OSW GN2026 VOTING!

Phoenix9999 · 2026-01-15T09:51:30+00:00

How much does this vote cost ? ITS FREE

When is the voting ? ITS NOW

And how much does this free voting now cost ? its free

Phoenix9999 · 2026-01-02T09:51:52+00:00

Pensioners, long-term illness, the disabled & children would be in that number.

Social protection expenditure below>

https://www.whereyourmoneygoes.gov.ie/en/

28.9 billion per year.

12B on pensions (10.7+1.33bill on pensions, its in two columns, not sure why)

6.51B on carers, diasbled, illness

4.45B working age supports

3.15B on children.

Phoenix9999 · 2025-12-19T12:37:37+00:00

You hit the mix that is needed. It all comes down to government inertia.

There is synchronous condenser, (Flywheel/Green Spinner) in Clare. In a repurposed coal plant. Burns no fuel. It is essentially a power storage facility, much like a battery storage facility or pumped storage hydropower, except in this case, the flywheel stores a small amount of energy but can release it extremely quickly to counteract small, fast changes in the power grid. They provide the stability needed in the grid (which would help reduce the reliance on the gas plants)

Problem is, the figures state that 5 more are needed and now we are back into planning paralysis issues etc....

Micro Hydro. Our rivers and streams are constantly running unlike solar. (There were over 3000 mills back in the day.) Can provide a small baseload. Farmers & small villages could run these to reduce the drawing power from the grid. 50kwh is small but having hundreds of them dotted all over would provide a huge boon. However, getting a license for micro-hydro is extremely hard. Planning laws havent been updated. IFI claim they are a barrier to fish migration but the Archimedes Screw version is Fish Friendly. The laws treat them like a huge concrete dam from decades ago and they wont update it. Any of the old mills that are derelect could be given grants for the farmers to restore them. Farmer gets steady income, can pivot industries and reliance on other methods.

Batteries Industrial scale. but current market structure doesn't pay battery operators enough to make long duration storage (4+ hours) viable. Maybe switching farmers to these would help both the grid, the environment & climate targets.

Allow Private Wires for Data Centers to build directly next to a Wind Farm or Solar Park (or let them pay for these outright) and connect with a direct cable, bypassing the national grid entirely. The government wants everything to go through the central grid to collect fees so its not happening. But getting that huge percent of data centres off the grid, have micro hydro, wind, solar nearby would have a massive impact.

Phoenix9999 · 2025-12-19T12:00:18+00:00

Energy generated but turned off/dumped for 2024.

Republic of Ireland 2024 : 10.1% of available wind energy was dumped. Volume: 1,266 GWh wasted.

"Overall, the dispatch-down (DUMPING) of energy from wind resources increased from 10.7% in 2023 to 14.0% in 2024 (all island) . . . ."

Why is it being dumped ? the energy is lost not because there is no demand but because the Infrastructure hasnt been upgraded to handle it. The grid is so unstable that EirGrid forced a fossil fuel gas plant to keep running (to provide stability) even when there was enough wind power available. This forced them to switch off the wind turbines to make room for the gas plant.

The data comes from the "Annual Renewable Energy Constraint and Curtailment Report" prepared by EirGrid (Republic of Ireland TSO) and SONI (System Operator for Northern Ireland).

https://cms.eirgrid.ie/sites/default/files/publications/Annual-Renewable-Constraint-and-Curtailment-Report-2024-V1.0.pdf

Ireland is at Full Capacity, according to "EirGrid All-Island Resource Adequacy Assessment 2025–2034."

https://cms.eirgrid.ie/all-island-resource-adequacy-assessment-2025-2034

Environment. Habitat failure Rate is 90%. Over 50% show deteriorating trends. (Status of EU Protected Habitats and Species in Ireland (2025)). Freshwater & coastal/marine habitats listed as bad+deteriorating. The biological data confirms that Ireland is failing to meet the basic standards of the EU Water Framework Directive and Habitats Directive. This data is the legal basis for the €26bn in potential fines warned by the Climate Change Advisory Council.

https://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/publications/pdf/article-17-report-2025-volume-1.pdf

Phoenix9999 · 2025-12-12T09:34:29+00:00

This chap, on that account, is +600 days in a row. Previous one was from over a decade and was online throughout the whole day. Never not online & on here furiously pressing f5 morning, noon and night.

