'Voters like the cut of Simon Harris because he appears honest and keen to get things done'
'Harris is a man in a hurry and the rest of the political class and the civil servants need to adopt this approach'
The politicians must think we are all a bunch of eejits. They keep telling us that the Government will run full term and that the general election won't be held until next March. But it's all nothing but fake news as Donald Trump would say.
The truth is we will all be voting at the end of October or the beginning of November and every member of every political party knows that.
All of the political parties from Fine Gael to Sinn Fein have finalised or are close to finalising their candidates in each constituency. Each and everyone of them are fulfilling their gender quota obligations. We will hopefully see the highest number of female candidates running for the Dail in the history of the state
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A general election gives us a chance to give our verdict of those in power. It is also an opportunity for voters to examine what all the parties are proposing for the country for the next five years.
We hear a lot of words from all our leaders about policy but what we really need to hear is a vision, for what type of country we want to be and where exactly are we going.
The vast majority of people in Ireland work extremely hard. They are not afraid to put a shift in to earn a few quid. We are not a bunch of scourgers. Everybody here wants to provide for their families, live in a nice home , and educate their children. It's not asking for a lot.
They don't mind paying taxes so long as they receive decent public services and they don't see their money wasted. While the state excels at providing us with one of the best education systems in the world - and trust me it is - it fails miserably when it comes to healthcare and infrastructure.
We as a country are spending billions and billions on health and getting nowhere. Our emergency wards are as full as ever, plagued by overcrowding and it feels as if we are throwing money away into a bottomless pit.
The politicians seem to be more interested in pleasing vested interest groups within the whole health sector than providing a decent medical service for the citizens of this country.
Almost one in four of every euro in taxes is going to the HSE and the results are woeful. The same can be said about our national infrastructure and the failure to provide it.
I mean from the clear lack of social housing to the snail pace improvements in public transport from the buses to the trains, and the total failure to build offshore wind energy farms off the coast of Ireland over the current term of this Government.
The next great investment in infrastructure always seems to be just around the corner. We have a new national plan for our railways but work should begin on some of these lines especially in the western rail corridor and from Limerick to Waterford straight away not five or ten years down the line.
We as a nation have the potential of the Saudi Arabia of wind in the world because of Ireland's position in the Atlantic ocean. Wind is the new oil. Yet the powers that be in. Government has been flapping about trying to get various wind energy projects up and running.
Instead of decimating our archaic planning laws to stop idiots objecting to these projects of huge national importance both the politicians and the civil servants are farthing about and endangering our national energy security at the same time.
One of the most interesting statistics about Ireland I came across over the weekend came from the economist David McWilliams. Did you know that over the last five years Ireland's public spending has increased by a staggering 47pc from 71 Billion euros to 105 Billion yet in terms of infrastructure we seem to have nothing to show for it.
So you have to ask yourself what in the name of God is the Government doing with the cash? The only thing I can see are new schools being built all over the place in fairness and thousands and thousands of new houses.
This year somewhere between 30,000 to 40,000 new homes will be built but we need to get it up to 50,000 a year to keep up with the growing population trend.
Developers also need to be severely punished financially via heavy new taxes for land hoarding - holding land and not building on it when they have planning permission in the hope of flipping it for more cash down the road.
Our new Finance Minister Jack Chambers is reluctant to do it in case it upsets farmers even though the move is most definitely in the national interest and will mean quicker new houses to market. Jack needs to ask himself who elected him: the people of Dublin west or the developers and the farmers?
Our election will be held around the same time as the Presidential election in the United States. The people of America will have two choices for President, the Republican Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris of the Democrats.
They have both been setting out their various policies in recent weeks to reduce the cost of living, improve housing and stop illegal immigrants. Sound familiar?
We will have three realistic choices for Taoiseach - the current incumbent Simon Harris of Fine Gael, Micheal Martin of Fianna Fail and Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Fein.
A year ago Mary Lou looked like a shoe-in and now the party is struggling in the polls. They need to clearly clarify their policies and assure voters they won't wreck the economy by making populist promises that are not realistic or affordable.
Kamala Harris hopes to be elected American President because she is 20 years younger and far more energetic than Trump. The age appeal may also work well for Simon Harris. He is a fresh-faced prime minister who has only held the job for five months. Voters like the cut of him because he appears honest and keen to get things done.
Harris is a man in a hurry and the rest of the political class and the civil servants need to adopt this approach in terms of getting things done for this country.
The good times won't last forever so we need to get as much built and developed when we have the cash. A General Election will clear the air and set a marker for what the people want done for the next political cycle.
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