Do we need a new political party to represent responsible people?

[Brendan Burgess]

I was appalled by the last government's reckless financial management. With the economy booming, artificially high corporation tax takes, low unemployment, we just about managed to balance the government's books. We made no progress on reducing government debt. They have committed to wasting billions on rural broadband when we will need those people to build houses. And they introduced rent controls when they knew that would reduce the supply of rental accommodation. They made an unsustainable pension system worse by extending it to self-employed people who contribute 4% a year in PRSI.

But Fianna Fáil wouldn't have been any more responsible. They insisted on higher pension payments when the pensions system is already unsustainable.

So we ended up with an election characterised by auction politics. And Sinn Féin won the auction by outbidding the others with borrowed money.

I would like to vote for a party which says

1. We will cut taxes for people who work and cut social welfare for people who don't.
2. We will convert the prsi paid by people and their employers into an account in their own name. Their retirement date and amount of pension will be determined by how much they have in their pension fund. People who have depended on social welfare their whole life will no longer get the same pensions and benefits in retirement as people who have worked all their life.
3. Convert all public sector and politicians' pensions to generous defined contribution schemes
4. We will prioritise low paid workers in the allocation of social housing. People who are not working will be allocated social housing wherever in the country it is cheapest to buy or build
5. If people are not working, we will not give them rent assistance to live in a Rent Pressure Zone. We will only help them outside the high demand areas. This will bring down rents for everyone.
6. The 10,000 people living on their own in 2,3 and 4 bed social houses will be asked to share with others or else vacate them.
7. We will help people who want to provide their own housing rather than penalising them. We will abolish VAT, development levies and social housing requirements on starter homes. We will allow people to borrow the deposit for their first home from their pension fund.
8. Instead of spending €450k to buy a privately built house for social housing, we will sell off high value social housing to the highest bidder and use the proceeds to build more social housing wherever it is cheapest.
9. We will help people who are having difficulty with their mortgage payments who are making a serious effort to pay, but we will speed up the repossession of for those borrowers who are paying nothing and making no effort.
10. We will stop demonising good landlords. Phase out rent controls as rents will fall when the state stops paying rent in RPZs for people who are not working. Limit the RTB to resolving disputes, but scrap all the other bureaucracy such as registering tenancies. Help tenants who have difficulty paying their rent, but evict tenants who make no effort.
11. We admit that it's very difficult for the public service to run a good hospital system. And throwing public money at it hasn't worked.
12. We will charge people for healthcare in a public hospital.
13. We will encourage people who can afford it to pay for their own private healthcare and we won't demonise them for doing so.
14. People who can afford to do so, should pay in full for their own carers and their own nursing homes.
15. Take a big knife to cutting out whole departments and bodies which do nothing except
16. Give the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council or the Central Bank the authority to set the overall budget policy - a budget deficit or budget surplus as they deem appropriate. The government would set its own tax and spending decisions within those limits.

 

[Eireog007]

I was appalled by the last government's reckless financial management. With the economy booming, artificially high corporation tax takes, low unemployment, we just about managed to balance the government's books. We made no progress on reducing government debt. They have committed to wasting billions on rural broadband when we will need those people to build houses. And they introduced rent controls when they knew that would reduce the supply of rental accommodation.

But Fianna Fáil wouldn't have been any more responsible. They insisted on higher pension payments when the pensions system is already unsustainable.

So we ended up with an election characterised by auction politics. And Sinn Féin won the auction by outbidding the others with borrowed money.