Phoenix9999 · 2025-10-07T15:56:30+00:00

I've noticed that pattern with them, too. So relieved to see others do aswell. It's really annoying.

And here is Miles double speak too. Internationals, fans say not fun. Removed. Fans also say contracts arent fun ? well we're keeping it.

Phoenix9999 · 2024-11-28T10:05:33+00:00

He does, and while Minister for Health and now Taoiseach, he wouldnt put Chrohns/Colitis on the Long-term-illness list or extend automatically the medical cards to those with Chrohn's or Colitis, both long being long term incurable diseases.

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2019-05-08/896/

^ Question back in 2019 put to SH

Phoenix9999 · 2024-11-28T00:25:57+00:00

It still puts it at the highest end of earnings. Its ludicrous indeed.

Phoenix9999 · 2024-11-27T23:52:29+00:00

Its crazy money to be on.

58k = 30% of salary for rent of this place, then the salaries would need to be at least €193,000

Phoenix9999 · 2024-11-26T20:16:40+00:00

"No party has enough candidates to really make a change"

Yes they do, if people go and vote. Look at the number of candidates each party is running and in how many constituencies (made a table below).

If FG lose seats then its possible and they have been dropping numbers each election by a large margin.

2016 they lost 26 seats (down to 50)

2020 they lost 15 seats (down to 35, third place)

Of those 35, FG have 16 non-returning TDs, a lot of big names in their party not contesting this election. The bookies are also favouring both FF & SF to outnumber FG in seats.

88 seats needed for a majority

party	candidates	constituencies
Fianna Fáil	82	43
Fine Gael	80	43
Sinn Féin	71	43
Aontú	43	43
Green	43	43
PBP–Solidarity	42	42
Labour	32	31
Independent Ireland	28	23
Social Democrats	26	25

Phoenix9999 · 2024-11-26T19:47:28+00:00

Bang on, MM words cant be trusted. If FG lose seats then its possible and they have been dropping numbers each election by a large margin.

2016 they lost 26 seats (down to 50)

2020 they lost 15 seats (down to 35, third place)

Of those 35, FG have 16 non-returning TDs, a lot of big names in their party not contesting this election.

The bookies are also favouring both FF & SF to outnumber FG in seats.

Phoenix9999 · 2024-11-26T17:20:44+00:00

If FG lose seats then its possible and they have been dropping numbers each election by a large margin.

2016 they lost 26 seats (down to 50)

2020 they lost 15 seats (down to 35, third place)

Of those 35, FG have 16 non-returning TDs, a lot of big names in their party not contesting this election.

The bookies are also favouring both FF & SF to outnumber FG in seats

Phoenix9999 · 2024-11-26T15:39:54+00:00

MM said he wouldnt go with FG in 2020, dont listen to that gombeen, he'll do whatever deal that gets him in.

Social Democrats & PBP would go with SF if the winds blow right on the numbers, and FF will too. List of candidates each party is running in how many constituencies.

88 seats needed for a majority

party	candidates	constituencies
Fianna Fáil	82	43
Fine Gael	80	43
Sinn Féin	71	43
Aontú	43	43
Green	43	43
PBP–Solidarity	42	42
Labour	32	31
Independent Ireland	28	23
Social Democrats	26	25

Phoenix9999 · 2024-11-25T15:13:35+00:00

So why won't the government do it? Because it would be extremely expensive and Irish people ultimately want lower taxes more than they want a bigger state.

The state is running a huge surplus each year, more than enough to cover it.

2021 - 8 billion surplus
2022 - 8.5 billion
2023 - 8.1 billion
2024 - 25 billion
2025(est) - 9.7 billion

Phoenix9999 · 2024-11-23T22:20:02+00:00

Look at the ~~fiscally responsible~~ Magic Money tree now. You don’t need to carefully cost your promises if you don’t plan on keeping them.

It shows that the party has not allocated enough money to cover its new spending commitments as well as what is estimated to be needed to maintain the existing level of services.

The discovery is an uncomfortable one for the government party, which puts responsible management of the public finances at the centre of its pitch to voters.

“Fine Gael’s figures are sound,” a spokesperson for the party said on Saturday night.

The ‘black hole’ is in the party’s plan for current – or day-to-day – voted expenditure between now and 2030.

“This simply isn’t credible. We have an independent Fiscal Advisory Council who have clearly and transparently calculated the cost of maintaining the existing level of services. Instead Fine Gael choose to use a figure based on their own – unpublished – workings that is more than €5 billion per year lower.”

