R24U

Fair play, what you suggest is reasonable and balanced, as an unaffiliated voter myself the choice however left in Irish politics are limited, (I have also voted FF in the past).

Looking at it historically the reason for FF exisiting has always been about the retention of power , influence, gifts for the party faithful, the hangers on and of course the golden circles of friends, bankers and developers.

FF are certainly not now and have never much been about serving the people with vision, courage, idealism and integrity in trying to advance our courntry . None of the other parties may offer all these attributes but they do have some of these attributes as they have not been corrupted by an almost unending run of power and control

FF have been a disaster for this country both socially and economically and have deprived the Irish people of a truly propserous , socially balacned and progressive society. They are however masters of the political game.

I guess my point though and i strongy agree with you is that even if the other options are not great, -(FG -lab most likely) it is a change and having FF in power ad infinitum perpetuates a party which like a cancer mutates to suit its own ends and destroys and eventually kills the host, - in this case Ireland as a modern viable entity,( how far away are the IMF?, who is propping us up now? -probably the EU, it is unbelievable that we cannot stand on our own feet in the world after nearly a century)

It is time to to cut them out of power . This is easier said than done though as like a cancer looking for control without reference to the health of the host , FF will ally to other parties and infect and kill others in an all consuming lust for control and power , witness the demise of the PD, and I am sure quite soon the greens (imagine what the green vote could be now only for the fatal embrace of FF!).

Once again after an election one of the smaller parties will be tempted and may well fall for the poisoned embrace of FF (I will assume that the core FF vote is a min 30-35%), if they succumb they are perpetuating FF power and the inevitable decline of their own party.

The onus and honesty must come on the other parties to make it quite unambiguous in the next election how they will face the inevitable approach from FF.

FF need to be cut out before they even start at the next GE.