The cosy cartel was no less corrupt a year earlier when half the SF TDs were failing to be elected to local councils. The free gaffs (weâll find the builders) and the controversy over the pension age (the demographics will take care of themselves) as well as populist soundbites around tax (polling showed SF voters favoured tax cuts over increased spending), were the reasons for the surge, not a Damascene conversion by a clued in electorate in favour of more pure politics
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Anecdotally the people who traditionally voted FFG and voted SF in February said their exclusion by the other 2 and RTĂ initially was the reason. A two fingers as they are sick of the way we are meant to pretend all is ok here as long as the Shinners are kept out. Things are not ok.
For the young I reckon youâre right it wa the magic money tree but you would be foolish to ignore and deny the existence of the first demographic
Have to laugh at idiots droning on about âthe magic money treeâ. Itâs actually called borrowing at zero or negative interest rates you dimwits, and it funds long term improvements to the country.
Meantime the magic money tree dimwits vote Fine Gael, âthe fiscally responsible partyâ, whose policies have led to the most out of control current spending we have ever seen. Oh and the magic childrenâs hospital that gets more expensive every time you count to ten.
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Ooooft
Iâm not disagreeing with you, Iâm just using language they understand
Not sure why you needed to give us a load of waffle about SF. I merely said people voted for them because they were sick of the cronyism of the others. What SF would have done is speculation and not relevant to the point.
We are only able to borrow at low interest rates because:
a) The rest of the EU economy is in the shitter so our comparitive spreads are relatively unchanged vs peer countries. Also the rest of the developed world is in the same boat so the ECB is tolerating extreme measures they would never normally countenance
b) Ireland has the faith of the financial markets, despite the best efforts of Pearse to follow his mates in Syriza threatening kamikaze tactics against the ECB
Pre-Covid, any money tree policies which distinguished us from other EU counties would have seen our yield take a walk and we mightnât have been in a position to pay hundreds of thousands to stay home hiding under the bed
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Do I need to ladybird this for you. SF fully intended on going in with the cronies you think they canât stand. You made the claim that people voted for SF as it was a departure from the corrupt system. I had to rubbish that but stick your fingers in your ears if you have to.
But but but CHANGE
Wrong. Interest rates have been at or close to zero for a long time, itâs not covid related.
Rates have been low for some time but if questions had arisen as to our debt sustainability they could have increased substantially, as was the case for Italy at various points in the last few years when they tried to renege on budget targets and elected tub-thumping populists with anti ECB rhetoric
Iâm sorry but youâre talking silly nonsense now about Greece and Italy. We are neither and no political party here proposes to renege on targets. Your post isnât even a sentence.
Ireland can and should borrow to fund infrastructure and to finance breaking the link with FGâs disastrous policies of hoping the markets will take care of everything.
If a newspaper doesnât run a âHogan Standâ headline, thereâs summat wrong.
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We have our market rating because of the policies weâve followed since the crash which were opposed by the non FFGLabour parties who showed up in Greece (Doherty, Murphy) cheering on Syriza against our creditors, advocating telling the EU to âbugger offâ (Adams) and generally advance the rhetoric that would spook the market. Now itâs possible the likes of SF would tone down that rhetoric once they get their snouts in the trough.
So while itâs generally correct to borrow to fund productive investment, a heavily indebted country canât afford to come out with guff like âthe demographics will take care of themselvesâ while we continue to go cap in hand to the markets to rollover our giant debt pile
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Good god this is some hiding
Giving credit to politicians for not breaking the law. Good man Michael.
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Enda, continuing to set the bar high 
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Youâre having a debate from a decade ago with yourself.
It is irrelevant.
FG policies have directly led to out of control current spending.
Under FG policies we had a budget surplus til Covid came around. That budget surplus alllowed the economic measures be put in place to shore up income.
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