Will they still be around in 10 years time?

Probably. Ireland is dying for a proper left party to come up from somewhere. I completely agree with the *aims* of the AAA and Reform alliance etc. But I don’t ever see myself voting for them. They’re not so much politicians as they are professional, well dressed protestors. Not to say that there’s anything wrong with that. Protests in this country are massively important, but just because you oppose something doesn’t automatically make you an effective and capable politician.

Surely she’s forgotten the fada, Ré Nua?

But I agree; the name is as cringeworthy as her membership of Iona. She’d have been better off with an anagram of her name – “Enduring Catholic”.

Dylan – what about pbp?

Dylan,
I hope you’re correct and that Austerity will be a thing of the past in a decade and in that case the AAA should consider renaming the party at that time.

However if we continue down the present neo liberal path, Austerity will be impacting on the lives of ordinary Irish citizens for many decades to come.

It’s time to give the parties of the left a chance people need a clear vision.. unity and no dilution of principles. The AAA and Sinn Fein have always been parties of clear vision and unity the left offers that. No one wants property tax, water charges, USC and we want more money in our pockets vote non-austerity.. as an independent non-biased voter i think the left is the way to go.

@Winding: is she really a member of Iona? I thought that even she was above that.

So then what function will the AAA take when austerity is over? What else do you stand for? What other policies do you promote? You’re not a party with anti austerity being one of its main aims. Anti austerity is your sole and only reason for being relevant. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an AAA member discuss social policy, national or international issues etc. You say you’ll change your name should it become necessary? Then what? That’s pure admission that you are only relevant at the moment to oppose austerity, and that is not the makings of a robust political party that will have longevity into the future. We don’t need another chameleon party changing its policies and stance depending on what day of the week it is. No thanks.

Dylan do you even know how money is created?

Waddler – take it from here.

Is Lucinda Creighton actually a member of Iona

I haven’t seen her name associated with them. I think it’s just an assumption. Correct me if I’m wrong.

These questions need to be asked Ailbhe.

Fair enough. I’m not disagreeing

Dylan,
Fundamentally the AAA are socialists. There will be no change from that position. The Party was formed by the activists from the campaign against the Property/Home Tax and the Socialist Party. We’ve been heavily involved in social issues such as the homeless crisis and will be campaigning for a Yes vote in the upcoming marriage equality referendum.

As a new party, we have not yet formed policy in all areas. Those policies will need to democratically agreed as the party develops.

However as a party of the left and with the Socialist Party being a key component within the AAA, our future policy direction is likely (but not certain) to follow as broadly similar path to the Socialist Party. We’re trying to build a mass party to represent the interest of the vast majority of citizens in contrast to the political establishment who largely serve the interests of big business and capital.

For example, one key plank of Socialist Party/AAA economic policy has always been to oppose the loading of private odious illegitimate banking debts on to the backs of the citizens. We have staunchly opposed the blanket bank guarantee since it was first proposed in 2008 while the entire Irish political establishment FF, FG and Labour all support this socialization of the €100+ billion of private banking debt which has crippled the nation and is being paid for through the Austerity program.

Here’s some reading on the SP position in relation to national question/ Northern Ireland
http://socialistparty.ie/category/news-a-analysis/northern-ireland/

And International issues such as the rise of Syriza in Greece and the TTIP.
http://socialistparty.ie/category/world-news/

Lucinda / Iona:

It depends how you define “member”. Lucinda has attended several Iona-organised public events and speeches and has been an advocate of their work in the past.

That to me counts as a “member”.

Waddler lets not go lying to the kid now…AAA / ULA/ SP / SWP are never gong to see govt. If they somehow came to a position (which in itself is nearly impossible) where they got 50 seats they’d still not go into coalition to get the remaining 30+ because that would mean govt with “right wingers” .

Then even if you got around that hurdle none of your fragmented alliance have any real policies, just a series of vague slogans. Compare the SP policy section to even the manifesto of a small party like the Greens, the Greens manifesto is bigger and more details by a couple of 100 pages. It’s a protest vote nothing more.

Waddler .. What’s is the AAA stance on Usc , Pension Levies private and public , where are the AAA budget proposals to be found . How would the AAA govern the Irish Finances ?

Outside of populist sound bites , How will AAA change the current unfair tax system ?? Do you’s have a economic spokesperson even ??

