Should Fiona O'Malley be the next leader of the Progressive Democrats?

32% YES 68% NO

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Your Reaction

• "However, regardless of the labelling, a party like the PDs is needed" The notion that the PD's are needed or are not a right wing party as claimed by Ms O'Malley simply does not stand up. In order to manitain a low tax economy, vital services are being decimated with no regard at all for those on low and fixed incomes. And the most recent tax loophole created for the wealthy, tax relief on money speculated in the provision of hospice facilities, is a vulgarity that would hardly have been consonanced if the "greed is good" ideology of the PD's had not been given the opportunity to put such ideas into pratcice. The PD's have overseen the breakdown of any sense of community and we are reaping the whirlwind. We do not need a PD leader, rather those that can, would do a great service to the people of Ireland if they allow the party to wither into oblivion and work to restore a semblence of fairness and justice in the community.
  Jim O'Sullivan  Ireland
• Ciaran represents a fresh start for the PD's and he looks like he has a 'people' approach to poicies.
  Colm  Ireland
• Yes - of course she should. She is an incompetent, blithering idiot, who will ram home the final nails in the PD coffin, and consign the party to the annals of irish political history, where it belongs!
  Marty  Vatican City State (Holy See)
• I have been impressed with Ciaran Cannon. The PDs have been used to lecturing us over the last 20 years, perhaps with Ciaran as leader they can become more relevant to the ordinary voter.
  Tom  Ireland
• Yes I believe O'Malley should be leader. She has the right idea - to shoot down the media-generated concept that it is a right wing party. In fact, the party has always been more progressive than most of the left-wing parties in Ireland. At a time when the Labour Party huffed and puffed about contraception, divorce and legalising homosexuality, the PDs were campaigning for each of these. The right wing tag arose because journalists could not comprehend a party which did not fit the right-wing conservative/left wing socialist paradigm. Since most journalists are left wing trade unionists, they decided to make out that the party was right wing. It's tried to be a liberal party, and its policies are clearly not right-wing - but it keeps on being painted back in that corner by the media. Like all prejudiced people, the media ignore all the cotrary evidence. So, O'Malley is right, like her father was right, and I respect her.
  Michael, Lucan  Ireland
• I am a member of the Green Party, so perhaps I am not the best person to comment on the PDs. However, I think that both Fiona O'Malley and Ciaran Cannon are OK candidates from the point of view of the Progressive Democrats. They are both "liberal republicans", still focussed on reducing the size and influence of the State and supporting individual freedoms and this leads them into a relatively "right wing" economic policy (although Fiona O'Malley doesn't like the tag!). If you like the sort of politics they espouse, go vote for them!
  Conor  Ireland
• The PDs are the last remains of the far right wing of the Conservatives under Thatcher. If they really thought that competition was in the interests of the public and would provide better public services then during all their time in government they'd have brought in competition and changed things. Instead all they have done is used their time in government to look after the vested interests who vote for them. The lawyers, the doctors, the consultants, the ABC professionals. Does anyone know of a PD voter who is not comfortable financially or who doesn't live in the 'leafy suburb' section of whereever it is they live. The PDs go on about how much they done and how successful they are to ahve been in government so long in their histroy - well I don't think their record is anything to be proud of except for the tiny niche % they cater for. Time for the party to end. Time for Fiona to go to college and do a degree in philosophy and for Ciaran to rejoin Fiana Fáil with Noel and be done with the whole charade. Enough already.
  Des FitzGerald  United Kingdom