Election 2024 . Not that one, though the Trump victory is sure to influence some of what we are threatened and promised. presumably we'll have a date soon.

[DeanElderberry]

Any wise thoughts?

At a minimum I'd say. If you do that then the resentment of asylum seekers is automatically reduced. It is idle to pretend there is no conflict of interest : that just plays into the hands of the far right. The present system is corrupt and inefficient insofar as there even is a system at all. It seems to consist of shovelling hundreds of millions of euros into the hands of gombeen landlords. In return for which they cram asylum seekers into 19th century convents or backpacker hostels. Like social welfare for millionaires. While schools and clinics deal with the 'oncost'. What , precisely, is leftwing about supporting this idiocy?
But yes build houses and plenty of them - or the Gilroys of this world will be back in 4 years.

Why this singling out of Foley, and McEntee? They were both implementing government manifesto policies, including pro-trans ones, and so were the rest of the ministers, who also didn't do such a stellar job either, now did they?

But they don't get called out so much...well Varadkar and O'Gorman do, for some reason. And there's Cabbagehead Ryan of course. But apart from them...Cabinet responsibility applies equally to all minsters.

What is it with McEntee in particular? Anybody who says 'she is the worst minister for justice ever' seem to be ignoring the likes of Padraig Flynn, and Ray Burke, who was actually jailed FFS!
By all means criticise the policies, and the performance of ministers, but not the OTT stuff against individual members of the government.

You could make a bingo card of the predictable 'thick as mince' 'totally out of her depth' 'only got the job because she's a woman/diversity tick-box exercise/who her father was' etc. Not even original.

Meanwhile, offline, back in the real world, the electors didn't agree and thought they were OK enough to give them another run at it.

McEntee was, I thought, quite good when she worked with Coveney during the Brexit negotiations. I thought she looked like a very promising politician
But she did appear to be totally out of her depth in Justice. Very focused on issues that weren't a priority for most people. During the Referendum debates this year she really seemed to demonstrate a lack of knowledge that was a worry. She also tried to push through a hate speech law that failed to define hate, and was based on the feelings of the perceived victim. . It also left it on the person accused of hating someone to be presumed guilty rather than presumed innocent. She is still determined to push this through early next year.
Her walking through the streets of Dublin proclaiming it to be safe while surrounded by Gardai was very poor optics. Calling the rioters scumbags was another faux pas which failed to recognise the genuine anger of the people living in the area.
I can't think of any real achievements she made while Minister for Justice.
Norma Foley has actually achieved a lot more. A first time TD, she had a difficult task trying to manage the education of tens of thousands of children during Covid. She made mistakes but I think overall she didn't do anything too bad.
With hindsight the closing of schools will have affected the mental health of a lot of children but she was working under the public health advice at the time.
She has introduced free school books, free primary school lunches and reduced the cost of school transport which is a good record I think. But the SPHE curriculum and pushing of GI has tarnished her record in my opinion. I am not sure if she really believes in it though as she always seems to be a lot more conservative than her record suggests. But I don't think she will row back on it either.

Also McEntee was very poor earlier this week on Upfront. She isn't a great communicator and she seemed completely out of her depth against some of the other speakers. Yet, she seems to have good working relationships with her FG colleagues and she is potentially a future leader of the party.
Foley seems to be very unpopular with teachers which isn't great as there are already schools struggling to fill vacant posts.

Went to bed thinking I'd wake up and find out who 'my' TDs would be, slept very badly and now find we're going to have

a

Complete recount . . . .

I wonder what if anything the crafting ladies will have to say about it all.

Well it appears your chickens didn't come home to roost.

😂 😂

Stephen Donnelly is now gone. Probably the biggest name to go in the election.

I had great hopes for him years ago. Very articulate. But then he jumped ship to FG from the Social Democrats. His diagnosis of our Social and economic ills was good . His solution : more of the same please.

@Marblesbackagain don't rub it in or anything 🤣

I'm personally shocked considering groundswell of support on this thread.