Proud , Can you point me in the direction of a SF document that will show clear and viable figures for getting rid of USC from everybodies pay packets ?

It’s currently sitting at around 4bn a year , I’d like to see SF if this gap !!

They’ve lots of ideas on how to spend cash but not many on how to produce it. Even when they suggest a good idea, like a stimulus package during the slump (something everyone promised then failed to deliver on) they’d no specifics, not even saying lets spend x amount…nothing.

They say abolish USC but don’t point out that would create a 4b hole, nor do they suggest where to offset this, you might think the 50% on incomes over 100k or the wealth tax but together they would only bring in 2-3b and they seem to have spent that 5-6 times over in other places.

They want us to be neutral one mimute then unilaterally condemn Isreal and the US left right and centre the next minute…they’re all over the place.

Ryan,
Where did I lie to Dylan? You are correct that we won’t go into coalition with any of the establishment parties of capitalism.

You’re wrong however when you say it’s impossible for the SP/AAA or any mass party of the left to see government. Syriza were polling at 3% a few short years ago are now firmly in government and came within a whisker of achieving an overall majority.

In any case, our primary objective in the SP/AAA is not to enter government which in itself won’t bring about the necessary fundamental change in society. The process of breaking with capitalism and successfully implementing real socialist change cannot be done from above, even with the most well intentioned Left government.

A radical Left government would consciously advocate this activity from below, building organized mass movements in the community and workplaces. This is the necessary development to take on and replace the old capitalist state machinery with a democratic and socialist state to serve the interests of the majority.

Je suis Ireland,

The key to governing Ireland’s finances in the interests of the majority is to understand that Modern fiat currency money is not a scarce resource. It is created at will by the institutions public (central banks) and private (commercial banks) that are authorized to do so.

The money has no intrinsic value, is created primarily on computer keyboards and so largely exists as electronic account entries. All financial assets are matched by an equal liability and so cancel each other out and ultimately net to zero. What remains is the real wealth of goods and services primarily produced by the working class through their labour. Financial assets (money) is a claim on that real wealth and therein lies its power.

Government spending creates new money from nothing and puts it into circulation while taxation removes money from circulation and extinguishes it. Taxation is what ‘backs’ the currency. The government imposed tax liability creates a demand for the currency, ensures it is widely accepted and so gives the currency legitimacy. Taxation is also the mechanism by which money can be removed from circulation.

A sovereign currency issuing state like the U.S, U.K. Denmark etc. does not need to raise tax revenue from private sources in order to spend on its social program such as pensions etc. The government/central bank is the monopoly issuer of their own currency and simply keystrokes the necessary money into existence.

Therefore these nations do not need to tax in order to spend in their own currency. The act of government spending is what actually creates the money which is then later removed from the economy via taxation. Such a state could for example implement a large scale social housing construction program to address the homeless crisis which Ireland currently faces. This would involve the government simply crediting the bank accounts of the builders, material providers, etc as necessary to have the homes built with the added benefit of creating desperately needed jobs in the construction sector. This contrary to neo liberal myth is how sovereign governments (e.g. New Zealand) actually spend in their own currency. They face no financial constraints whatsoever in that currency. The state can afford to buy whatever resources are for sale in the domestic currency.

For example, this is how sovereign governments pay the wages of their public sector employees. So the £2000 monthly salary for a nurse in Britain will see her Barclay’s account credited by £2k (broad money) and Barclay’s reserve account (base money) at the Bank of England increased by £2k, all done by simply pressing the necessary computer keys.

The state may face real resource limitations e.g. energy or skills shortages but not a financial constraint as it can never be insolvent in its own currency as it issues that currency. However if a state, promises to convert its currency to something else e.g. another currency or gold as a fixed rate, then it faces constraints in that other currency or commodity.

So nations which maintain a peg with the dollar for example must earn (through exports usually) or borrow reserves of dollars in order to maintain the peg. Greece and Ireland are effectively users of a foreign currency, the Euro and so are even further constrained. This is a deliberate design feature of the Euro which confers enormous power to the unelected and ultra capitalist institutions of the currency union such as the ECB who now hold the purse strings rather than the elected governments of the member nations.

