he Labour Party does not have a great track record in government and targeted the most vulnerable in our society the last time they were in power. They cut Gardai numbers, forced through painful social protection payment cuts to lone parents, raided pensions, cut the state pension to some women who had taken time out to look after their children, increased the medicine charge from 50 cents to €2.50, reduced the winter fuel allowance by six weeks, cut the electricity allowance, removed the telephone allowance, removed the death grant, removed the bin allowance and Christmas bonus, reduced welfare payments for under 25s, brought in a property tax and done their best to bring in water charges etc, to name but a few things.

What country has she been living in for the last 30 years

The trajectory of this Leader is sure and certain, and it's downward.

The sound bites are well chosen - the fixing of the housing crisis bit was especially easy on the ears. “Go Ivana” I was thinking I was all in until the charade of “Free GP Care” soundbite was delivered. It’s a falsity, a contradiction, a sure sign of non-joined up thinking and a failure to understand the basic metrics of demands on HSE/GPs versus resources available. A failure to understand the limits and capacity within our healthcare system. Yes. Free medical cards is great for gathering votes. But the sad corollary of this is actually more visits to ED for the elderly i.e. in complete contradiction of her soundbite on looking after the elderly in the community! The proven consequence of “free GP cards” is that younger & less sick children clog up extra visits in a finite system. The elderly can wait…. or go to the ED! In fact total GPs were down in number last year. Also so much healthcare [eg. Chronic disease management] has been transferred from hospitals to GPs that there are less visits for acute care and same day or “near same day” GP visits available (like the good old days) that the patients simply go to the ED. They can’t wait 1 or 2 weeks for a GP appointment. Some don’t even bother calling their GP anymore knowing what that wait will be. So, yes, wonderful vote gathering sound bites - like what we have seen with Leo & Simon - sad to see Labour at the same game. Health needs to be thought through properly. Sound bites such as these are part of the problem, not the solution!

I am from Liverpool across the water, the 26 Counties are regrettably reactionary and right leaning. It must be very frustrating that you can not have a majority Labour Government in the 26 Counties.