Leo steppin down

[Palatine]

Bureaucratic nonsense.
Unrealistic building rules
Frankly insane taxation
Bureaucratic planning

Makes building the level of housing required impossible.

You can't encourage anyone to do anything by increasing bureaucracy and taxation

We can't afford a housing crash. It's already not viable to build proper affordable homes, pay tax and compete with current prices

The main criticism I'd have of FG is they were more concerned about out-shinning SF than delivering for people who get up off their arses and pay for everything in this country. They buckled on the co-living developments and now we have thousands of people who might have benefited from them living in hotels instead. The RTB were given more powers and became ever more useless, spending millions on a website that doesn't bloody work. They funded Fr Peter McVerry only for him to be pushing policies which continue to drive down rental supply. They introduced RPZ which are a disaster and actually driving up rents. All of this done, against FG instincts because they were afraid of SF. Taxation rates up over 50% still with the government taking more of people's bonuses than they themselves get. So, yeah, I actually agree with you there.

Only, I don't see anyone who didn't say "this is too much". They all said "this isn't enough". They all want more bureaucracy and more taxation.

[Rooney2808]

How on earth is he 'unelected'???? He, like every other TD, was elected by the people. The Taoiseach is elected by Dail Eireann. A Taoiseach is never chosen by the people. That's our system.

I know how the system works.
If there was a general election tomorrow the people know that if they vote FF then they are voting for Michael Martin to be Taoiseach, if they vote for Sinn Fein then they are voting for Mary Lou to be Taoiseach etc.
Who was the last Taoiseach that wasn't leader of their political party?

[peregine]

Harris got elected in 2020 on the 15th count (Wicklow) just over the quota by a few votes. Sorry just checked, without reaching the quota.

[Airbusdriver]

Harris got elected in 2020 on the 15th count (Wicklow) just over the quota by a few votes. Sorry just checked, without reaching the quota.

That's interesting. I had a look and being elected without reaching a quota appears to be quite common. Others include Pascal Donohoe, Norma Foley, Michael McGrath, Holly Cairns, Mick Barry, Gino Kenny, Jim O'Callaghan, Thomas Byrne, Stephen Donnelly, James Browne etc, etc. I never realised there were ao many of them!!

[Palatine]

Harris got elected in 2020 on the 15th count (Wicklow) just over the quota by a few votes. Sorry just checked, without reaching the quota.

Because FG ran 1 candidate too many.

Quotas and counts point to efficiency of electoral strategy, not the popularity of the candidate.

You want to get the most candidates over the line for the available votes.

FG had 18.3k first preference votes. SF had 17.3k first preference votes. Both are enough in that constiuency to bank 2 seats.

Both parties ended up with 1 seat.

FG had too few votes to get 3 candidates elected.

SF had too many votes. They had no 2nd candidate to absorb those, so most of their votes helped get a Social Democrat across the line.

That's all it means, and the online SF babblebags should stop being disingenuous about that.

[Palatine]

That's interesting. I had a look and being elected without reaching a quota appears to be quite common. Others include Pascal Donohoe, Norma Foley, Michael McGrath, Holly Cairns, Mick Barry, Gino Kenny, Jim O'Callaghan, Thomas Byrne, Stephen Donnelly, James Browne etc, etc. I never realised there were ao many of them!!

Because it's a meaningless metric that tells you more about how many candidates ran in total and for each party. That's it.

[Airbusdriver]

Because it's a meaningless metric that tells you more about how many candidates ran in total and for each party. That's it.

That's true. There are peculiarities. I remember Bertie getting a massive vote in 2007, so big his surplus got his running mate in, Cyprian Brady, who only got less than a 1,000 first preference votes.

[Palatine]

That's true. There are peculiarities. I remember Bertie getting a massive vote in 2007, so big his surplus got his running mate in, Cyprian Brady, who only got less than a 1,000 first preference votes.

Yep. To be fair, that's pretty shit vote management as well. You don't want your running mate to be eliminated before you get over the line to transfer your votes to them. On that occasion it had a lot to do with the tribunal. I remember a taxi driver asking me what I thought about Bertie's "unfair treatment" at the tribunal and I told him I didn't think Bertie was stupid so for a man like him to be taking cash whiparounds with no bank records can only be corruption. Taxi driver wouldn't talk to me after that. He had a hugely loyal following on the Dublin northside that seems weird now considering our complete flip to a teardown culture.

[Waltzingmatilda]

Different gob same agenda.

[WeeJimmy]

Poor Leo, he just like a Rat really jumping from the FG ship before it sinks