The macro economy of nations and the globe is fundamentally different to the micro economics of business and households (private sector) who are users of the currency but not the issuer. A sovereign currency issuing government can afford to buy whatever resources are available for purchase in its own currency (including the labour of the unemployed) as they can never run out of keystrokes and so a budget deficit should not be considered a problem once this understood. The U.K. can sustain any size of budget deficit or national debt once it is denominated in sterling as the debt and interest is serviced via simple keystrokes at the central bank. That is why the enormous £850 billion bank bailout in the U.K. did not bankrupt the nation as it did in Ireland’s case.

Therefore the budget deficit (or surplus) should always be allowed to float to whatever level is required to support full employment to maximize productive output while maintaining price stability. As the economy approaches maximum productive capacity with full employment, the state can then remove money from the system via taxation and reduce government spending to counteract inflationary pressures.

Neither do sovereign states need to borrow from anywhere in order to finance a budget deficit. When those states do choose to issue government bonds the primary objective is to implement monetary policy (usually to drive their chosen base interest rate to target) not as a necessity to raise revenue. The primary mechanism is that the government will issue new bonds/bills/treasuries which pay a higher interest than the central bank reserves which the commercial banks hold and sells them in return for any excess reserves the private banks may have.

In the reverse transaction, the central banks ‘buys’ back the government bonds in return for reserves in an effective asset swap with the commercial banks when they need to increase their reserve supply. The primary function of these transactions is to drive the base interest rate to the desired target. The central bank selling bonds drains reserves and so increases the interest rate on reserves while buying bonds injects reserves and so lowers the rate.

The central bank reserves and bonds/bills/treasuries are created electronically at will by the central bank/treasury as necessary to maintain liquidity and the desired overnight interest rate in the interbank reserves market. In this way a sovereign country can never really default on its own currency denominated debts unless it chooses to as the central bank can always ‘buy’ back the debt with newly created central bank reserves which every commercial bank requires to function. In addition, when those countries do ‘borrow’ in the market, it is clear that they effectively decide what the yield/interest will be unlike the Eurozone nations subject to profiteering by bond speculators.

So since the gold standard was discarded in 1971 and the introduction of the fiat floating currencies there is no need whatsoever for a currency issuing government/central bank like Australia or Japan to ‘borrow’ at all in its own currency to raise revenue. They can and do simply keystroke the currency into existence at will. This is why sovereign currency issuing governments actually control bond interest rates regardless of the state of their economies. The government ‘debt’ market is in reality a risk-free, interest bearing deposit facility for the large financial institutions and ultra-wealthy.

Continuing this neo liberal agenda, the Eurozone was deliberately designed to allow private banks (markets) to profit to an even greater extent from member state debt. It’s only the Eurozone countries that are required to borrow their own currency in the market at an interest rate determined by the market as the EU allows the financial markets to set the borrowing rate for Euro countries on an individual basis with the ECB is the sole issuer of the currency and the nations prohibited from creating the currency themselves.

There can never be a shortage of money at a macro level so it’s clear that austerity and deprivation is a policy choice at national government and EU level. There are no shortages of any of the real resources (e.g. energy, food, material to build housing etc.) to eliminate poverty across the EU. The authorities pretend that there is lack of money to address the poverty of the citizens when in fact there can never be a shortage of a fiat currency like the Euro.

Neither is inflation a concern in the current recession where vast resources (including labour) are lying idle. There is no simple linear relationship between money supply and inflation despite what the establishment vested interests would have us believe. The point at which inflation rises depends on the availability of real resources (goods & services) versus the actual demand for purchase.
So the creation of new money is not in itself inflationary if there is sufficient real wealth (goods & services) to buy with that new money. This is especially true if the new money is directed to the productive sectors of the economy for example through infrastructural improvement which leads to GDP growth and so more availability of real resources to purchase. Another key factor which prevents inflation is large scale unemployment where the productive capacity of the economy is not close to its peak. In this scenario which we currently face in Ireland and across Europe, the labour of the unemployed can be purchased with newly created money with no risk of general inflation. In fact the Eurozone is now facing deflation due to the fall in aggregate demand through 6 years of austerity. The enforced shortage of fiat money which are in reality just keystrokes at ECB level is a political choice, not an economic necessity.

This is so because the capitalist class benefit disproportionately in both the boom and bust phases of the inherently unstable capitalist economic cycle always at the expense of labour (vast majority). Therefore that elite and their political enablers continually promote policy and measures to inflate the booms and deepen the busts at the expense of the many.

