Fears and hope in the marriage of convenience
At last we have a new Government — and it may deliver what the voters wanted, writes Willie O’Dea
AND so — it’s done. Habemus Government. There is no white smoke wafting towards the heavens from the roof of the Convention Centre to announce the happy event. Obviously, the Greens have already made their mark! The prevailing sense here is one of anti-climax — just relief that we have finally managed to get a Government — any Government.
Absent is the spectacle of shiny new ministers in their best bib and tucker surrounded by adoring parents, partners, children and second cousins twice removed, and the usual gaggle of hangers-on.
Of course, much of this is determined by location and circumstances.
Government formation day in the Convention Centre during a Covid pandemic is a very different occasion to Government formation day in Leinster House minus a pandemic and with the bars open. However, it is also fair to mention that there is another factor in play. There is an allpervasive sense here that this is a marriage not of love, but of convenience.
Most of my members in Limerick City voted for the arrangement but they did so with a heavy heart and after much persuasion. Fine Gael have always been our natural enemy. Now suddenly we find ourselves cheek by jowl in Government with them.
In George Orwell’s 1984, the good citizens of Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. However, one day they were informed that they were no longer at war with Eurasia and never had been. They simply accepted that. Unfortunately for Fianna Fail members, it is not nearly as simple as that. Another factor which encouraged our members to vote in favour was the fear of another election. Personally, I don’t believe that the outcome of another election would be as bad as the polls indicate.
However, I do believe it is quite possible that we would lose a considerable number of seats which would take perhaps two further elections to regain. Most Fianna Fail members would not be very familiar with the political economist JK Galbraith (pictured below) who said that politics is very often a choice between the unpalatable and the disastrous. Fianna Fail members have unenthusiastically grasped the unpalatable.
For the Greens, it is a different story. Nobody can seriously argue that the programme for government would be so focused on environmental protection and climate change without the Greens’ participation.
Marked by their past experience, the Greens have demanded and secured enormous and unimaginable concessions. Measures to protect the environment are embedded and woven through the programme for government.
There is fear in Fianna Fail that we will lose our identity in this arrangement and that all that confronts us is electoral Armageddon. That fear is legitimate. However, this need not necessarily be the case. We are told the people voted for “change”.
I know – I met those people in their droves during the election campaign. Nevertheless, there were many and varied views on what constitutes “change”.
The people I met looking for change were people who had a
‘The Government must act with courage, resolve and determination’
decent job yet could not afford a house. They were people who had been on the housing list for years and were forced to live with their parents and young children all under one roof.
They were people who were waiting for years for essential medical procedures and people who could not get a medical card even though they were suffering from a life-threatening illness. They were people who were compelled to send their children to schools in overcrowded classes, in many cases in schools with leaking roofs and cold and shabby prefabs. People with children with special needs, who could not get a school place at all.
All these people want these things changed and they can be changed. Furthermore, they can be changed without turning this state into a Celtic version of North Korea. I am hopeful that a government which makes those changes would be duly rewarded by the electorate.
The Government must be well led, and, undoubtedly will be by Micheal Martin. It must act with courage, resolve and determination.
I mentioned earlier that not many Fianna Fail members may be familiar with John Kenneth Galbraith. Perhaps they might be more familiar with the 18th-Century sage Alexander Pope who opined 300 years ago: “For forms of Government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best”. It is all about delivery.