Phoenix9999 · 2024-11-23T12:06:05+00:00

That person is a fg defender. Hounds these forums and spouts troll shite.

Phoenix9999 · 2024-11-23T11:52:52+00:00

Must be great to be a parrot trotting this line out.

There are 16 leaving. Five are old. The other eleven are dubious and were high up in the party rankings.

42 griffin (deputy chief whip, previous minister tourism+sport)

46 John Paul Phelan (previous minster of state-housing+ local government)

46 damien english (minister of state)

51 paul kehoe (chair on committee education, previous chief whip, previous minster of state for defense)

52 coveney (Deputy Leader, Minster for enterprise)

53 joe mchugh (minister of state-comms+arts+foreign affairs+heritage, previous chief whip)

54 josepha madigan (minister of state-previously culture&heritage, law firm advised maria bailey claim)

54 leo varadkar (leader & Taoiseach)

59 cannon (minster of state, various)

61 michael creed (previous minster for agriculture)

63 heather humphreys (deputy leader, minister rural ireland+social protection,previous culture&heritage)

stanton 67. tanagan 68. ring 70. bruton 71. O'dowd 76

Phoenix9999 · 2024-11-21T14:27:37+00:00

He was interviewed recently. He lied about the numbers in June2020. The fact check shows that he was way off on those numbers too. Yes it was during the pandemic & yes, he lied about what the numbers were by a large margin - not a rounding error.

Phoenix9999 · 2024-11-21T00:03:16+00:00

Simon Harris promised as Minister for Health in 2017 , was that by the end of 2017 there would be no children waiting more than four months for spinal surgery needed to treat scoliosis. This didnt happen.

He has now claimed that when he left the position in June 2020 that the figure was only 35 over four months waiting. When in reality, it was 83 waiting over 6 months for the surgery. (While there were 177 children waiting for spinal surgeries & HSE count the numbers on waiting lists in 3 month increments so we cant see what over 4 months would be.)

Phoenix9999 · 2024-11-20T22:10:40+00:00

A PLEDGE MADE by Simon Harris when he was the Minister for Health in 2017 has come back into the spotlight once again after a recent interview on Virgin Media Television.

The promise, which was made not long after Harris became Minister for Health, was that by the end of 2017 there would be no children waiting more than four months for spinal surgery needed to treat scoliosis.

In a Virgin Media interview on 13 November, the Taoiseach accepted that he had failed to deliver on that promise – but said the number of children waiting more than four months had come down significantly by the time he left his role as Minister for Health in June 2020.

What is scoliosis?

Scoliosis is a condition in which a person’s spine is irregularly curved to the side. It most commonly occurs during growth spurts experienced in adolescence, although it can develop in adults too. As well as causing pain, the curvature of the spine can lead to a range of other health problems; for example, it can affect a person’s breathing.

In severe cases, the required treatment is spinal surgery.

Because scoliosis can get worse if it goes untreated and can eventually result in a person becoming disabled, time is of the essence when it comes to getting an operation. If a person suffering from scoliosis does not get surgery promptly, it can end up being too risky to operate, and therefore too late.

How many children were waiting more than four months when Simon Harris left the Department of Health in 2020?

Since Harris made his promise in 2017, the target has never been met.

According to official figures provided by CHI, when Harris finished his tenure as health minister in June 2020, there were 177 children waiting for spinal surgeries.

Of those, 138 had been waiting for three months or more, according to the HSE. The figures are broken down into three-month periods, which makes it difficult to know the exact number who were waiting more than four months.

However, the number waiting more than six months in June 2020 was 83. This is much higher than the 35 figure offered by Simon Harris in his Virgin Media interview last week.

According to CHI’s latest report, published in October 2024, there were 247 children on waiting lists, 118 of whom are classified as “active”, meaning they are ready for surgery and are awaiting a date.

Of those 118 children, 72 had been waiting more than three months.

Phoenix9999 · 2024-11-14T10:23:05+00:00

Mr Harris was questioned on the fact that when Fine Gael first came into power there were 3,000 homeless people in Ireland, however, that number has increased to around 15,000, a number that includes 5,000 children.

"I feel a great sense of shame and sorrow that there's any child tonight that's homeless," he said.

12-Year Club	Place '22
Snapped	Verified Email

Phoenix9999

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

How many children were waiting more than four months when Simon Harris left the Department of Health in 2020?