So the booms are fueled by massive credit expansion through the commercial banks as we saw during the Irish property bubble. This drives up asset prices and profit margins for the plutonomy at a much faster rate than any wage increases. The capital owning classes have always known when to get out of the losing plays in time while a complicit media will continue to cheerlead the booms to manipulate the masses until the inevitable crash occurs. (This will sound very familiar to Irish ears).

In the reverse, the supply of money is restricted to deepen and prolong the bust. As we can see under the Austerity program, the ongoing recession and consequent unemployment is being used as a lever to viciously drive down wages and working conditions which also maximizes the gains to capital. In parallel, the national assets (like water) and social support systems (like health) are shredded and opened up for predatory fire sale purchases and privatization which enriches Denis O Brien and his ilk.

Economic stability is relatively unprofitable for capital but the vast majority of us are far better served by a stable system with modest economic growth ultimately limited by environmental, resource, population factors etc.

Under the QE program of the past few years, the ECB has created €1.4 trillion in reserves by pressing keys on its shiny computer in Frankfurt and made it available at extremely low interest rates to the parasite banks whose greed and stupidity triggered the economic crisis in the first place. So there are plenty of keystrokes available to shore up the parasitic financial system but not enough keystrokes to make sure Greek or Irish people don’t go to bed cold and hungry, that is if they have a bed.

Apart from you absolute defection and waffle ultimately your telling me AAA / SP have no viable economic plans to implement in Government !!

I’ll give SF credit for promising the sun moon and stars with a budget made up from Pearce’s magic numbers game

The AAA / SP will not be in power in this country for 1 simple reason , apart from sound bites and saying no to everything , you’s have no real substance to your party/whatever you’s are , AAA would be a bigger cause of hardship to this country then anything FF / FG / SF / Pd’s / LAB / Green Party have done up to now .

Pie in the fantasy stuff you waddled

AAA are a party, (or grouping) of protest, they don`t have to have policies or solutions, that`s the whole point of being a party of protest.

JSI,

If you can point to anything incorrect in my description of how the monetary system and monetary system functions, please do so.

correction: monetary system and macro economy

Are you telling me this is the AAA’s way forward for Ireland ?

Is this what AAA are going to implement if they gain power ?

Can I have a link to the AAA manifesto or policies please

Waddler ..

What if any plans do AAA have for job creation

What plans do AAA have for training or up skilling the unemployed ?

What is the use in having a party \ alliance if you’s have nothing to actually offer the people of Ireland apart from populist crap ?

So you can find nothing incorrect in what I’ve written then JSI?

JSI,

The most effective means of job creation is for the state to use its role as the monopoly currency issuer to intervene in the macro economy and create full employment via a Job Guarantee (JG). The JG would increase the total output of real goods and services available for consumption and so drives up living standards for everyone.

The sovereign state with a floating currency such as the Denmark Japan, U.K, New Zealand etc faces no financial constraints in its own currency. The state may face real resource limitations (e.g. energy) but not a financial constraint as it can never be insolvent in its own currency as it issues that currency. Neither is inflation a concern in the current recession where vast resources (including labour) are lying idle. The only ingredient missing are the keyboard strokes to create the fiat currency to put those resources to productive work and increase the real wealth of goods and services to be shared by us all.

This ability to keyboard money into existence at will should be utilized to implement macro economic policy which benefits the vast majority of the citizens (labour) as opposed to current policy which enriches the minority (captial owners) . The primary plank of this policy should be the Job Guarantee (JG) where the state/government acts as the employer of last resort who finance the scheme using their ability to create the domestic currency at will to pay the wages of the JG participants. In a Eurozone context, it would be the ECB who would finance member state spending to implement their national JG schemes.

The JG is a strictly voluntary, transitional employment, available to any and all unemployed, or underemployed, who wish to avail of it. It does not replace existing social welfare provisions but operates alongside them. The JG employment is intended to be transitional, its numbers fluctuating in an automatic counter cyclical fashion so rising during recession and falling as the economy improves. The jobs are transitional to ‘normal’ employment in the private or public sector, and must not compete with ordinary employment. So, the JG jobs need to be exclusively in the Community, Voluntary and Charity sectors and at full time (40) hours or any fraction thereof which the worker chooses. The JG wage must be fixed at the minimum wage which is determined by the lowest acceptable standard of living for a worker. This creates an effective wage floor for labour. Capital owners must pay more than JG rates and/or offer better benefits etc to convince people to work for them.