I would like to vote for a party which says

1. We will cut taxes for people who work and cut social welfare for people who don't.
2. We will convert the prsi paid by people and their employers into an account in their own name. Their retirement date and amount of pension will be determined by how much they have in their pension fund. People who have depended on social welfare their whole life will no longer get the same pensions and benefits in retirement as people who have worked all their life.
3. Convert all public sector and politicians' pensions to generous defined contribution schemes
4. We will prioritise low paid workers in the allocation of social housing. People who are not working will be allocated social housing wherever in the country it is cheapest to buy or build
5. If people are not working, we will not give them rent assistance to live in a Rent Pressure Zone. We will only help them outside the high demand areas. This will bring down rents for everyone.
6. The 10,000 people living on their own in 2,3 and 4 bed social houses will be asked to share with others or else vacate them.
7. We will help people who want to provide their own housing rather than penalising them. We will abolish VAT, development levies and social housing requirements on starter homes. We will allow people to borrow the deposit for their first home from their pension fund.
8. Instead of spending €450k to buy a privately built house for social housing, we will sell off high value social housing to the highest bidder and use the proceeds to build more social housing wherever it is cheapest.
9. We will help people who are having difficulty with their mortgage payments who are making a serious effort to pay, but we will speed up the repossession of for those borrowers who are paying nothing and making no effort.
10. We admit that it's very difficult for the public service to run a good hospital system.
11. We will charge people for healthcare in a public hospital.
12. We will encourage people who can afford it to pay for their own private healthcare and we won't demonise them for doing so.
13. People who can afford to do so, should pay in full for their own carers and their own nursing homes.
14. Take a big knife to cutting out whole departments and bodies which do nothing except
15. Give the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council the authority to set the overall budget policy. The government would set its own tax and spending decisions within those limits.

I don’t fully agree with your healthcare policies but in relation to everything else sign me up.

 

[zephyro]

Would also like to vote for such a party @Brendan Burgess but don't see how it would get any more than a tiny number of votes, it seems very clear from a review of Irish politics over the last 20 years that the vast majority of the electorate here consists of very irresponsible people. The politicians are only doing and saying what they feel (almost certainly correctly) the majority of their potential voters want after all.

As someone with a public profile though, how would you feel about being one of the co-founders of this new party?

 

[Sophrosyne]

it seems very clear from a review of Irish politics over the last 20 years that the vast majority of the electorate here consists of very irresponsible people.

If that were the case, then a party for "responsible people" would be rather a dead duck.

 

[EmmDee]

I was appalled by the last government's reckless financial management. With the economy booming, artificially high corporation tax takes, low unemployment, we just about managed to balance the government's books. We made no progress on reducing government debt. They have committed to wasting billions on rural broadband when we will need those people to build houses. And they introduced rent controls when they knew that would reduce the supply of rental accommodation.

But Fianna Fáil wouldn't have been any more responsible. They insisted on higher pension payments when the pensions system is already unsustainable.

So we ended up with an election characterised by auction politics. And Sinn Féin won the auction by outbidding the others with borrowed money.

I would like to vote for a party which says

1. We will cut taxes for people who work and cut social welfare for people who don't.
2. We will convert the prsi paid by people and their employers into an account in their own name. Their retirement date and amount of pension will be determined by how much they have in their pension fund. People who have depended on social welfare their whole life will no longer get the same pensions and benefits in retirement as people who have worked all their life.
3. Convert all public sector and politicians' pensions to generous defined contribution schemes
4. We will prioritise low paid workers in the allocation of social housing. People who are not working will be allocated social housing wherever in the country it is cheapest to buy or build
5. If people are not working, we will not give them rent assistance to live in a Rent Pressure Zone. We will only help them outside the high demand areas. This will bring down rents for everyone.
6. The 10,000 people living on their own in 2,3 and 4 bed social houses will be asked to share with others or else vacate them.
7. We will help people who want to provide their own housing rather than penalising them. We will abolish VAT, development levies and social housing requirements on starter homes. We will allow people to borrow the deposit for their first home from their pension fund.
8. Instead of spending €450k to buy a privately built house for social housing, we will sell off high value social housing to the highest bidder and use the proceeds to build more social housing wherever it is cheapest.
9. We will help people who are having difficulty with their mortgage payments who are making a serious effort to pay, but we will speed up the repossession of for those borrowers who are paying nothing and making no effort.
10. We admit that it's very difficult for the public service to run a good hospital system.
11. We will charge people for healthcare in a public hospital.
12. We will encourage people who can afford it to pay for their own private healthcare and we won't demonise them for doing so.
13. People who can afford to do so, should pay in full for their own carers and their own nursing homes.
14. Take a big knife to cutting out whole departments and bodies which do nothing except
15. Give the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council the authority to set the overall budget policy. The government would set its own tax and spending decisions within those limits.

Maybe call it something catchy... Show how forward thinking it was and differentiate it from populists like the Shimmers... "Progressive Democrats" maybe?

