There was a simple solution today. Take from next Mondays schedule what can be taken and stick it in for this afternoon. That was not done & TDS got more time off while still getting the same pay.

Yea because 3 bed semis in Kingswood have wine cellars…. (troll)

Do you have to go to fee paying private school like Murphy to join the Socialist Party?
Genuine question

I see, Beano. You object to any politician who might be well educated? FF supporter, are you?

I’m struggling to see how a politician who clearly had a privileged upbringing is fit to represent the working class people of Tallaght. He doesn’t know what they go through. It reminds me of the good old FF days where country politicians would be wheeled into working class areas a few months before the election, harp on about local issues then as soon as they get elected, are never seen again. Murphy’s Kingswood address is also a load of bull$hit. Is that supposed to fool people into thinking he’s one of us?

I think that should be “schools” Beano,

St Kilians and the Institute or Education no?

I’m struggling to understand what you want people with “privileged upbringings” to do, should they roll around in money whilst laughing at poor people and voting fine gael? Stereotypes do no service in politics & it’s sad you expect paul Murphy to fit one.

amazing how a stupid argument in the Dail has led to one here.

dail sebate has been a farce since fg/laqb took over, so no surprise that they have nothing to talk about and have to go home early

hsh. You might enlighten us as to who else there was to vote for other than those who presented themselves as candidates? Hobson’s choice was offered – how is that the general public’s fault?

ex fg td George lee saw it coming and decided he could not be part of a fg/lab gov who are anything but democratic, he did the decent thing and walked away from fg

If you understood that the voting population is mostly made up of party loyalists and then around 20/30% of those who vote are non-loyalist but either vote because they fall for the spin (such as the elderly who miss out on a lot of political commentary and news available online which we take for granted!) and get their info from RTE and the Indo and they don’t have the exposure to online communities where they can take part in discussions like this.

That means that the main job of election candidates is to feed the bullshit to those vulnerable to media-manipulation and then hope they can make up the rest through uninformed/gullible voters.

So when you say -> ‘We voted them in’ actually no, I didn’t vote FG,FF,Lab or SF, I voted Independents only so my concerns are not necessarily being addressed by our government because my views don’t align with any of the coalition or main opposition parties. So that means me and people who voted in the same vein are not represented equally but proportionately, which in this case means pretty much not at all.

So I will complain that the choices of FG/SF/FF and Lab voters have caused me grief due to the actions of the parties they voted in.

I am perfectly just in complaining that my government is a bag of shit because I didn’t vote for these right-wing psychopaths. I voted against them by voting for leftists/center left’s only whose views aligned with my own.

Very well put Alan.

Let’s run it like a company then, that means let’s scrap inefficiencies and those that don’t contribute. So cut the dole for lifers and gradually decease it over time for everyone else, as is the European norm..

Welfare fraud in Ireland was estimated at 1 billion euro in 2012, in that same year we missed out on up to 5 billion Corp tax, 4 billion financial transactions tax & an unknown figure for tax avoidance via loopholes. Yes welfare reform is welcome but I would be going for the biggest inefficiencies first

A democracy, a society, should not be run like a capitalist company, where profit is the bottom line.

You’re digressing from your socialist/communist speaking points… very Thatcherite of you!

Being left wing isn’t about ramming a particular ideology for the sake of it. It’s about prioritising the needs of the majority rather than the neoliberal ideology with FG of letting the market decide. Take homelessness for example , the left would use the state to solve the issue while FG is letting the market decide, and failing.

Opposition don’t all enter and leave the room at the same time. Many individuals there all morning, switch on oireachtas tv and watch back to 9am. Opposition can’t be “howling in the aisles” given they are the ones requesting things be moved foward. TDs are at home now doing nothing because of FG & LAB, nobody else is at fault.

@ Vote Left

The issue here isn’t just the Gov or just the Opp.

It is idiots on both sides playing “politics” in the worst sense of the word.

We all know Opp would scream blue murder about ramming through legislation if there was a deviation from planned order of events.

We all know Gov will just shrug no matter how valid Opp criticisms are.

And we can all be absolutely certain that they went and had lunch together straight after putting on this show for the cameras.

Well yea because ramming through legislation is wrong. That last paragraph makes no sense, if that was the case then mick Wallace would be having soup with alan shatter while gerry Adams & mairia Cahill have the chats at the table next to em.

@ Vote Left

I’ve got news for you – the row above featured mainly FF and FG – so it is 100% certain they had kissed and made up within minutes.

The Dáil is pure theatre – nothing else.

Sure its possible, both have similar policy & ideology. Mary Lou made a good point, Jonathan O’Brien of SF also said
“I don’t know if your Christmas night out is tonight like and you want a half day or what. But there are various [pieces of] legislation coming before this house and you want to go home.”

Ill bet any amount there was no making up, kissing or lunch to be had after that comment.

fg as gov in charge set the agenda in the dail never mind having sean barrett to enforce their will. so opposition cannot be blamed for any of this fiasco. fg will have you think its everybodies else’s fault which is just disgusting as people go

The dail could certainly do with improvements in all areas, the UK system of debate is certainly more exciting. That said some of the speeches heard in the past 5 years of the dail have been amazing. Take clare daly on repeal the 8th. Gerry Adams on the dail bar. Paul murphy on water charge sign up rate. Ming Flanagan handing the minister the piss water. Tonnes of excellent contributions but you’d need to look further than the 6 o’clock news

Tony Benn would have had a stroke to see Hilary make the speech that he did.

Exactly

Is it any wonder when we elect the likes of Mattie McGrath, Healy-Rae et al.
Most of them are glorified county councillors who are only interested in matters relevant to their constituency rather than engaging with any sort of national policy on anything and then they vote according to how a whip tells them, half the time not even knowing what it is they are voting for! The only exception to this is when a Bill affects either an interest group (i.e. farmers) or their constituency (closing an A&E in Termonfeckin Hospital or whatever) then they suddenly find ‘principles’.
We must have one of the most lacklustre parliaments in the western world. Not only for the calibre of representative but also the restrictive parliamentary procedure and the woeful levels of attendance by TD’s at most debates. Next year we celebrate the centenary of 1916, I can’t imagine the leaders of that particular uprising, who were people of substantial intellect, looking at this boorish behaviour and thinking ‘ah yes, it was worth dying for’.

As Yeats said;

“Was it for this the wild geese spread
The grey wing upon every tide;
For this that all that blood was shed,
For this Edward Fitzgerald died…”

Lovely sarcasm there, love it…