You know, two days since the election finished there are people still wondering what went wrong. Most of us know full well what happened. Somebody should tell Mr Varadkar and Mr Martin.
1. Difficulty in acquiring mortgages; even two professional people can't just waltz into a bank or building society anymore. Mortgages are like gold.
2. High Rents, especially in Dublin where the price of renting has soared out of control.
3. Landlords are pulling out of the market and have been for some years. Shortage = Even Higher Rent.
4. Health Service = Poisoned Chalice for years and all the talk about Sláinte Care is stale as we've heard it all before.
5. Universal Social Charge (USC):- Temporary Tax that has become permanent.
6. RetirementAge shoved out to 67/68 by people who can retire much earlier seen as Hypocrisy.
7. Housing Shortage = Another current scandal.
8. Most of us have kids who'll never live beyond an apartment.
9. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been running Ireland Ltd for nearly 100 years. We have full employment and are amongst the wealthiest nations of the world and still most of us don't have a spare bob.
10. Mr Martin and Mr Varadkar tried to brow-beat Ms McDonald live on television. Sorry Lads! This ain't the way to win votes especially when Mary Lou defeated both of you without breaking sweat.
I won't quote each point individually, but here would be my take on them
#1. Central bank limits here not FF/FG
#2. SF will address this by sabotaging the economy. Rents will drop like a stone and we'll all be happy.
#3. If the rents are so high why are landlords leaving the market? Hint, government interference, likely to increase under SF
#4. Do you really think SF would have an iota when it comes to fixing health?
#5. Nothing gets the left as moist as the prospect of raising taxes so I wouldn't expect much change here from SF
#6. SF supported legislation in the North raising the pension age from 65 to 66
#7. Agree with this one. I could see SF building more social houses alright. 2 things of note here (1) it will be interesting to see how the contracts are divvied out and (2) our national debt will increase even further.
#8. That's probably an exaggeration - most people will probably end up in a house but may spend longer in apartments than previously. Interestingly, apartments in europe are a lot more popular.
#9. I would argue that most people are too consumerist in nature these days. Lots of new cars, foreign holidays, full restaurants etc. We seem to have become accustomed to wanting it all. Of course, not everyone. Many don't have a bob, but I'm sure most if pushed could forgo Netflix!
#10. SF totally caught FF/FG on the hop I'll give you that. I would go as far as saying SF caught themselves on the hop as they could have ran way more candidates!