Dead end looms for coalition
BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN
``Fianna Fail wants to see change for the better. We want
opportunities and a place in the sun for all''. These were just
some of the sound bites and platitudes littered through Fianna
Fáil leader Bertie Ahern's rally the troops speech last week.
| |
What Fianna Fail and Bertie Ahern have misunderstood is that not
only are people's economic expectations raised, so are their
political expectations. It is not enough to sit back and preside
over the economy and say what a good boy am I
|
Speaking in Kilkenny to the assembled Fianna Fáil Parliamentary
Party, Ahern gave one of his most upbeat performances since
taking office. There was little that his administration did not
and will not take credit for. The corollary of this is that there
is little that they think they can be blamed for either.
This week, though political reality must hit the Soldiers of
Destiny, as Leinster House returns to what could be the last
months or even weeks of the Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrat
coalition. There is a range of pressing issues that need urgent
action by the government. Dealing with the negative consequences
of inflation is just one of them.
Add in hospital waiting lists, housing, the collapsing transport
infrastructure, growing public sector wage claims, not to mention
the Flood and Moriarty Tribunals and you have a turbulent time
ahead for the coalition.
Most of all, the biggest and most difficult problem is that
public expectations have been raised hugely by the opulence and
excess of the Celtic Tiger. The ordinary citizens who are
struggling to keep up with mortgage payments on their expensive
houses want something better. The tens of thousands of people who
have not even reached the first rung of having an expensive
mortgage are also looking for the government to deliver. Then add
in the truck drivers, farmers, those on hospital waiting lists
and even those waiting to get on a list.
Bertie Ahern can portray this as sectional groups all looking for
a slice of the cake and his job is to ensure fair play, but this
can only work in the very short term. There is an urgent need for
the Dublin Government to be seen as decisive, competent and quick
moving now.
What Fianna Fail and Bertie Ahern have misunderstood is that not
only are people's economic expectations raised, so are their
political expectations. It is not enough to sit back and preside
over the economy and say what a good boy am I. People want more
substance.
If the government are so good at tackling unemployment, why are
they so bad at not only tackling inflation, but even admitting it
is a problem? If they can empower the computer and new technology
sectors, why can't they deliver an adequate transport structure?
The answer is simple. This is an incredibly bad government who
just happen, by the most tenuous of connections, to be presiding
over a growing vibrant economy. It is not just the negative
effects of the tribunals, the botched O'Flaherty appointment, and
the occasional bouts of foot and mouth that various ministers
have got themselves into, particularly Mary Harney, who no doubt
will be back on the Haughey Christmas card list this year. It is
their general lack of competence to solve basic problems.
Take for example the proposal by Sinn Féin Councillor Seán Crowe
that the £90 million DIRT payment made by AIB this week, be used
to help the thousands of families who, according to the Director
of Consumer Affairs, have amassed over £60 million in debts to
money lenders who levy three figure interest rates.
The logic of Crowe's case is that these are the banks who would
not open branches never mind lend money in the marginalised and
deprived areas where money lenders thrive. It makes sense then
that the money from the illegal accounts they opened should be
used to help the people abandoned by the mainstream banking
sector.
It is highly likely that the coalition parties will ignore this
sound proposal. They would prefer to talk platitudes such as
those from Ahern last week, when he said that ``while we should
not be complacent or too easily satisfied, let us not knock
success''.
The other thing that both Fianna Fáil and the Progressive
Democrats have being hyping is their unwillingness to consider a
coalition with Sinn Féin. Ahern says that ``Sinn Fein needs to
resolve its relationship with the IRA, as Fianna Fáil did in the
past at the time of its formation''.
It seems that Ahern's knowledge of Fianna Fáil history is as
sketchy as the memory of his former leader, Charlie Haughey's has
been this week at the Moriarty Tribunal.
At least Mary Harney said her reason for entering coalition was
partly because of a dislike of Sinn Fein policies. Mary Harney
may be worried about Sinn Fein's economic policies but what is
there to fear in building the houses, paying the worker an
adequate wage, educating the children and ensuring that they can
look forward to proper clothes, nourishing food and warm houses.
What is wrong in wanting to ensure equity in education and health
care?
It is wrong for the PDs because their party and their polices are
one's for the rich, the establishment that are benefiting from
the economic boom oblivious and indifferent to those being
exploited by it and worse still indifferent to those left behind.
The question that voters will be asking next time around is how
is this any different from the policies of Fianna Fáil.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)