CIARÁN CANNON 67% - FIONA O'MALLEY 33%:Last week, Ciarán Cannonand Fiona O'Malleymade their case for "who should be the next leader of the Progressive Democrats?" Here is an edited selection of your comments submitted to Head to Head website.
"HOWEVER, REGARDLESS of the labelling, a party like the PDs is needed." The notion that the PDs are needed or are not a right-wing party as claimed by Ms O'Malley simply does not stand up. In order to maintain 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 countenanced if the PD ideology of "greed is good" had not been given the opportunity to put such ideas into practice. The PDs 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 semblance of fairness and justice in the community.
Jim O'Sullivan
Ireland
Of course Fiona O'Malley should be the next leader of the PDs. She will ram home the final nails in the PD coffin, and consign it to the annals of Irish political history, where it belongs!
Marty
Vatican City State (Holy See)
I have been impressed with Ciarán Cannon. The PDs have been used to lecturing us over the last 20 years, perhaps with Ciarán as leader they can become more relevant to the ordinary voter.
Tom
Ireland
I believe O'Malley should be leader. She has the right idea - to shoot down the media-generated concept that the PDs is a right-wing party. In fact, it 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 has 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 contrary 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 Ciarán Cannon are okay candidates from the point of view of the Progressive Democrats. They are both "liberal republicans", still focused 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