Politicians are a reflection of the folks who elected them. Dail Eireann needs to be reformed so that there are less TD's per head of population - so that 'parish pump politics' can be brought to an end.Fianna Fail are not a political party, they are a cult. And they have destroyed Ireland, again.
A Labour/FG government almost bankrupt the country in the 80's they over borrowed so much.
The 1980s in the Republic of Ireland was one of the state's bleakest times. An extremely irresponsible budget by the majority Fianna Fáil government in 1977, which included abolition of car tax and borrowing to fund current spending, combined with some global economic problems to ruin the Irish economy for most of the 1980s, causing high unemployment and mass emigration. The Charles Haughey and Garret FitzGerald governments made this bad situation much worse with more massive borrowing and tax rates as high as 60% (with one Fine Gael finance minister suggesting people were not being taxed enough). After joining the ERM in 1979, Ireland was also saddled for much of the 1980s with an overvalued currency, which wasn't rectified until the 1986 devaluation. Much of the capital borrowed in the 1980s went towards propping up this overvalued currency. Foreign investment, in the form of risk capital, was discouraged by all the evident difficulties.
This was also an era of political instability and extreme political corruption, with power alternating between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, with some governments not even lasting a year, and in one case, three elections in eighteen months. The problems were eventually dealt with starting in 1987 under a minority Fianna Fáil government but with help from the opposition led by Alan Dukes of Fine Gael under what was known as the "Tallaght Strategy", with economic reform, tax cuts, welfare reform, more competition and a reduction in borrowing to fund current spending. This policy was largely continued by succeeding governments. Considerable support from the European Union was the only positive aspect.
From gombeen to incompetent if that makes you happy..
I am not a FF supporter.
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Simon Coveney's behaviour today has cost this country
I dont know where you get your info from. You must be in FG to be so defensive and blinkered. I have heard it nowhere that the interview was picked up internationally before Coveney's comments.
pat leahy, who was there, confirmed yesterday that the reuters correspondent was filing this story well before coveney did anything.
fianna fail's attempt to blame this entire thing on simon coveney (who i don't have a massive amount of time for myself) is risible and embarrassing. it wasn't coveney doing philip walton impressions in the bar at 3am.
It's a pity he is not in opposition at the moment, or Alan Dukes.
I cannot understand the FF vs FG vs Lab arguments in this thread.
THEY ARE ALL THE SAME. FF may have been in power but the others were not opposing any of the measures that have led to the worst of the problems.
We need a National Government with subject matter experts appointed as ministers (we will probably have to recruit beyond Dail Eireann to get this).
We also need to radically overhaul polictics to cut the numbers and try to ensure a better quality of person is elected (rather than the gombeen councillers we have right now). The country is shagged and it will not get better without drastic change. Sometimes I think we would be better off just asking the EU to run the place for us.
I agree on the part that any type of government would have led to the same problems we are facing now. The reason being that governments are inherently focused on interfering and intervening in the market. I don't know whether a national government is a solution, unless you first introduce new laws, at the highest level, i.e. constitution, that limit the powers of government and specifically prohibit economic interventions.I cannot understand the FF vs FG vs Lab arguments in this thread.
THEY ARE ALL THE SAME. FF may have been in power but the others were not opposing any of the measures that have led to the worst of the problems.
We need a National Government with subject matter experts appointed as ministers (we will probably have to recruit beyond Dail Eireann to get this).
We also need to radically overhaul polictics to cut the numbers and try to ensure a better quality of person is elected (rather than the gombeen councillers we have right now). The country is shagged and it will not get better without drastic change. Sometimes I think we would be better off just asking the EU to run the place for us.
I agree, especially after a news piece on RTE last night saying something like "it has been officially denied that the IMF will have to be called in". As the saying goes, do not believe anything until it has been officially denied.The IMF will eventually be here and we wont know what hit us. The civil service unions can protest all the like then. But sadly all we do is the usual.. The blame game.
To cut social welfare payments they need to bring in rent control. Something like the French system where it’s set by zone and square foot as the mentality here is that the person renting from you should be paying your mortgage.
Lack of price control in housing is what caused the current crisis. By keeping rental prices below mortgage rates it attracts long term investors with capital rather than investors without capital that cannot weather a downturn.Price controls, including rent control, always fail in the long run. Because they result in a reduced profit opportunity you will see less investors.
How do you figure this one out? What caused the crisis was government intervention and too much easy credit made available by central banks.Lack of price control in housing is what caused the current crisis.
No, this is not correct. Keeping rental prices low will keep away all investors, especially long term investors who will seek higher profits elsewhere.By keeping rental prices below mortgage rates it attracts long term investors with capital rather than investors without capital that cannot weather a downturn.
To cut social welfare payments they need to bring in rent control.
Lack of price control in housing is what caused the current crisis.
How do you figure this one out? What caused the crisis was government intervention and too much easy credit made available by central banks.
No, this is not correct. Keeping rental prices low will keep away all investors, especially long term investors who will seek higher profits elsewhere.
Easy credit was available in many other countries too it was our governments lack of action to control unsustainable house prices and actively encouraging them that compounded this.