Sinn Féin in the lead! FF & FG surprised?! What do you think? Exciting or scary times?!

[Housiemousie]

I have always been a Fine Gael voter. I'm from a long line of FG voters, many active in the party, who would be horrified by how much I want Mary Lou to succeed.

I really want to like Leo. He looks the part but he's not speaking to me. I am self employed in rural Ireland and neither FF or FG have sounded like they know I or any of my family or friends exist in the 20 years I have lived here (having worked abroad for a decade post uni). I even have a soft spot for Micheál Martin (who can resist a Cork accent) But I am not a farmer so he's not representing me either.

So why is Mary Lou so appealing? I couldn't even listen to Gerry Adams. Is it the fact that because she's not northern I'm not thinking IRA? Or because we really have moved past that , or is it that we are so, so sick of the entrenched fat cats of FF and FG that anything (well, almost, you can keep Aontu) will be better?

I'd love to hear I'm not alone in finding this upcoming election more exciting than previous ones.

We'll be back up high on the list of most corrupt countries before you can say up the ra.

Well I hope it's given FG and Labour a good fright but to be honest they're just dismissing it as populism which I don't believe it is from the other left wingers. Pie in the Sky maybe from them. Fianna Fáil would want to cop themselves on and grow up - they're the pits altogether when it comes to populism and they've been beaten at their own game if you take the FG view. I was in my early twenties when the first big giveaway happened earning IR£ 25000 pa and I ended up with about £180 a month more in my pocket. I would have been delighted with 20 quid.

Up shot the price of everything. Out came the credit cards offers and the 100% mortgages and up shot inflation. So Charlie McCreevy decided he'd encourage us ask to save by guaranteeing
the government would pay 25% interest at the end of 5 years. Fucking madness.

Imagine the investment they could have made in communities. There are towns all over Ireland that didn't improve at all under the Celtic Tiger. But the populations were still saddled with the aftermath.

Oh thank goodness the sane people arrived on here yesterday - I was afraid this thread had been taken over (as I believe Facebook had been) by the SF bots.

And don't worry about those young people - the ones who voted for SF have no intention of paying more tax - because the free stuff is going to come from "the Government" and someone else pays their bill (summary of Vox pops this past month with young people intending to vote SF for 100,000 houses in Dublin, beside mammy and an NHS like health system).

There's a great letter in the Irish Times today asking what Sinn Fein did to get such a great result after their poor showing in the local snd European elections.
The letter writer concludes they didnt have to do a lot as the Fg/FF "coalition not a coalition" as he terms it,did most of the work for Sinn Fein by not putting the housing needs of ordinary citizens ahead of large multinational funds and real estate investment trusts.
By not increasing beds, doctors and nurses in the health service.
By being reckless with the peoples taxes - the new childrens hospital and the broadband scheme are cited as examples.
By not building or planning to build enough State owned public housing instead leaving it yo private investors who of course want to maximise profit.
By not taking more positive steps to deal with the homeless crisis.
He concludes that it was not a vote for Sinn Fein but rather, a vote aginst FG and FF.

I think the letter should be compulsory reading for each and every FG, FF and Labour party member.
Thry just might learn something.

True, David McWilliams was saying that the demographic who voted SF aren't necessarily SF voters for life, they just lent their vote to the party proposing to prioritise housing. They're stuck at home with their mums and dads and affordable housing is their priority.

He also said something disparaging about Irish soccer moms which didn't sound right to me. I know he likes to create these little snapshots, working mums who drive a quashquai as the family's second car usually have a foot on the ladder. I don't buy that there are legions of cash strapped quashquai voters worried about housing. They are worried about childcare.

Is that letter subscriber only! @beanaseireann

I think it was a bit of both beanaeireann. People were tired about how the government were wasting money on things like spin doctors, social media, consultants and of course the photocopier. They were horrified to hear Leo going on about how well Ireland was doing while pictures of children and old women eating their dinner on the streets were all over the media. They were angry at the Leos reaction to the homeless man in his tent been swept away and when the the trolley crisis was reported but nothing was done. when he casually replied that young people who couldn't buy/ rent somewhere to live should either emigrate or ask their parents for money, it showed how out of touch he was. They were arrogant to think they could get away with putting the pension up while they themselves could get their well paid pension way earlier. The government missed or completely ignored how angry people were. When groups and people sought help from political groups/ tds, they were mostly ignored, it was SF who replied back, who listened and who promised change. Both FG and FF made promises before which they then went back on, so people have decided to give SF a chance. This is their big moment, I hope they can deliver all their promises but I have my doubts.

