Government in Ireland is a mess: Better say Yes?

[FutureTaoiseach]

Using a bit of a broad brush there, FT, blaming the EU for all of Spain's woes and the fact that they voted "yes".

I suspect that a lot of Spain's economic plight is down to domestic political incompetence, the sort of mind-numbing stupidity, particularly in relation to property, that our retarded government here specialise in. There are, after all, gruesome similarities between their property bubble and our own.

Like Ireland, the Franco-German dominated ECB must share some of the blame, as must open-door immigration from the Accession States to pouring oil on an already overheating property-market. Of course, I blame the politicians, not the immigrants.

[Raketemensch]

FF and their 'colleagues' in power in France Italy Germany and the UK understand each other perfectly.

You may not have realised it, or intended it, but you voted for their culture this morning.

Ireland has improved so much since joining the EU and FF and their clients do not get away with half as much as they did in the past. I'll go with the observable facts rather than the paranoid delusions if it's all the same with you

[He3]

Ireland has improved so much since joining the EU and FF and their clients do not get away with half as much as they did in the past. I'll go with the observable facts rather than the paranoid delusions if it's all the same with you

They don't?

Do the letters N, A, M, and A mean anything to you?

[illumi83]

I cannot believe the arguments expressed by some people on this site. The idea that the Irish people are no longer capable of running their own Nation and that we should surrender our legislative process to europe is absurd. The idea that Irish men and woman would willfully choose the abandon our nation in favour of a foreign government is frankly digusting.

I understand the country is in a bad state of affairs at the moment but I have an undying faith in the Irish people and I believe that the Irish people themselves through hard work, adaptability and ingenuity will return this nation it the glory days.

WELL SAID

And remember that the economy is always going UP and DOWN. Once we're through with this one, another will come.

[Raketemensch]

They don't?

Do the letters N, A, M, and A mean anything to you?

At least we are discussing it openly and if it goes through, we will be watching it like a hawk. In the past they didn't even need NAMA to make 50% tax rates with 0 service, they just did and then distracted everyone's attention by pointing out what the Brits were doing in NI.

[bboruimhe]

As the revelations keep coming every day, showing NOTHING has changed since we went wallop and the chrony/corrupt culture still exists at every corner while our hospitals have to close their doors for 1 whole day on end..etc etc..

...We have proven beyonod a shadow of a doubt that we are not mature enough to govern ourselves with any credibility or sense of social justice.

Bring on Brussels and all its Beurocracy and the germans I say!!! Ive lived there and they have a proper Public Transport System and Modern Schools without damp and rats and nobody waiting on trolleys in their A&E's !

I'm voting No because the EU is committed to Free Market economics, which will mean the Irish government will continue to privatise essential services like health, water, electricity, education using the excuse that these are EU directives. This is the excuse McCreevy used to privatise the ESB, and the excuse Harney will continue to use to destroy our public health service.

What you say about our government is true. I think we are finally opening our eyes to just how incompetent and dishonest the governments we elect have been. 1916 and 1922 gave us our freedom (in the South) and the opportunity to create a republic of equal citizens (as Connolly intended). Today we live in a tinpot banana republic, which is run for the benefit of a small group of enormously wealthy individuals. These individuals effectively own our government and tell it what to do, as opposed to the other way around. They have been allowed to take ownership with the connivance of gombeen politicians like Bertie Ahern. Voting Yes won't change that, voting in a government that is not compromised by its close relationship with the super-rich will.

[He3]

At least we are discussing it openly and if it goes through, we will be watching it like a hawk.

Watching it like a hawk with no claws watches the would-be prey laughing at it.

[Pauli]

Like Ireland, the Franco-German dominated ECB must share some of the blame, as must open-door immigration from the Accession States to pouring oil on an already overheating property-market. Of course, I blame the politicians, not the immigrants.

The ECB is not to blame. Low interest rates did not align with Ireland's position on the economic curve relative to that of Germany and France. Mitigating action could have been taken, particularly regarding the availability of credit. "Light touch" (ie. F*ck all!) regulation in the financial sector fanned the flames and in that manner, our banking sector failed totally. The ECB was not the regulator of our financial sector. It didn''t help that such absence of regulation and failure to take responsibility resulted in one of our banks, now nationalised, was nothing more than a criminal slush fund.

The ECB will continue to be Franco-German dominated. Get used to it.

[farnaby]

I don't fear the EU/Lisbon Treaty precisely because no member state is or wants to be governed from Brussels and therefore it will not happen. The OP plays into 'No' hands by raising this as a possibility. Look at the key areas of public policy that really affect our lives - health, education, tax, justice - the vast majority of these areas are governed by the Irish for the Irish (for better or for worse). Even regarding the economy, where the EU has a massive influence, it is our own policies and practices that have first elevated us then latterly damned us.

We have the talent to govern ourselves and it is self-damning racism to suggest otherwise. However we have a stagnant political system that over-centralises power and does not elevate genuine leaders to the top. The EU/Lisbon have nothing to do with that.

[He3]

Pride in ourselves or despair at our government?

Today tests the dominant national feeling.