The Government would supplement the JG earnings with a wide range of social wage expenditures, including adequate levels of public education, health, child care etc. The JG would be integrated into a coherent training framework to allow workers (by their own choice) to choose a variety of training paths while still working in the JG. However, if they chose not to undertake further training no pressure would be placed upon them.

The JG also fulfills a critical macro economic function, the maintenance of aggregate demand and spending in the economy. It’s always aggregate demand spending that ultimately creates and maintains jobs. Someone’s spending is always someone else’s job and income as the macro economy is circular. It is the aggregate spending of everyone in the economy, public, private, individuals and businesses that maintains and creates employment. When aggregate demand is either too little (unemployment high), or too much (inflation rising), it is only the government (central bank) that can act counter cyclically to make the appropriate adjustment. The government can remove money from the economy via taxation in order to combat inflation or pump stimulus spending into the system to counteract unemployment. Another key element is that full employment maximizes the production of real wealth (goods & services) to be shared by us all and so drives up living standards for everyone. The jobs benefit the individual and society as a whole.

The macro economy is fundamentally about the production and distribution of real resources (goods & services). Money is a key mechanism in both production and allocation phases in that money is required to begin the production process and money is required by households/firms etc to access the output of production. Money is not a scare resource. It’s created at will by the public and private institutions that are authorized to do so, central banks and commercial banks respectively.

There can never by definition be a shortage of a fiat currency like the Euro. So if the EU chose to, they could simple keystroke the necessary money into existence to hire all the idle labour resources in the Eurozone to maximize the productive output of real goods and services.

This would meet the twin objectives of creating real output for consumption and distributing it to the people who need it via their wages which are then used to buy those real goods and services.
There is no lack of any of the real resources (e.g. energy, food, material to build housing etc) to meet the human needs of the citizens of the Europe or anywhere in the developed world. Neither can there ever be a shortage of money at a macro level as explained. So all the ingredients are present to solve the economic and social crisis in Europe and elsewhere.

Therefore it in inarguable that austerity and deprivation is a policy choice at national government and EU level. This policy choice serves the interest of capital as more and more of the world’s resources accumulate to the 1% at the expense of the majority.

Now, do you advocate any economic policies yourself other than to continue with the current poisonous system which has resulted in 85 individuals hold the same wealth as 3500 million people, the poorest half of the globe’s population?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2014/01/23/the-85-richest-people-in-the-world-have-as-much-wealth-as-the-3-5-billion-poorest/

Thank you for confirming to me AAA are complete Fantasy merchants when it comes to the actual EXISTING Irish economy .

Your collective won’t be voted into Govt unless you’s come up with a VIABLE and WORKABLE economic strategy that works for Ireland as it is in its current state . Not the type of economy that you’s dream it can be

The voting public will see through that in a heartbeat and not help you’s create a welfare state ..

What you call austerity can more accurately described as the government cutting back on spending money it doesn’t have, while still maintaining one of the most generous social welfare systems in the world.

The AAA are a front for the Bolshevik socialist party who want to recreate the individual destroying nightmare that was the soviet union,i chose freedom from left and right wing extremists.

Cut and paste again Waddler:
http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/left-wing-parties-ireland-election-1963548-Feb2015/

This could be a new name for Tidy Towns, looking to clean up…..

Or a drug for erectile dysfunction.

I just thought it was good that deputy Billy Timmins will be her deputy. handy that he’s already aptly named like.

Sounds like a lady’s face cream.

Brilliant!

They are also curiously refusing to discuss Same Sex Marraige…or get into much specifics about anything else. Probably because that would mean voting on policy amongst themselves, and that decision would have to be enforced by a whip which they think is bad…but all those things are how a party is meant to work..if they wanted to have each TD vote the way they want there is a way of doing that already…be an independent.

My biggest reservation with this party is Hobbs’ prominence. He is too inconsistent and too whiney. At least they had the sense to offload Fidelma Healy Eames and Peter Mathews: two greater barriers to success you’d never find. The words “centre right” don’t fill me with enthusiasm, the flimsy statements on the “our core beliefs” page even less so. And they have “an open position on abortion” after all that drama with Lucinda??

Still, I’ll watch what comes next…. even if I suspect it means watching through my fingers.

