General Election 2011

[Thrawneen]

Just had Bertie at the door there…

[RaymondCrotty]

@Special Olympiakos

Labour ruined any chance we had at political reform in this country by ruling out doing business with left wing candidates. The irony is they killed their own chances over a 24 hour period when Shorthall and then Burton showed themselves up to be just as power hungry as the FF party they reviled.

People who naively thought Gilmore ws for “change” immediately switched their allegiance to FG after this.We could have had a left/right divide in Irish politics for teh 1st time ever if Labour weren’t so power hungry imo.

Agree with you entirely. Reality probably is though that many in Labour are far closer to right wing party like FG than they are to left wing parties like Sinn Fein or socialists. Pity as there was a real opportunity for alternative but I’m not sure if it was power or reality of their politics that got in the way. Probably a bit of both

[Sidney]

@Thrawneen

Just had Bertie at the door there…

expand a bit please

[The_Runt]

@Thrawneen

Just had Bertie at the door there…

You’re insatiable

[Thrawneen]

@sid waddell

expand a bit please

I didn’t see him unfortunately. I was upstairs. My housemate opened the door to him and Cyprian Brady. I’m heading out now and if I see him I promise to shout “cunt” at him.

[manaboutdog]

@Rocko

I certainly hope so Balbec.

Even things like selling off state assets and privatising bus routes are huge problems for me. I can’t understand how anyone who has taken a look at the consequences in the UK could be in favour of privatising transport or selling off state infrastructure.

don’t agree with this at all. I spend quite a bit of time working in the UK and as a result have cause to use public transport there quite regularly, it beats the shit out of what passes for public transport in this country in terms of efficiency and quality of service IMO, if that’s what privatising the buses & trains will do for us then bring it on.

[Watch_The_Break]

@manaboutdog

don’t agree with this at all. I spend quite a bit of time working in the UK and as a result have cause to use public transport there quite regularly, it beats the shit out of what passes for public transport in this country in terms of efficiency and quality of service IMO, if that’s what privatising the buses & trains will do for us then bring it on.

You’re not taking population density into account. The number of large urban centres in the UK allows for greater investment in the transport network but obviously that’s not the case here. Privatisation here would virtually eliminate public transport in rural Ireland. As if things aren’t bad enough.

[The_Runt]

@manaboutdog

don’t agree with this at all. I spend quite a bit of time working in the UK and as a result have cause to use public transport there quite regularly, it beats the shit out of what passes for public transport in this country in terms of efficiency and quality of service IMO, if that’s what privatising the buses & trains will do for us then bring it on.

Yes, but when you’re in the UK you are hardly travelling between the equivalent of say Pallaskenry to Limerick.
Do you think a private company would bother providing the these services if they can’t turn a profit on them? Bus Eireann, subsidise loss making routes with profitable ones, as they have to provide a service to the people in towns and villages around the country. A private company can just drop the non-profitable routes, which would leave some towns with even worse public transport links.

[manaboutdog]

@The Runt

Yes, but when you’re in the UK you are hardly travelling between the equivalent of say Pallaskenry to Limerick.
Do you think a private company would bother providing the these services if they can’t turn a profit on them? Bus Eireann, subsidise loss making routes with profitable ones, as they have to provide a service to the people in towns and villages around the country. A private company can just drop the non-profitable routes, which would leave some towns with even worse public transport links.

Actually I do, and in the UK the rural/sub urban/city bus services are generally still run by the councils etc.

Can you explain to me why Iarnrod Eireann has made a loss every year in living memory? And this despite only concentrating on routes that are busy and should be profitable (they charge enough!). They have shut down multiple routes over the last 50 years, being state owned didn’t happen to save any of them.

They have drivers/employees who don’t give a shit about anything only asserting their own rights and bleeding the company dry. It’d be no harm for their ilk to be put out from under the comfort of the state owned umbrella.

[The_Puke]

@manaboutdog

Actually I do, and in the UK the rural/sub urban/city bus services are generally still run by the councils etc.

Can you explain to me why Iarnrod Eireann has made a loss every year in living memory? And this despite only concentrating on routes that are busy and should be profitable (they charge enough!). They have shut down multiple routes over the last 50 years, being state owned didn’t happen to save any of them.

They have drivers/employees who don’t give a shit about anything only asserting their own rights and bleeding the company dry. It’d be no harm for their ilk to be put out from under the comfort of the state owned umbrella.

fuck off tory boy

[artfoley]

@farmerinthecity

I think that the public sector badly needs reform. Leave aside the areas of education, health and justice (the front line areas), the ‘civil service’ is mainly a joke of an organisation with overpaid staff doing fuck all.

A couple of things I would do:

• Get rid of flexitime or at least monitor it more effectively. I’m sorry but the civil service isn’t there to work around picking your kids up from school, it should be a proper job with proper hours.
• Do away with this notion of budget based on last year spend plus or minus a %. Management in the public sector should have to justify every single penny that they are looking for - the text book ‘zero based budgeting’. The current ‘use it or lose it’ situation generates ridiculous amounts of wastage.
• Attempt to phase out the current structure of scales and grades which is effectively based on length of service. This will be extremely difficult granted given the highly unionised nature of the sector, and also the given the fact that it is hard to measure ‘performance’ in the publci sector. However must public sector bodies have strategic plans which are supposed to be measurable so maybe try to link it into that in some way.
• Look at the number of State Bodies that are out there and trim them substantially. For each State Body that exists, you must have a Board, generally a website, a building, and that is if you only have two employees working in it. Crazy.

now im on a flexi day i thought it would be the best time to deal with this

in what respect do you think flexi time isn’t working farmer ? please address this using hard facts rather than anecdotes, etc. the flexi system is well monitored and is quite easily flagged if there are any anomalys. it’s one thing that HR take a very hardline on. by your suggestions above it clearly indicates that you believe that the workplace should not be family centric and there’s no need for work life balance. that kind of view went out with keys and gray. you see the likes of google and MS offering flexible working environments because they dont want to discount someone just because they have a life outside, you shouldnt be excluding someone on the grounds of family situation. that’s EU legislation.

agreed on budgets

again, you have no idea of how promotions work, they aren’t based on length of service, they are based on open competitions and competency based. you might also note that there is currently an embargo on promotions in the public sector and has been for 18 months also you cant go for another scale unless you achieve at least a 3 in PMDS. the public apointments service was set up for the purpose of managing the competitions

agreed

[Flano]

EU Legislation can suck it. Over and out.

[briantinnion]

When are we doing the TFK poll? Or did I miss it?

[RaymondCrotty]

Irish Independent MillwardBrownLansdowne poll: FF 14 -2 FG 38 +1 Lab 20= GP 1= SF 11 -1 Ind 16 +2

[Rocko]

@larryduff

Irish Independent MillwardBrownLansdowne poll: FF 14 -2 FG 38 +1 Lab 20= GP 1= SF 11 -1 Ind 16 +2

Independents are going to be crucial. Not sure how many will get elected but there’ll be plenty of transfers at the minimum anyway.

[Rudi]

Michael Martin really is one smarmy, reprehensible rodent.

[Rocko]

Gilmore isn’t doing great here I don’t think. Martin is taking them on in fairness to him. Kenny hasn’t a clue on the banks.

[Watch_The_Break]

Enda Kenny seems to think Silicon Valley is a bank.

[Bandage]

Gilmore isn’t landing any blows here.

Kenny is talking shite.

Martin is having a go but he has a combover.

[Watch_The_Break]

€100,000 is a ridiculous threshold for a stance on tax. Where did they pull that out of? Ridiculous considering the situation we’re in.