 

[Sunny]

New parties are near impossible to set up. Would be better if one of the main parties copped themselves on. The one thing I hate is all this talk about right and left wing politics. It doesn't exist in Ireland. We have some of the highest social transfers in the developed world and from listening to people, it sounds like we have been run by right wing fascist nuts since the foundation of the State.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

New parties are near impossible to set up. Would be better if one of the main parties copped themselves on.

Very good point. The gap in the market for responsible economic management is empty. Fine Gael should fill it. But they are just as irresponsible as the rest.

I would like to see a new party set up by non-politicians so that they would not fall into the parish pump politics and populism forced on TDs.

TDs should be national legislators and not social welfare and housing consultants.

But the difficulty in setting up a new party should not stop people from trying.

Brendan

 

[odyssey06]

I hope that this drubbing for FG and if big spenders get in like SF might get FG to cop on that their 'natural audience' is responsible economic management. You've never going to outbid SF so don't get into half hearted auction politics.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

"Progressive Democrats" maybe?

The PDs showed that there was a market for responsible economic management.

But they also showed that it was very difficult to sustain it.

Brendan

 

[WolfeTone]

Maybe call it something catchy

Renua Renewed?

Sorry, thats awful.

Unfortunately, the first problem would be to counter the variance of opinion in the electorate that applies different slants to the definition of the word 'responsible'

So from my perspective, perhaps unsurprisingly, the list of points above range mostly in the irresponsible to unconstitutional category.

As mentioned by another poster, only likely to get a tiny number of votes.

 

[Firefly]

I would like to see a new party set up by non-politicians so that they would not fall into the parish pump politics and populism forced on TDs.

How about setting up a Policies Commission made up of economists, sociologist and policy experts. Any promises / ideas by politicians would have to be analysed and rubber-stamped by this commission before being presented to the people for consideration...

 

[Firefly]

Brendan,

I agree with most of your proposals. If we were setting up a new country from scratch I think these would be good ideas, however people have just become too accustomed to getting other people to pay for things that they currently have. There would be uproar trying to implement most of these things....the level of dependency is just too deep rooted.

 

[elacsaplau]

The PDs showed that there was a market for responsible economic management.

Weren't dem de boys in coalition with FF from 1997 to 2009? Is it even possible for an economy to have been managed worse than during that period?

 

[Deiseblue]

Do you intend to start such a party Brendan ?
After all you're a non politician who presumably would not fall into the traps of populism and localised politics and despite the difficulties inherent in starting a new party you feel this option should be pursued.
Or are you happy to leave the difficulty of starting a new political party to others who may not follow the entirety of your agenda ?

 

[joe sod]

Wasn't Renua that party formed by lucinda creighton, I think anything like that is doomed to failure in this current wave of populism which has been building for a good few years now. I think it is necessary for that wave to peak and then crash before it will be popular enough. In any case FF and FG will go back to that territory anyway, already it looks like they are preparing for that by letting SF have the reigns of power now.

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

Boss does your resettlement of the poorer classes to the nether regions not smack of ethnic cleansing?

 

[Purple]

Renewa was a socially conservative party. There's no real appetite for that.
As long as the mechanisms of the State fail to deliver critical services efficiently we will have strong support for far left or far right parties. SF's success is a failure of the centre.

I would certainly vote for a socially progressive and economically competent party but history has shown that the electorate punishes economically responsible parties and rewards auction politics.

 

[Sunny]

Boss does your resettlement of the poorer classes to the nether regions not smack of ethnic cleansing?

We will call it in decentralisation on the brochure though! Ethnic Cleansing apparently doesn't play well in the polls. Snowflake generation and all...

At the very least we should be looking to legislate a debt brake like in Germany. Politicians have proven they are likes kids in a sweet shop so lets remove the temptation away from them....

 

[Purple]

Boss does your resettlement of the poorer classes to the nether regions not smack of ethnic cleansing?

Yep, in the longer term we'd get more socially marginalised ghettos. I'm not a fan of that idea.
I'd also pump money into education and while charging rich people much higher fees to send their kids to 3rd level I'd also pay people from socially deprived backgrounds to go to 3rd level. Maybe full fees plus €150 a week on top of their welfare. I'd also have free childcare for those with kids attending 3rd level. Education treats the root cause of poverty, welfare treats the symptoms.

 

[john luc]

Would changing the prsi/universal tax into a personnel health plan be a way to go. Then encourage the hospitals to moved to a business type model and so allow the customer a choice using their personnel health plan.