Defo voting for them next election. I’ve always wanted a gaff in the Cape Verde Islands…

Tried posting I’ll try again..

http://renuaireland.com/#vision Their policies are vague as hell but have a tone, when you look at the code words, of PDs mixed with social conservatism..I can’t imagine a more unpopular mix of ideologies at the present time with people sick of a decade of austerity, looking for pro growth policies, and an electorate getting more socially liberal.
The few that are specific like the cabinet meeting idea are terrible and they must KNOW can never be implemented.

Can anybody really see Lucinda Creighton presiding over a government that has to legalise abortion after a referendum green lights it?

DJ
One more snout in the through, you won’t have any spare cash to worry about.

There’s nothing “new” about lucinda skippy.

Exacting right Skippy!! It’s all “we need new parties with new policies” but the second a brand new one is formed it’s “they’re never getting my vote”

People forget that the bigger parties have the whip system so any straying from that get members the boot.

I’m no fan of any of these party members but let’s see what their plan and actions are as a new party rather than instantly deriding them

What’s new about it, same old faces pushing ideas that John Charles McQuaid would be proud of. Also Creighton was claiming the party would leave civil war politics behind and then re-tweets qoutes from one of the people most responsible for it, Markievicz.

She needs to put on a few stone if she thinks she can emulate Mary. Besides I don’t think her real party leader likes her we all know that’s D O’B .

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it’s still a duck. However this duck I suspect might have a tendency to limp!

“people moan for something then when they get it continue to moan”
@Skippy welcome to Irish politics 101

See the other thread where people all claim they don’t care if the candidate shows he has a human side? They care. See when they say they hate FF/FG whoever but then say “ah but my guy in my area, he’s FF but he’s LOVELY”….electorates actions and words rarely align.
In 2007 all the focus groups told FG and Lab that the issue mentioned most was the health service. What they failed to ask was “how high a priority is that for you when voting?” because it turned out that while they’d love an Irish NHS it wasn’t what would move their vote…money in their pockets would, so FG ran on health (oh thats right they didn’t run in 2007 saying the economy is doomed they were dying to spend spend spend all that temp property money) and FF ran on the economy…and FF won.

Electorates are full of crap half the time, and don’t know what they want and on top of it this time, as others have pointed out, this is FG-PDs recycled with a touch of christian soldiarity party..so nothing ‘new’ at all.

Skippy
How can there be something new when it is part of the same old corrupt system ?

Karl Deeter. … a mortgage broker who hyped up the property market before the crash. … is head of ethics….

* holds head in hands *

Lucinda voted against the last abortion motion cos of her religious beliefs. Her religious beliefs took precedence above the needs of her constituents. Religion and politics are two separate entities and if you can’t separate them in your own head you shouldn’t be in politics. I’m a Christian so to tell me to and read a Muslim holy book although I have read it only shows your ignorance. It’s morons like you that will vote for lucinda and eddy.

@Fran macardle – I don’t believe you are either a Christian or have read the qu’ran. You clearly are upset at her opposition to abortion, which implies you support it. No genuine Christian supports abortion and the fact that you seem to support it – implies that you have deceived yourself into believing you are a Christian. It would be an oxymoronic position to hold.

Bit strong isn’t it.Who says we are all going to vote foe her ? .Oh and I think YOUR the moron NOT the rest of us

Is she wearing a right winged jacket or wtf is the story with it?

Eddie Hobbs ya can f##k right off

@Larry O Ceallaigh – please refer to a dictionary in future first – before you display your ignorance in public and label another person a moron due to your lack of command of the English language.

OXYMORON
a figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly self-contradictory effect, as in “cruel kindness” or “to make haste slowly.”.

That’s the saddest part of Irish politics, there are no moderates. FG are the closest thing, so I guess I’ll have to give them another vote

For me it’s a toss between fg and ff.

FG are center right.

Jasus, you couldn’t give FF a vote. They destroyed the nation, economically and socially,

Are you serious FG moderates!! Mate FG are as right wing as you get!!

Sure what other option is there?

Jamming – They are the closest thing we have to a true moderate. Until a viable alternative presents itself, there is no other choice.

What would a moderate party even mean? What would be their views on the big issues in current Irish politics and society?

Nothing but downvotes and decrying of FG. You guys are all excellent at saying what parties are shit, but who has your vote?

Exactly Ivan because of Fianna Fáil
Not saying f Gael r any better

Even FF are closer to the center than FG……and thats quite an achievement.

