WELL DONE?

It’s a desperate habit to be complaining even when things are good, but the habit persists. The response to accommodate displaced people from Ukraine is tight and structured, with government working closely and rapidly with NGOs and charities to make the process seamless and welcoming. But they’ve buckled themselves - by proving they can do it when they want to, they have highlighted the appalling continued existence of Direct Provision in Ireland.

In 2019 the New Yorker ran an article on Ireland and ‘The Strange Cruel System for Asylum Seekers’. From a country that literally put immigrant children in cages at the border, this is a damning indictment indeed.

They have scuppered themselves with farmers too. For too long supermarkets have been racing to the bottom; you can buy a 2kg Irish chicken for €5. That’s insane. Now, finally, farmers have the ear of the government and must not let go.

There’s an old joke about the council; ‘don’t work too quickly - you’ll show the rest of us up’. There’s truth in it. When the government does something well, they only highlight how inept and bureaucratic they are in other ways.