I probably should have asked before Friday, but watching the election results coverage over the last couple of days and hearing panels discussing parties to the left and right got me wondering. I wouldn't have put any party specifically to left wing/right wing politics in Ireland but obviously I'm incorrect. Which of our parties and lefties/righties?

What do you think about switching Ireland from a representative democracy to a direct democracy? Rather than electing politicians to make decisions for us, we would have public committees for each specific topic. For example there would be a healthcare committee, a water committee, an electric committee, a military committee, etc. All of these would be open to the public to join and voice their opinions on. These committees can then pitch polls to the public who can vote on electronic voting machines placed in all garda stations and post offices. The machines would be accessible whenever the building is normally open. Having a monthly event like a farmers market at these voting machines would increase voter turnout.

An example could be the military committee pitching a poll to the public asking if we should buy another navy ship. "Do the people of Ireland want to spend €100,000,000 on a navy warship equating to €20 per person?". Currently instead of the people deciding, unelected government workers decide it without getting any input from the public.

Another example could be with garda bodycams. I would assume that most people would like for gardai to have bodycams. There should be a policing committee where they pitch a vote to the people "Should Gardai be required to wear bodycams?". If the vote passes, that policy should be constitutionally required to be implemented as quickly and efficiently as possible.

To quell any fears about electronic voting, every single bank and business owner trusts electronics to handle their money. If banks can build systems so securely they feel safe putting machines filled with cash in public, voting machines can definitely be made secure and tamper proof.

The idea is that you get a fine if you don't vote, but polling day is a national holiday or on a weekend. Special circumstances can allow people not to vote, like force majure, or illness, but it should force the turnout to be higher. Hopefully leading to a more representative system. Such a system is already in place in Australia and many countries in Latin America.

Would it work in Ireland? What are the pros/cons? What are your opinions?

Reposted with fixed title.

No direct source but talk about arrogant statements. It communicates we do things our way, having to explain ourselves or be opened up to scrutiny may lead to accountability- a nightmare. Instead of: Soc Dems are a great party with progressive policies and a younger cohort that will help the country move forward (together)!

Undoubtedly one of the worst TD’s ever, completely mired in controversy. I’m actually embarrassed that she got that low of a FPV. Anyone from Clare or nearby can offer a reason as to why she polled that LOW. I knew she wasn’t going to be elected but that performance is just incredible!

Hello. I am Scottish and fairly ignorant to Irish politics, but I have tried looking up this answer and cannot find it anywhere. According to the BBC, not a single party in Ireland has fielded enough candidates to win a majority. I just wondered why this is. Is it part of the law? Is it due to just the Irish political culture? Is it to focus on the seats they are more capable of winning. Thanks!

What do the left party’s need to do to get younger people to vote in the first place let alone vote for them?

The younger vote will go to Sinn Fein/Soc Dem/Pbp for the most part so even if they got more young people to vote without even convincing them to vote SF/SD/PBP they’d fancy the odds the extra young people on average would vote for them.

A recent RTE article shared a European social survey where just over half of under 35 self reported they voted in last election where 90% of 60+ did. Only Lithuania and Switzerland had lower youth turnout but we had the largest gap between two age groups ~40%

What are they doing specifically to engage with young people? They’re not going to be tuning into RTE leaders debate and a visit to college campus the week before a general election is far too late. I’ve seen posters for Soc Dem (not to pick on them specifically) candidates in my constituency and I’ve never heard their name prior to the posters going up and I’d like to think I’m more engaged than the average person going about their life. No chance a young person who wouldn’t keep up to date with Irish politics has ever heard of them then. Too late by then. So many votes left on the table.

The older generations will have massive turnouts and predominantly vote for FF/FG and we get more of the same.

With a lot of the polls coming out and voting tallies nearly done, it looks like Aontú have gotten more preference votes than People before Profit. Now, I can understand the criticism people have of the PBP, but I'm confused as to why they are less popular than Aontú?

I personally would have thought PBP would have been more popular, but the seem to have really taken a hit this election cycle.

If you voted Aontú, what swung the decision for you? If you voted PBP, why do you think others didn't?

Been having this discussion with a few people both before and in the aftermath of the election, to what extent are the notable aspects of Irish politics shaped by the face we use STV compared to a party-list system like in much of Europe.

It seems like it's a big factor in the more parochial nature of Irish politics and identical nature of two of the three big parties as it encourages voting based on "he fixed the roads" rather than national issues, plus also a watering down of policy differences to promote transfer-friendliness. FF in particular wouldn't be anywhere nearly as strong without our electoral system.

What's the real difference anymore!

Genuine question. What 18-24 year olds are voting FF or FG?

29% of the votes in that age group.

👋 Welcome to the r/IrishPolitics General Election Counts Megathread!

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This is our Megathread for discussion of the counts.

Counting started at 9am.

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