I know someone who went to school with him. He said that he is highly intelligent. But that doesn't translate into being a good politician. I get the impression that he isn't really a people person.

I think he lost credibility when he jumped to FF. And he does come across a bit detached, he's not really what you'd call a peoples' person (I've met him).

I think this is in bad spirit. Plenty of people are disappointed and bemused with the outcome (myself included)

All we can do now is hope that the 'new government' feel a sense of urgency to get to work and make the difference - as they promised in their manifestos!

This type of thing is in bad spirit

People are bemused a party who wants to undo progress is not voted in? Well that aligns to the critical thinking skills on show here.

Maybe just maybe this forum very aggressive vocal members take some reflection.

I am just relieved that my opinion that there's a lot less hate and ignorance in the world held true.

I don’t think that is in bad spirit. It’s an accurate reflection of the hypocrisy of the social democrats. Apparently sex isn’t immutable and can change and people can pick their own genders and men can be women when they put on a dress yet somehow when Holly had her baby she knew exactly what sex she was. One rule for her and one rule for society apparently. One can only hope having a daughter makes her reflect on how her views and parties agenda that they are pushing are detrimental to women and girls.

@Marblesbackagain it’s not hate and ignorance to want to protect women’s spaces. And bringing up critical thinking skills is laughable when you think of the cognitive dissonance needed to convince yourself a man in a dress is a woman.

You don't know who I voted for! And I believe my critical thinking skills are ok! I wasn't thinking just of Aontu, many people will be bemused at the overall result for a variety of reasons.

I just feel it's in bad taste to mock someone who was hoping for something that now hasn't happened.

Great to see the social democrats doing so well, and labour too. My highlight of this election was Marie Sherlock winning her seat in Dublin Central.

So it looks like a FF/FG/Labour coalition probably with a rotating taoiseach.

Great to have stability in the government.
They have a great mandate and a healthy budget so hopefully they can make some positive changes to make Ireland a better place for all of us.

I gave my number 1 to an Aontu in a constituency where the candidate hadn't a hope. But I was happy to do so. My number 2 went to an Independent who is GC and won a seat. I was happy with the outcome.
For the first time ever I didn't vote number 1 or 2 to FG and FG didn't win a seat in my area.

There was never any doubt about who was going to form the next government. It was always going to be FF/FG with a 3rd party. As I said upthread I would prefer that to SF but I don't know if it's good for the country to see the 2 biggest parties forming such a cartel.

Aontu were never going to get 10 seats but they came close to 4 which would have been excellent. I think they will be happy enough with the result and their increase in votes.
They also qualify for funding which is very important for a small party.
More important than that, for me, the Greens who really pushed GI are gone.
In the case of Holly Cairns, she tweeted something about having an abortion for every time RTE reported on the Papal Concave.
As someone who voted to repeal I can't stand that type of divisive rhetoric. That applies to Aontu too. Though the Aontu one is far less offensive than what Holly has posted in the past.

That tweet is 14 years old. I do not find Hollys tweet offensive but I can understand that some would and I respect that. I do not like this divisive rhetoric from either side.

I do think there is a place for Aontu as as catholic conservative party and I am surprised they did not do better. I think they were lacking a lot on areas such as climate and the economy. I think some supporters are viewed as very agressive on social media
& link themselves too closely with far right candidates.

I do think those Holly Cairns tweets were out of order. Giving her the benefit of the doubt as she was very young then and hopefully has matured in outlook. (It’s not what she thinks btw, it’s feeling the need to tweet those comments I have a problem with.)

. I do not like this divisive rhetoric from either side
Yet you post laughing emojis at a triumphalist post and call a party that isn't too different from FF/FG 10 years ago far right.
Holly's post is old but she wasn't young when she wrote it. It says a lot about her in my opinion. I could never imagine writing something like that and I am happy she has delivered her beautiful baby.
Anyway, hopefully we will have stability for 5 years. We will need it with the economic turbulence that will come with Trump eyeing up Ireland economy.

This was to do with a previous poster who was very agressive on this thread and other threads rather than the Aontu result.