry for his words and had no respect for the president himself, the role of president or the office of the presidency. The minister stayed in office, enjoying the support of the government - Liam Cosgrave refused to accept his resignation, so the president resigned instead.
www.irishtimes.com/news/thundering-disgrace-led-to-resignation-1.1043251

I suspect a lot of people are fed up to the back teeth of Travellers.
BUT - Ireland cannot stand by while a group of people are demonised and othered as the Travellers now are.

Have we learned nothing from all the revelations of recent years, about groupthink and the terrible results of shunning entire groups of people?

It was unmarried mothers for decades and the unfortunate children of the poor, and now it's the Travellers who are fair game.

Ireland has to do better. The way forward is emphatically not the shameful dragging of public discourse into the gutter, and cheap shots at entire groups of people.

And my point about O Dalaigh is that it's a serious office and a serious role, and it should be reserved for serious and very well educated people. Not former Eurovision winners or any other frivolous chancers.

Cearbhall O Dalaigh was a lawyer of international renown. He had been Attorney General, a justice of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice, and a judge of the European Court of Justice.

mathanxiety
'It's not the role of the President to speak out on anything....'
That's why I said he could have stuck his neck out.
I said it to his face too, quietly as I shook his hand.
He was at something and I asked him to stick up for the ordinary people who were hurting when he's meet with the government.
Fat lot of good it did.

Casey has said that he understands the role of President and that he won't be giving his opinion if he were elected - though I wonder if that's possible given his outspoken nature!

The situation in Tipperary is ridiculous with the Travellers refusing to move into the house unless stables are provided - this is madness... it's no wonder that people are delighted Casey has stuck his head above the parapet and said what a lot of people are thinking.

Of course we shouldn't demonise a group of people but at the same time I don't think the behaviour of a group of people should be ignored because they're 'an ethnic minority'.

Thank you math for speaking sense.

The president is an important role but most of its actions are invisible to the Irish public. As the head of state, there are lots of delicate international diplomacy shenanigans where the president acts as the symbol of the state. For instance, Michael D was the first ever Irish president to make an official state visit to the UK, which was in return for the queen's visit to Ireland: one couldn't have happened without the other, and symbolic steps like these are important to relations between the two countries. There are lots of other similar visits to countries where the president's presence (or receiving another head of state in the Áras) is used to seal a trade or other cooperations agreement.

Did Higgins do a good job on this front? By all accounts, yes. Could someone else have done as good a job? Probably. It's not a unique skill.

But I want my head of state to have dignity and a gravitas that befits the role. Higgins does - I've met him and seen him speak in person, and he carries it off well.

The other candidates just don't. Peter Casey definitely does not: he's a grasping, unethical typical wannabe Gordon Gecko and I would be embarrassed to have him represent Ireland as head of state (so I'm glad he's just suspended his campaign). Ditto Seán Gallagher and Gavin Duffy. Liadh Ní Riada is completely inexperienced and out because I will never vote SF. Joan Freeman had potential but she voted against repealing the 8th so she can feck off.

Aaaaaand we're back to Higgins.

Higgins was on Sean O Rourke yesterday morning. He explained why he had not addressed the houses of the oireachtas during the period of austerity and mentioned he had addressed the European Parliament during that time.

I looked up the speech here
www.thejournal.ie/michael-d-higgins-speech-european-parliament-873314-Apr2013/?amp=1

Extract:
We cannot, however, ignore the fact that European citizens are suffering the consequences of actions and opinions of bodies such as rating agencies, which, unlike Parliaments, are unaccountable. Many of our citizens regard the response to the crisis as disparate, sometimes delayed, not equal to the urgency of the task and showing insufficient solidarity.

They feel that the economic narrative of recent years has been driven by dry technical concerns; for example, by calculations geared primarily by a consideration of the impact on speculative markets, rather than by sufficient compassion and empathy with the predicament of European citizens who are members of a union.

In facing up to the challenges Europe currently faces, particularly in relation to unemployment, we cannot afford to place our singular trust in a version of a logistical, economic theory whose assumptions are questionable and indifferent to social consequences in terms of their outcome. Instead of a discourse that might define Europe as simply an economic space of contestation between the strong and the weak, our citizens yearn for the language of solidarity, of cohesion, for a generous inclusive rhetoric that is appropriate to an evolving political union.

He loves the stage .
Could he not have got Enda on a one to one and said the Irish people are hurting, feck the bond holders - Look after the Irish people.
How is Iceland doing ?
I'm no economist but even I could see that if the bailed out (by the taxpayer ) banks turfed people out of their homes the taxpayer would pick up the tab. And they have. Paying huge amounts for emergency sccommodation.
Then vulture funds are allowed come in and more or less do what they want.
And we're surprised a government minister had dinners and other social occasions with a the bidder for the broadband contract.

He may well have done that, beanaseireann. But it would be unconstitutional to do this on an official level or by means of an open letter in the newspapers, etc, and he would be rightly told to shove it.

If you want policy changed, then vote for someone other than the people who bailed out the banks and threw the poor under the bus at the next GE. The Dail is where it's at in terms of political change or action on individual aspects of policy.

The president acts as the check and balance to the activities of the Dail if a bill has a whiff of unconstitutionality to it and can only refer a bill to the Supreme Court, not just fold his or her arms and refuse to sign it. (As in the Emergency Powers Act, which O Dalaigh signed despite his legal misgivings, which should not have cost him his office).

Of course we shouldn't demonise a group of people but at the same time I don't think the behaviour of a group of people should be ignored because they're 'an ethnic minority'.

Oh yes we do demonise a group of people. It is one of the aspects of Irish society that leaps from the pages of the history books. There is always someone being kicked in the teeth in Ireland.

Anti-social behaviour can't be ignored.
But attention to it should not come in the form of adding fuel to the fire as a means of getting votes. That is cheap and despicable, and it drags public discourse to the lowest level. When public discourse is degraded to the level where certain groups are targeted publicly and on a national level it always contributes to the rise of authoritarianism and it always results in situations deteriorating.

There is no situation involving individual Travellers (or individuals from any other ethnic group or any individual anywhere in Ireland for that matter) that can't be resolved individually on a local level. It requires professionalism on the part of local politicians, local Gardai, local social services/social workers, education officials, healthcare admin, etc.

There are lots of models available to choose from when it comes to increasing engagement, increasing compliance, producing effective compromises and maintaining better community relations in the future. Voters can put pressure on local officials and ask for answers about the effectiveness of approaches used - a cost benefit analysis of the sledgehammer approach vs more subtle or holistic approaches. Or voters can trot out and cast a vote for the likes of Casey who is all mouth and no expertise, and see where that gets them. Lashing out is not a substitute for engaging the brain and the heart.

'Oh yes' should read 'But'

I was watching Sunday AM this morning and they were discussing Michael D's love of the high life on the tax payer, using the government jet to fly to Belfast, getting work done on his private house in Galway and the OPW paying for it, plus his refusal for transparency when it comes to expenses.

I think voting for Michael D is a bit like not shopping around for car insurance...! The alternatives at this time aren't great though!

I am surprised at the polls saying he is polling so highly?

Michael d is like a garden gnome. I agree, there is no one decent in the running. I still don't know who I'll vote for. I might just close my eyes and see who's name the pen lands on.