Fianna Fáil back on top

RTÉ reports "a second opinion poll in a fortnight has found that Fianna Fáil is the most popular party in the country.

The Millward Brown poll for tomorrow's Sunday Independent, shows Fianna Fáil support at 27%, two points ahead of Fine Gael.

The poll was taken among 1,000 voters between 6-13 February.
In the poll 27% of voters say they are “undecided”. When these are excluded, the poll shows Government parties Fine Gael at 25% and Labour 13%.

Fianna Fáil leads with 27% support with Sinn Féin on 20% and Independents and Others, including the Green Party and United Left Alliance on 16%".

Astonishing! The Irish people have forgotten how "The Republcian Party" (though do not organise in the North of the country) have ruined the economy and almost bankrupt the country.

The Celtic Tiger was real, it began to roar in the early 1990s as an export boom fed into the domestic economy. As tax revenues surged the Fianna Fáil led government spent, spent and spent.....recklessly. Over-spending and buying elections led to competitiveness being eroded. By the turn of the centuary Ireland's competitiveness was eroded to such an extent that the the export boom had receded and the economy began to faulter. The advent of the housing boom meant that nobody noticed.

The Fianna Fáil led govenment's response to the faultering Celtic Tiger and the looming housing bubble was to accelerate the housing boom (tax breaks to developers etc.), increase spending further (especially during election years!) and turn a blind eye on the recklesss lending of the banks. The failure to regulate the banks who were availing of  a limitless supply of cheap money from Europe encouraged further reckless lending. The banks competed against each other to offer gready developers as much as they wanted, no questions asked. Large mortgages were offered to small and medium income families who could scarcely afford them.

Make no mistake about it, the blame for crash in the property maket and subsequent collapse in the economy lies with Fianna Fáil. After several painful austerity budgets we are still left with a €15billion budget deficit, a €64 billion bank bailout debt, a debt to GDP ratio of 120%, loss of sovereignty, further austerity budgets, largescale emigration, high unemployment and a depressed domestic economy.

The people polled by Millward Brown appear to have forgotten all this, I certainly have not!