Focusing Elsewhere

at



Tonight.

Citywest Hotel, Dublin.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar gives the closing address on the second day of the Fine Gael Ard Fheis where he promised “five more years” of income tax cuts.

Rollingnews

Earlier:

This morning/afternoon.

Citywest Hotel.

Scenes from Day 2 of the Fine Gael Ard Fheis which culminates this evening with a leadership address by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar..

From top: (left to right) Simon Coveney, Richard Bruton and Chalie Flanagan; as before with prospective Fine Gael dáil candidate Eileen O’Malley Dunlop, of the National Women’s Council (right) Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Regina Doherty; from left: Heather Humphries, Paschal Donohoe and Eoghan Murphy; audience shot; the podium this morning; Fine Gael supporters; from left: Caroline Hofman, Former Rose of Tralee Maria Walsh, Maksuda Akhter and Fine Gael Sean Kelly MEP; audience shot; as before; Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

Government’s focus is on Brexit, not elections – Varadkar (RTÉ)

Sam Boal/Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

Um.

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17 thoughts on “Focusing Elsewhere”

  4. JIMMY JAMES

    2 women centre, both representative of Ireland for Beauty, one on the LGBT card, one on the Ethnic card, both on the Inclusive card. Women on left there because of the other 2 women, & token white privileged male.

    Yay.

    2. scundered

      Except male white privilege has been debunked so many times that it’s embarassing to see some people still use it today. The same opportunities for women to push for such careers have existed for a very long time, which explains most cases of outrage as they look at equality of outcome instead of equality of opportunity.

        1. Scundered

          If you have a problem with the facts, then feel free to state what opportunity is being denied to other demographics outside of white males.

  5. Giggidygoo

    Those two videos sum up the capacity of FG to run this country. Jeebes wept twice as much as normal.

  11. Mike

    Everybody loves paying less tax.
    But too many of us know the consequences of giveaway budgets and tighten-our-belt budgets.
    When was sensible ever sexy though? Being a safe pair of hands is not going to get you elected…

    I get a bit un-nerved when they announce the likes of the €50k and €100k thresholds.
    That’s not enough to make a judgement call. Percentages! Where are they!?
    The first €50k at 35% and everything over that at 45%?
    The first €50k at 20% and everything over that at 60%?

    Income tax is unnecessarily complicated.
    I would love to see USC eradicated and replaced with:
    €0 – €20k @ A%
    €20k – 50k @ B%
    €50k+ @ C%
    Then try and leave the percentages alone and change the bands or vice versa.
    I believe everyone should contribute something. So A% above should be 1 or 2%.

    I also think the Dept for Public Expenditure and Reform should post an annual statement to peoples homes once a year – like a pension company does. Standard template, contained political interference.
    One pie chart per department. For example, I had no idea just how little of the Social Welfare budget goes on unemployed people compared with pensions. I literally have no idea what kind of cost categories might exist within Defence. There’s no point making it available on a website, how many people have signed up for e-billing with their utilities company and never really go checking the detail…

    In an age where people are hearing about Russian meddling and corporations lobbying I think aggressive transparency in the public service would really resonate with the electorate.
    Also, I’ve never read a political manifesto in my life. I’ve never actually received one either. Wouldn’t a standard template like the one mentioned above be great to receive from parties in advance of an election? Help me compare like for like. Of course parties will have priorities, but once your party is above X% in the polls you are a serious contender and should have to submit a pro-forma template of financial and non-financial metrics for general distribution.

    I’m married to a British guy and love telling his family about the information distributed by the Referendum Commission. They have nothing like it. (They HAD nothing like it when it was really needed)
    I would love to see a booklet prior to each election – The President should have a page explaining that there is an election coming up and that its important to vote. The next few pages are national (parties and issues), the last few pages are constituency specific. Each candidate gets a page with similar template. Finally a few pages from Dept for Public Expenditure and Reform perhaps. Then no other election posters or postcards through the door etc. Everyone has set out their stall in an open and environmentally friendly way. Currently, politicians calling to the door can be pro-windfarms at my door and anti-windfarms at the next door. Set out our stall early on and in writing and then let me decide. The last page of the booklet tears off and could act as a polling card to ensure everyone in the State gets the information.

    I’m sure there’s a million pdfs on the gov.ie website but the public service should be active rather than passive when it comes to transparency. #ShowMeTheMoney

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