FF and FG are two cheeks of the same arse. They have run the country into a shocking state. Look at the state of the HSE for example. SF are offering an alternative and people are desperate for change. So SF are capitalising on it, much like the SNP did in Scotland. However I just can't forget SF's past and have spoken to a lot of people of the same thinking.

And don't worry about those young people - the ones who voted for SF have no intention of paying more tax - because the free stuff is going to come from "the Government" and someone else pays their bill

You realise that the people you're disparaging are paying extortionate rents? They're not wasters looking for handouts.

People of my generation (mid 30s) and younger are not asking for 'someone else to pay their bill.' We're asking for a fair system where we pay our bills and are able to enjoy a decent standard of living in return. It's a basic societal necessity and one that other developed countries manage to afford their citizens.

Our generation feel like we did the right things; studied and worked hard to set ourselves up in life, and yet we're being denied the opportunities previous generations had. We're sick of being gouged. FG and FF have broken the social contract and the electorate has given them a kicking as a result.

Kids want houses but many have no idea how to save. My lovely neighbour said that she opened her sons car and it was full of Costa cups.

Yes, if you put the €3 a day spent on coffee away in a savings account, you'll have a 30k house deposit in no time! Sure it'll only take 27 years.

Condescending boomer bullshit, totally lacking in any sort of understanding of the realities for young people today.

Yeah I know but their response to that was it came from Westminster and they had very little say. There is a pension crisis but when you have tds with huge pay offs, great pensions that they receive years before anyone else telling someone who has worked for 50 odd years to claim job seekers at 65 it is going to cause a public outrage. SF has promised the world in their manifesto, I think they believed they wouldn't be actually in government to deliver it.

I Have three adult kids, two renting in Dublin, one in a commuter town, in house shares. One can't come back to mammy, because the hse hasn't employed anyone in her job for three years. Two can't come back to Mammy because their jobs only exist in Dublin. The youngest works two and a half days a week to pay rent on one room in a small house.
And I don't know how any party can fix this. But I do understand the frustration leading people to vote for a different party.

we're being denied the opportunities previous generations had
Opportunities like having to leave the country to find a job?

Opportunities like having to leave the country to find a job?

Which a huge amount of people my age also had to do after the last recession. I know a few who have done it in recent years too, so that they could actually have a decent standard of living.

This is the thread that keeps on giving. The middle class outraged histrionics are amazing. Keep it up ladies!

Right now the country is doing well economically though - on paper.

Yet homelessness is rife and for many young people home ownership is a distant dream.

It’s about the spoils being divided in a way that feels even slightly ‘fair’. Landlords are raking it in while hard working youngsters with good jobs will never be able to get a deposit together.

And then Leo told them to borrow it from their parents

FF and FG are two cheeks of the same arse.

Phrase of the thread

Thanks for the visual. It will linger. Possibly longer than the next Dáil.

The middle class outraged histrionics are amazing. What are you referring to?

What are you referring to?
Almost the entirety of this thread but I particularly loved the PP who was concerned what Wills and Kate would think at having to meet Mary Lou. That poor person will implode when they realise his granny had Martin Maguiness over for dinner.

My dd1 works in disability services, sadly not in a lovely building as her clients have extreme disabilities and are not served b the nice primary care centre. She fights for her clients and their parents. She is doing a masters part time,paid by herself. She could do a masters funded b the hse, her employer. But they only fund mangement qualifications. Funding was cut last year, she was supposed to do assessments over the summer at weekends, before the school ear began. No assessments were done last year, so the waiting list is now that list plus this year's list.
The parents of those kids are from all classes - nobody wants to have a child who will need to see my daughter. Some of the kids are teenagers - services cut in 2008 and never restored despite promises and billions. Could you blame parents for wanting n alternative government?
(None of my family voted SF, by the way).