RTE doesn't get it, hasn't understood Eurovision for quite some time and is stuck in the era of Johnny Logan and Linda Martin. The Eurovision song contest is a celebration of crap and novelty shhtick. The winner is decided by text vote, which is based around geography rather than actual merit. It has no artistic value whatsoever and the competition should only be taken as a bit of a laugh. In my view, there's three things that RTE can do:

1) Carry on with their existing "Song for Europe" format and then wonder why we come last. The entries they've submitted the past few years haven't even been hits in Ireland. As for all the songs themselves - plop!

2) Recognise the competition for the sham it is and intentionally send novelty type acts. We're going to come last, so why not have a bit of craic and give two fingers to the competition from the bottom of the table. "Irelande Douze Points" fit in here. Dustin gets it - the opening line sums it all up. "I come from a nation what knows how to write a song. But Europe, where did it all go wrong?" The song is intentionally tacky and is all the better for it. But RTE had little to do with this entry - Joe & Josephine Soap around Ireland voted in their droves for the most stupid song, cause they know what a cod Eurovision is.

3) Recognise the competition for the sham it is, realise that we're going to come last but send an act that actually has some musical merit to it anyway. As a nation, we're awash with musical talent. We punch way above our weight musically and you don't have to go far in Ireland to find a decent original act with something new/exciting about them. Why not tap that talent instead of the purile muck that's made Eurovision the past few years? I'm sure there's loads of songwriters and performers who'd jump at the chance to have their work exposed to a pan-European audience over 200 million people strong. As long as the act could do their own thing and were not forced to compromise in any way to make the music more "appealing", it would give them a bit of exposure here and in the UK that could help them along the way. I don't mean any of the cabaret type shite that we've seen so far, but decent Irish acts that have something worthy about them. Giveamanakick, Infomatics, Caruso, Messiah J & The Expert - that kind of thing.

However, I suspect the powers-that-be can see that far. The precedent set over the past few years is not encouraging. Will we see any change in the standard of Ireland's Eurovision entries? Probably not.