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Election 2016: Who should I vote for?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Election 2016: Who should I vote for?

This is a really really difficult question at this election! At previous elections, it was a lot easier it seems. Since four parties were involved in the previous two governments and all couldn’t really convince anybody about their ability to run Ireland in a positive and successful way, many automatically look to the remaining alternatives. However the serious lack of experience, extremist views and mad election promises that will disappear as soon as the election is over don’t make this an easy process either.

So what should you do? My advise would be to read the party programme and to compare their views with yours. But don’t leave it there because the programme might be full of empty promises. Also check out the background of the 2-3 leading party figures and listen to some of their speeches (on Youtube you can find a lot!) or at least read some articles about them. Why not just focus on the party leader? Because he/she could be replaced after the elections!

Will you then know who to vote for? No!! But hopefully you will be able to use the – totally unreliable and highly risky – method of “gut feeling” to judge who you mistrust the LEAST.

Most people realise in this election that there is not one party that really convinces them, so the you have to go with the one that will hopefully disappoint you the least. Oh, and if your parents voted for a certain party and your grand parents voted for the same part, don’t follow them blindly! The parties have changed substantially and you better know what they are saying today.

Maybe www.smartvote.ie will help you to decide, but I find its focus too narrow on some of the parties’ statements.

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Last week I wrote about Independents here and appealed to you NOT to vote for any Independent candidate. This is not because they are all bad apples (but some are!!), instead it is because they are a) unpredictable, b) not accountable to anybody once they were voted in and c) they will never come close to having any significant influence.

I got some interesting reactions after last week. Some agreed, some disagreed and that is all fine. Only one person was so disturbed by my opinion that she felt she had to unsubscribe. Her point was that Independents are vital to have dissenting voices in the Dail. Unfortunately my dissenting voice was, as she described it “stomach turning”. I guess it is always easier to demand “dissenting opinions” that agree with you than “dissenting opinions” that disagree with you.

But my point about the total lack of relevance of Independent candidates was confirmed at ALL TV debates before the election. Not a single Independent candidate was represented! However parties like the Green Party who have no TD in the Dail at the moment or Renua, who don’t have one because they are new and might just about get one in with a LOT of luck, they were invited to the TV debates.

If you didn’t get a chance to read my opinion piece last week, you can find it here: www.joergsteegmueller.com/2016/02/13/stay-away-from-independents/

And finally I would like to repeat what the person who found my opinion “stomach turning” unfortunately ignored: I am a foreigner and therefore have no clue in the eyes of some Irish people. So, what ever I write is nonsense anyway. ;-)

[This opinion piece was first published in the Dublin Event Guide (for Free Events) on 20 February 2016.]

Elections, Politics, ,

Seanad or no Seanad?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Seanad or no Seanad?

Before they got elected Fine Gael promised that they would abolish the Seanad. At the time most people saw this Upper House of the Parliament as an undemocratic, costly and unnecessary institution that should be removed rather sooner than later. At the time Fine Gael was very popular as they had just won the election. Since then a lot has happened.
Fine Gael is not at all that popular anymore and has less support than Fine Fail, the party that was blamed for the Irish recession and a party that many declared as a “dead man walking”. This turn around happened in such a short time that Fine Gael should be seriously worried.

A consequence of that public change of mind is that people now don’t trust Fine Gael anymore and suddenly think a parliamentary control instance might still be a good idea. They ignore that the elections to the Seanad are COMPLETELY undemocratic as the system of electing Seanad members is a very odd mechanism that was dreamt up by the founders of the Irish democracy who clearly had a somewhat twisted view (from today’s perspective) of democracy. A huge proportion of people in Ireland have absolutely no voting rights.

So Fine Gael has screwed up and now the opinion about the Seanad changes and more people ask for a change or improvement of the Seanad instead of an abolition.

