THE NATION’S NEEDS MUST TRUMP ANY POLITICAL PARTY AGENDA

TODAY Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael vote on crossing a historical bridge under which too much bitter history has flowed. The Greens also have ideological distance to travel to take their place at the table. The decisions of all three are framed in a unique context of national need and emergency which must trump any party agenda.

It was Roosevelt who noted how: “A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”

Soon we will find out much about the character of those users.

Historically, a ‘deadline’ was the line around a jail beyond which prisoners could be shot.

Thankfully it now has a more figurative meaning – or perhaps no meaning at all, if you were to take from the degree of urgency applied to the task of government, to date.

The Celts believed in the mythical Atlantic island of Hy-Brasil. It was cloaked in mist except for one day every seven years, and even then it could not be clearly defined. The deal reached between the three potential government parties seems to have taken on the character of the legendary island.

Just as we got close to a landing, it sank back into the horizon. But all journeys must have an end point, we must hope it has arrived.

In the past months all our safe footholds disappeared. A power vacuum was not the response we expected from our public representatives.

The duty to address the deficit in executive responsibility can no longer be delayed without courting disaster.

In the pre-Covid-19 era it seemed permissible to devote as much time to the division of “Mercs and perks” as to any pressing national question.

Not any more. The protection of jobs, public health and the future of the country must be paramount. The complexity and scale of the litany of challenges is without precedent.

Exceptional efforts will be demanded to recapture any sense of social and economic equilibrium.

The risk of a resurgence of the virus was spelt out to us by expert in infectious diseases Prof Paddy Mallon. We are as yet within a geographical highrisk zone for coronavirus, he said.

It is “inevitable” that Ireland will experience another wave of coronavirus cases as restrictions are relaxed, he said.

Our health services need immediate help. Critical government spending decisions essential to daily life can be put on hold no longer.

To plunge the country into another election as every sinew is strained to help in the recovery, would be regarded as an act of self-immolation.

As Mark Twain remarked: “Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.”

Profanity, not prayer, would surely fall on the head of any party hack who sees fit to add another spanner into the works, along with the set already thrown by the pandemic.

A power vacuum was not the response we expected from public representatives