Well Sinn Fein is more or less what you’re looking for there.
Unfortunately, they just will not drop their petty crusade to rip Northern Ireland out of the UK.

Oh, plus the murder and terrorism and bombing and whatnot.

I’d love to vote for them, but it’s just not going to happen with them in their current form.

Do you mean something like the PDs – if so – have you not being paying attention these last 20 years or so?

Is that the same Sinn Féin Daniel that voted FOR the bank guarantee day one back in September 2008?

Who admits to voting YES FOR LISBON YES FOR JOBS now? Ireland’s sovereignty and Independence is gone now, get used to it. The Irish constitution is worthless, nobody took it away from you…Irish people voted for it

How exactly did the Lisbon treaty affect our sovereignty or independence? I think you’ll find that it was the deal made with the EU/IMF (which the public did not have a say in) that eroded our independence. If anything, lisbon, had it lived up to it’s purpose of speeding up decision make within the larger EU, should have enabled our glorious leaders to actually do something about the crisis rather then reacting (badly) everytime things get worse. The anti Lisbon crowd never mentioned giving up our sovereignty, they said it would lead to a European army, which already existed, and the right to abortion, which I support.

It also said that it would prevent the bigger countries calling the shots……oh dear!

It was well known that Fine Gael and Labour would have to pursue the same policies – I think the votes for FG and Labour were understandable wishful thinking on the part of a lot of people. Maybe a golden rule – never trust a politician in the run up to an election!

I have to agree with you Spud, but the problem is who do we vote for? I swore I’d never vote for FF again, and I won’t so that leaves these gobshites, SF (sorry, I just cant do that), the PD’s (don’t make me laugh), the Greens (haaaaa haa haa, hoooo. Sorry) whats left is independents or smaller parties. So, who DO we vote for?

Enda and his 5 Point Plan still have a 66% approval rating with the Irish… lol Only in Ireland, then again only in Ireland would a nation willingly sign away their Independence and Sovereignty because um, politicians told them it would get them jobs lol

I’d say a lot of people voted labour expecting them to lead a strong, largely left opposition rather then joining forces with a party whose ideals are the opposite of theirs!

lol, if ya didn’t laugh you’d cry :-D

How is it that the common sense of the average person is so lacking in our elected representatives? All legal contracts can be renegotiated if the circumstances call for it but the civil servants have so much power and our govt are such cowards out to look after themselves that the obvious will never happen. Totally agree with your suggestions and add to that a wealth tax on personal assets of over a million, decent wages for frontline workers with a pay reduction and then freeze on public sector managerial salaries. The CP agreement needs to be gotten rid of asap. If a company gets into trouble it restructures and reduces payroll and it certainly doesn’t continue to give incremental pay increases regardless of performance. This agreement is holding Ireland to ransom with the sheer volume of debt it causes. As for the councils dead right get rid of them more bureaucratic nonsense that costs the tax payer money.

Agree with in principle with 1, 3 and 4 but have issues with 2 and 5.
2. Are you suggesting a flat 50% tax on incomes over €100k, meaning take home of €50k for these people. If that’s the case then where’s the incentive to do these jobs, many of which (leaving it vague as I don’t know every case) are quite demanding and require very long hours. Yes €50k net if enough for people to live on however it would stop the best applying for these roles (not necessarily getting them though it seems). I’d have reservations. Taxing the portion over €100,000 at 50% though (which is likely what you are suggesting) is very much a move I would support.

5. Abolish all town councils and amalgamate some smaller councils yes. 5 regional councils, no. It would inevitably leave huge areas of rural Ireland unrepresented. With proper political reform stopping TD’s doing councillor’s jobs (single seat STV constituencies) as well as a functional Seanad with more power. open to all to vote on using a list system, with half of it up for election at the same time as local elections, it would give a lot more responsibility and use to the councils. A slashing of the number of council officials (as part of your point 4) would further save on the council bills and allow commercial rates to be reduced, promoting local business.

To clarify the higher rate of tax is on earnings over 100,000 anything under would be taxed at the lower rates. Also a reduction of 1% on both lower tax bands which would obviously benefit low and middle earners. Anyone earning over 100,000 would also benefit from the reduced rate on this but the higher percentage paid would still bring in more revenue while giving lower earners more disposable income which would in turn help the economy giving a boost to jobs etc.

That is an excellent point niall, I hope they have included some clause for ‘if’ otherwise we are up the creek. You can bet this will be approved today.

Of course they haven’t

Any chance they will guarntee to stop robbing the Irish people to pay private debt?

Here’s a nice interview with Ólafur Ragnar Grimsson, just so everyone has a reasonable picture of what a politician who represents the people looks and acts like:

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/countingthecost/2011/11/20111112112247893482.html

Paul does your planet move or is it an optical illusion?

I been hoping things would move eventually, but it appears things are stagnant.

So when does 1916 “the sequel” start then?

@ paul. Idiotics mass suicide isnt the way to go this time I think.

@Sean But this time Irish people voted to give away their Sovereignty and Independence, only country in the world to do so….oh how the world laughs

If Labour pull out of Government soon before too much collateral damage is done to them, we could see a Lab/SF government very soon.

So all you need to gain office is the right people, the right policies and the right manifesto. Wonder why no one has tried that before?

Unfortunately the truth is stranger than fiction and the sheeple wont believe it or can’t handle it. Your party will quite quickly become the conspiracy theory party.. You can’t just tell people the truth. They have to want it first and be open-minded enough to understand it. Lets try an experiment thumbs down anybody who think the events in EU are a long planed financial coup by the banking elite to take control of Europe or thumbs up if it just incompetence and greed..

It’s not their crusade for a united Ireland that’s a worry. I think most people would support that, the differences would surround how and when. The real worry is Sinn Fein’s ultra hard left policies. If they had their way we would be a cross between Cuba and North Korea.

@ peter. I do agree that their policies can be loony however I wouldnt mind seeing then as a minority as their more stupid policies could be muted by the bigger party while still giving a leftist edge to the whole affair.

However I do get the feeling none of them have actually any hope of being good managers. It’s just their outlook is hard-left. So it might add balance in small amount.

A ‘Sovereign’ Ireland? lol I guess that’s why they are so pro EU :D

Pat… Theyre not? Also this ultra hard left nonsense simply isnt true- you have the ULA calling them Centre-right and FG calling them ultra hard left while theyre left wing, not hard left not ultra left just… Left. Since when is capping PUBLIC sectors pay at a generous 100,000 euro ultra hard left… I call it common sense