In my opinion the Seanad COULD be a very helpful instance, but only if a way was found that gives EVERY Irish citizen a voting right AND only if the election to the Seanad is completely different than the election to the Dail. One way could be a nationwide list system that is put together by each party completely constituency independent. It would have to rule out Independent candidates (unless they organise themselves in a list of Independents) and the Universities would have to lose their candidates. Another aspect would have to be that the Taoiseach must not have the right to put his friends on the Seanad by-passing the elections.

Significant changes, but they would make the Seanad to what it should be. Without that? Get rid of this unnecessary forum.

Some people have different agendas though and they are always shouting very loud. David Norris is one of them. He will disappear in a deserved political insignificance if the Seanad is abolished and he is fighting for his “importance”. He is attacking “Enda bloody Kenny” (Norris, sophisticated and polite as always!) for trying to abolish the Seanad and calls anyone who supports the plans to scrap the Seanad a “liar, thief and traitor to the Irish people”. www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/norris-slams-enda-bloody-kenny-for-seanad-abolition-attempt-598691.html

David Norris is a rude bully and people like him make me hope that the Seanad will be gone soon.

Elections, Politics, , , ,

Mick Wallace Stole Taxes!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Mick Wallace Stole Taxes!

According to a TV and newspapers, it seems to be clear that Mick Wallace knowingly underdeclared VAT. And in the year he did that or in the year his company went into liquidation, he increased his own salary from EUR 148,141 to EUR 290,000.
That creates an interesting situation, because people that bought apartments from Wallace paid VAT to him, which he was obliged to pass on to the Revenue Commission. Instead passing that money on, he kept it in his company. This sounds like clear theft!
Wallace now claims that he had intended to pay the tax at a later stage and only kept it to save his company and to save jobs. But it is very easy to claim that when you have been found out. There is a good possibility that he would nave never voluntarily given back the VAT. And even if he had genuinely planned to pay it back, it would be unacceptable because VAT belongs to the state, i.e. the tax payers and the state is not a bank for Wallace.

So, it all seems to indicate that he stole money from the state/the tax payers.

To makes things worse and to make his story even less credible, he increased his salary, so he used part of the VAT that he took from apartment buyers and stuffed it into his own pockets. To save the company? To save jobs? No way!

Should Wallace resign! Absolutely!

But we have to ask ourselves what a screwed up parliament we have in Ireland, if the other members don’t have any means to kick him out! …many even think he shouldn’t resign. Are they afraid they might sit in a glass house too and don’t want to be the first to throw the stone?

Politics, Taxes, , , ,

Dail Holidays again? Or maybe not!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Dail Holidays again? Or maybe not!

The Dail (Irish Parliament) is known for its propensity to take time off. The Fianna Fail government was heavily criticised in recent years, that despite serious issues in the country the parliament needed their loooong holidays. That was the OLD government that held on to the many and long holidays. But all has changed since the elections! Or has it??

Breakingnews.ie reports at www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/taoiseach-cancels-mid-term-break-for-dail-525874.html this:

Taoiseach cancels mid-term break for Dáil
26/10/2011 – 12:14:30
The Taoiseach Enda Kenny has cancelled a mid-term break for politicians next week.

The Dáil was due to adjourn tonight until Tuesday week.

But after opposition from Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil and People Before Profit, Mr Kenny announced the Dáil will now sit on Wednesday and Thursday next week.

There are two HUGELY interesting aspects in this small article.

1) The party that for decades held steadfastly on to the much too long holidays is now opposing them. Fianna Fail opposed the mid-term break!

2) The party that came to power with the promise that they will change all bad habits and will reform a broken system that the previous government left behind had NO intention to cancel the holidays. If Enda Kenny hadn’t suggested that there should be holidays, the others would not have had to oppose. So Enda Kenny from Fine Gael no better than the previous leaders from Fianna Fail?

You probably are wondering if the people that didn’t oppose really think they are in school, because the mid-term break is for schools only! I wonder too! Odd!!

Politics, , , ,
 
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