Hibernia Forum: 10 questions to ask candidates

The Hibernia Forum has published


Here is the summary:

TEN SUBSTANTIVE QUESTIONS FOR OUR MASTERS
1. Are Your Promises Believable?
2. Are Your Proposals Fiscally Prudent?
3. Are Our Public Finances Accurately Recorded?
4. Is Ireland’s Tax System Aligned with its Long-Term Interests?
5. Do You Believe that Ireland Has Got More Unequal Over Recent Years?
6. Do You Think Irish Health Spending is Too Low?
7. Do You Think We Spend Our Education Budget in the Right Places?
8. Are Your Political and Institutional Reform Proposals Ambitious Enough?
9. Do You Believe it is Right to Engage in Government Activity for PR Purposes?
10. Will Ireland’s Legal System ever be Properly Reformed?

And a good article on it in the Irish Times by Stephen Collins

Election 2016: Parties are avoiding key issues, forum says

Any candidate that even attempts to answer these questions will get my No1.

And a good contribution from PublicPolicy.ie this morning as well


#GE16 The General Election Manifestos : Our View

22 Feb 2016
Key Point

The binding commitments in the EU Fiscal Rules will not allow many of the commitments in the Manifestos of the main political parties to be implemented within the next three years.

Introduction
Much of the election campaign to date has focused on the various parties plans to use the available fiscal space. Fiscal space refers to the resources available for discretionary increases in public spending or reductions in taxation.

The Department of Finance has estimated that the net fiscal space available in the 5 years to 2021 will be €8.6 billion . Most of this will on present projections be available in 2020 and 2021. Given the uncertainties in the world economic environment, estimates for over 3 years out should be treated with caution. What is clear is that the amount of discretion available to Government in the next three years will be very limited; perhaps €2.5 billion after making some allowance for public pay increases in 2019. As a result any public expectation of a substantial increase in public spending or reduction in taxation in the near future will be disappointed. The USC will be with us for some years yet.

I doubt very much if any politician is going to say "no" to 1, 2 and 8

Brendan Burgess said:

What is clear is that the amount of discretion available to Government in the next three years will be very limited; perhaps €2.5 billion after making some allowance for public pay increases in 2019. As a result any public expectation of a substantial increase in public spending or reduction in taxation in the near future will be disappointed. The USC will be with us for some years yet.

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I think if we've learned anything over the years it's that parties in election mode make promises based on the most optimistic scenarios with a view to implementing most of their promises in years 4 and 5 to lead nicely into a positive frame of mind for the next election again. So years 1-3 are nearly always the years where fewest promises are implemented and the hope is that by year 4 there is enough money in the pot to start implementing some of them.
With that in mind personally I treat promises more as a view into the intentions of the parties and their vision rather than something I think they are committed to delivering. More often than not, if they have not delivered on them by the end of the term they find some way of excusing that due to reasons beyond their control or some such.

Perhaps the 10 questions are what people should ask, but in reality, very few are going to ask these questions.

People’s concerns will typically be related to their own particular set of personal circumstances, the area in which they live, the nature of their work and their left/right/middle political predisposition.

That is why we have the politics we have.

Ceist Beag said:

I think if we've learned anything over the years it's that parties in election mode make promises based on the most optimistic scenarios with a view to implementing most of their promises in years 4 and 5 to lead nicely into a positive frame of mind for the next election again. So years 1-3 are nearly always the years where fewest promises are implemented and the hope is that by year 4 there is enough money in the pot to start implementing some of them.
With that in mind personally I treat promises more as a view into the intentions of the parties and their vision rather than something I think they are committed to delivering. More often than not, if they have not delivered on them by the end of the term they find some way of excusing that due to reasons beyond their control or some such.

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In fairness to the Shinners they are going to create their own fiscal space by taxing the out of "The Rich" and introducing a Financial Services Tax (it's a victimless tax, just like insurance fraud is a victimless crime ).

Purple ,

Cannot resist commenting.
Mr Shinner when elected is going to have a Kangaroo Commission,(used to be Quango,s) trusted with finding out where these Richers are at .
Once these Richers are found, they will be given due process, under their Special Criminal Court (in an out of the way ) diesel laundering shed , probably in Louth.
That will sort them out..

Gerry Canning said:

Purple ,

Cannot resist commenting.
Mr Shinner when elected is going to have a Kangaroo Commission,(used to be Quango,s) trusted with finding out where these Richers are at .
Once these Richers are found, they will be given due process, under their Special Criminal Court (in an out of the way ) diesel laundering shed , probably in Louth.
That will sort them out..

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Might be hard to find the Richers, given the way some of them hid cheques and cash in haybales in sheds