Paul, a real moderate party would see the country as a society, as well as, and not just an economy!

In reality that would mean, not targeting the sick, poor & old in order to help out your crony bondholder mates etc etc etc.

Ivan, that sounds like a left-leaning party you’re describing. If it’s not, what do you think a left-leaning party means?

Of course I’m sure all parties in Ireland would say your description echoes their views :-)

I don’t think there’s a real right wing party in the country to be honest

Eric, I voted for a supposedly moderate option the last time. I did so because of a list of promises, that (that turned out to be complete lies). I won’t be making that mistake again. Left leaning parties & independents will be getting my preferences (with not one preference going to FF/FG/Lab).

Fool me once, etc.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=643336059116677

@eric I would have said FF were a hell of a lot more moderate than FG. Just cos end enda had a row with the Vatican doesn’t make him a moderate. And if you say him backing gay marriages is evidence of his and his party moderate stance I’d reply by saying I think it’s FG looking for the gay vote.

@ Eric. Mate do u honestly think FG would have done things differently during the boom? No a hope mate FG FF same same

How can Fine Gael be described as “right-wing as it gets”? They’re the party that introduced abortion and a referendum on same sex marriage and hand out passports for prizes to anyone who makes it to our shores. Fine Gael the abortion party are not right wing.

Cian…. go ask kids who had their medical cards taken away or the pensioners who had home help hours removed, or the working poor that are facing water bills. I’m pretty sure that they ALL would describe FG as, as “right-wing as it gets”.

Ivan, I still think your description of a moderate party better described a left leaning party. Maybe you do understand the difference and it was just the case that you used criteria which didn’t highlight the differences. What would be the main differences between a moderate party and a left leaning one? Maybe that will draw out the answer.

Paul, I don’t know what answer you are trying to draw out of me??

All I want is a government that cares for its citizens and act in their interests and their interests ALONE.

The whole Siteserv ‘deal’, is a prime example of this. Stinks to high heaven of cronyism and corruption, an ESAT 2.0.

The cheek of this ‘Mr Corkery’ chancer, poor him, getting ‘fed up’ at being questioned by an elected TD.
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/retail-and-services/siteserv-sale-was-a-good-deal-for-the-taxpayer-1.2138361

I’ll go to jail before these parasitic traitors get me to pay for water, again!

Paul, I think you are trying to label me?
Is it that you want to know if I am; far-left, left, moderately-left, centre-left, off-centre-left, centre, mild-centre-right ….

I’m none and all of the above, I don’t care for labels as long as a government that cares for its citizens and act and works in their interests and their interests ALONE.

These right wing cronies in FG do not care for the people of this country, this is plain to see for all.

Wicklow’s Billy Timmins as her Deputy Leader? Laughable.

This is a man has failed to accomplish a single memorable thing for Wicklow since his family-seat election in 1997. Having been an ineffective opposition spokesperson on several matters (notably Defence and Foreign Affairs), Billy was unceremoniously dumped from their Front Bench when FG came to power. And replaced with Wicklow’s Simon Harris.

RèNua are screwed.

Wicklow’s Billy Timmins as her Deputy Leader? Laughable.

This is a man who has failed to accomplish a single memorable thing for Wicklow since his family-seat election in 1997. Having been an ineffective opposition spokesperson on several matters (notably Defence and Foreign Affairs), Billy was unceremoniously dumped from their Front Bench when FG came to power. And replaced with Wicklow’s Simon Harris.

RèNua are screwed.

winding_down you can say that again.

Why do the people of Wicklow keep electing Billy then?

Apologies, that “Good work” comment wasn’t a reply to Jangles, it was a reply to John Morgan’s “Good to see them support Ireland. The website is hosted with an american company. The theme is a wordpress theme sold by an american company. And the domain is registered with godaddy, also american…”. although Jangles’ comment I like too. Amazing what a couple of seconds delay does to a comment on this site.

@Rochelle: Because Billy’s father Godfrey held the only Dáil seat in Wicklow west of the Wicklow Mountains.

People are very conservative at a General Election. The Timmins’ have always had the agricultural vote sown up – and they very evidently vote for faces, not for competence or track records.

You can say that again! Oh, you did!

At the speed it took them to come up with a name, I reckon they won’t know the answer to that question until after the referendum.

The problem is if they all have individual stance on issues how well they ever agree on anything and form a policy.