War for survival
• When we contemplate our 'new' Government, now nearly a year old, we are gripped by more than uneasiness.
When the 'crisis' was 'uncovered' in 2008, the plain people of Ireland embarked on a massive learning curve, which is not yet complete.
Last year's General Election gave us a snapshot result -- freezing one moment of a nation (and public opinion), in very rapid and radical transition.
It gave us a Dail majority (and government), one third of which was Labour. The other Fine Gael two-thirds were, by and large, determined that the 'comfortable' in our society would not be discomfited.
Does this divide reflect how we, (out here in the real world), now view the brutal reality of our situation? We know in our hearts what we have to do.
We do know that the key lies in 'growth' in the indigenous economy, not the 'aircraft carrier' trans-national sector, which, though it pays a valuable 'mooring fee', does not pour its 'value-added' into this country but elsewhere.
One of the prerequisites of indigenous growth is cutting our overall costs in order to compete in world markets; that is and will be very, very painful.
The political key lies in the concepts of 'proportionality' (in 'pain'), solidarity and inclusivity. It has to be underpinned by a general confidence in the political and administrative competence of those at the helm. And in the credibility of their policies.
In an area of which I have some knowledge -- the National (Paediatric) Children's Hospital -- I see the health minister fly in four CEOs of globally respected children's hospitals to act as independent external assessors.
They identify no less than 14 issues requiring 'urgent' or serious review prior to proceeding with the project.
The minister, (a decent and intelligent man known to me for years), brushes aside this report and -- within days -- directs the development board to lodge a planning application (by the 'fast' route) based on the un-amended 'old' plans!
The arguments for a graduated charge on water usage, on accumulated discretionary (sic) surplus (sic) wealth, for the regulation of septic tanks, (many of which are currently dysfunctional), one would have thought to be irrefutable -- if explained properly.
Yet the Government presented these in such a way as to maximise opposition. We saw what happened to its own 30th amendment, which, (if drafted properly), could have expanded dramatically -- and safely -- the powers of the Oireachtas to extract information we all crave.
For this Cabinet, 'Europe' is a 'place' to which 'one' (sic) flies in a plane for junkets and grotesque displays of buddy-buddy locker-room mauling of heads of state.
'Europe' is not -- for our current rulers -- a level of real life practical existence to which we 'belong' by birthright and an absolute necessity of national strategy. Which belongs to us -- not to a Merkozy ZweiKaiserBund.
We are in a war of national survival in the likes of which generals who lose battles, let alone campaigns, are sacked and governments who, like Neville Chamberlain's in 1940, conduct 'phoney wars' stand aside.
The Labour parliamentary party can change the direction in which we are travelling by reshuffling this Government, (from the top down) and its policies.
But it has to do that now, not wait for the fish-in-a-barrel slaughter of the local and European elections in 2014, (assuming that there is no hecatomb General Election before that).
If Labour wants to march together, like penitential martyrs, to its reserved seats on the rubbish heap of history, (a subject shortly to be abolished in post-primary schools by Minister Quinn), then so be it.
I will, however, shed a few tears for the pragmatic Irish social democracy which we might have come close to achieving. And for the ten-thousand-year-old song called Ireland.
Maurice O'Connell
Tralee, Co Kerry
Irish Independent
