@Ian McDonald: how about a general election??? Most of us are sick to death of FFG bull and they have been exposed as being one of the most corrupt governments we’ve ever had. Even big Charlie wasn’t as bad as these guys

@Ian McDonald: The solution is an end to FFG monopolising power as they have done for the last 100 years. I don’t believe SF will be the answer to all our problems but FFG are too comfortable and too complacent and a government led by anyone but them will signal a change to the revolving door system that they’ve taken for granted and abused for far too long. TD’s need to be accountable to the people that elect them and an end to FFG power sharing will send a clear message that we demand better and that power is no longer a given in this country as a new generation of voters vote with their conscience and not just blindly vote the way their fathers voted before them.

@Declan Doherty: well said ! They have sold ireland , banks , forests , fishing , privatised our water . Etc . Our roads are privatised and now they want farmers to reduce herds ?? , getting rid of our agricultural.

@Declan Doherty: Two parties can’t have a monopoly….

@Lee King Buckett: I’d suggest you Google the definition and understand it’s wider use before making incorrect statements like that. Scarlet for you as you’d say yourself.

@Declan Doherty: thanks for replying. So no FFG, and no SF. So your solution is a coalition of Labour + Greens + Others. Not sure that’s a great solution

@Declan Doherty: Have you ever wondered why it’s one of either FF or FG that have been in government? It’s rather simple they are the only parties that ever ran enough candidate to win enough seats to govern. You cant have change if no other party was willing to step up and actually run a genuine campaign to govern backed up with enough candidate to win enough seats.

@Declan Doherty: I’d suggest you Google the word ‘duopoly’

There are differences in characateristics between a Monolpoly and a Duopoly which are important.

Morer scarletter for ya

@Declan Doherty: I can’t argue with your good intentions, but 2 wrongs won’t make a right, unfortunately. In the next election SF will fill the ballot papers as much as possible with inexperienced people, and will buy votes with promises to cut PRSI for low income people, which they will offset with higher taxes on employers, leading to inflation, unemployment and wage stagnation. Eoin O’Broin is great, and their benchmark talent. The rest of them just moan without offering viable solutions.

@Lee King Buckett: I used the term “monopolising”.

The dictionary definition is..

To have or take the greatest share of.
“the bigger clubs monopolize the most profitable sponsorships and TV deals”

Note the use of the word “clubs” which is plural.

Are ye done now ?

@Declan Doherty: That’s not a definition, that an example of usage.

The actual definition is:

obtain exclusive possession or control of

Note the word ‘exclusive’. If there is more than one party, then possession of power cannot, by definition, be exclusive.

The reason that I’m being pedantic is that duopolys are, in many cases, harder to break. With a monopoly, there is always the chance that someone bigger can seize power. With a Duopoly, both actors can set the rules of the game in such a way that its extremely difficult for a new entrant to grow to the size where they can challenge for power.

Quite a bit of research has been done in this area looking at the likes of Coca Cola/Pepsi, McDonalds/Burger King, Microsoft/Apple etc etc

Correct usage of words is important when making points, don’t get so salty when someone points it out.

Now I’m done.

@Lee King Buckett: I used the term correctly. Now run along and find someone else to troll or better yet, something more constructive to do with your time.

@Ian McDonald: And you call the Sinn Fein candidates inexperienced? Maybe take a look around you at the shambles that the Garda investigations that are in hand and the secrecy surrounding the motives of those in power and I’ll take inexperience any day

@IamEggBot: Are you suggesting a change to the constitution so we have an election every 18 months?

@Declan Doherty: Its reached a point where we can probably conclude that they’ve over focused on the vaccine program to the detriment of other measures. We were all told by the WHO that vaccines were never going to be a silver bullet but in Ireland we seemed to treat them like they were.

Meanwhile we continue with no emphasis on better air filtration, were late to the party with the use of antigen, no advocation for vitamin D and Zinc to improve our immune systems, no use of circuit breakers before inevitable carnage on consecutive Christmas periods, no advise to upgrade our masks from cloth etc etc.

@Lee King Buckett: they have after 2 became 1!

@Ian McDonald: inexperienced people u gotta be joking….now if u said inexperienced with dealing with the bloated civil service maybe then yeah…..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpmTWZFVdJg

@David Corrigan: Today is the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik seizure of power, which led to the establishment of a communist regime in Russia and eventually in many other nations around the world. It is an appropriate time to remember the vast tide of oppression, tyranny, and mass murder that communist regimes unleashed upon the world. While historians and others have documented numerous communist atrocities, much of the public remains unaware of their enormous scale. It is also a good time to consider what lessons we can learn from this horrendous history.

I. A Record of Mass Murder and Oppression.
Collectively, communist states killed as many as 100 million people, more than all other repressive regimes combined during the same time period.

By far the biggest toll arose from communist efforts to collectivize agriculture and eliminate independent property-owning peasants. In China alone, Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward led to a man-made famine in which as many as 45 million people perished – the single biggest episode of mass murder in all of world history. In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin’s collectivization – which served as a model for similar efforts in China etc. – took some 6 to 10 million lives. Mass famines occurred in many other communist regimes, ranging from North Korea to Ethiopia. In each of these cases, communist rulers were well aware that their policies were causing mass death, and in each they persisted nonetheless, often because they considered the extermination of peasants a feature rather than a bug.

@Tom Molloy: What has all this to do with Martin??? Are you trying to distract attention or what. By the way, have a close look at what Russia was like before the revolution.

@Jim O’Sullivan: “Two wrongs don’t make a right”

@Tom Molloy: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras ,Porto Rico, Panama, Grenada, Iraq ,Afghanistan. Just a few countries that were destroyed by U.S. intervention. You conveniently fail to mention the overthrow of Democratically elected governments such as the coup in Iran when the U.S. brought back a despot call the Shah. A bit of balance please .

@Lee King Buckett: not a govt apologist just a bot on the journal, and don’t even deny it

@Lee King Buckett: The ICU beds were decreased a few years ago… The increase from last year doesn’t even go beyond the previous level.

@John Johnes: I voted SF in the last election and will probably do so in the next. I have some issues with them but overall, the country is paying a heavy price for consecutive FF & FG governments who tend to be a bunch of self obsessed dynastic career politicians.

None of that changes the fact that the original comment was incorrect.

They did so something about rent (if I recall, it was actually SF who suggested a rent cap linked to inflation in the first instance)

They did increase ICU beds last year.

They may be a rubbish government and they may be just tinkering around the edges as opposed to fixing anything but that doesn’t change the fact that the original comment was incorrect.

@Michael McGrath: when was the last good Taoiseach? Kenny was awful, Cowen was awful, even tho people liked Ahern and he did some good things he completely wrecked the country for generations. Bruton was awful.. we’re any of em good?

@Brian Burns: the government’s departmental spend/budget on media advertising has brought journalism to its knees in this country, alot of media outlets relying on state advertising to keep the lights on, pay their wages.