It’s no secret that Ireland, like many countries, is experiencing a serious cost of living crisis, fueled by inflation and a European energy crunch.
Average families are facing a projected €1,300 increase in energy costs this year alone, and according to the CSO, inflation in Ireland rose 3.7% last year – the sharpest rise since 2008.
We’re hearing stories of people being forced to choose between heating and food due to rising costs, and according to the latest Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll, the cost of living is now the number one concern for voters, even ahead of housing.
And so it’s no wonder why the Irish Left, like those in Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats and People Before Profit, would want to swoop in and capitalise on this discontent, using the crisis as a stick to beat the government with.
Now, it’s absolutely true to say that governments such as our own are at least somewhat culpable in this crisis. But they’re certainly not the only ones.
Around a year ago, in March of 2021, the European Central Bank announced that it had to speed up money printing to keep down the cost of various European governments borrowing vast sums of cash. And why did governments feel the need to borrow so much money?
Well, in short, because of months of lockdowns and restrictions across the continent. With so many businesses hindered or outright closed down, we had hundreds of thousands of Irish workers availing of the PUP and EWSS, which on its own cost over €9 billion.
Combine that with all the other measures taken, and you’re talking about tens of billions of euros expense. And this was a similar pattern seen across most EU countries, requiring a huge bailout fund in the trillions, and causing massive amounts of new money to be printed to facilitate the borrowing. Which is how we got to where we are in 2022, with inflation skyrocketing.
So in other words, the hysterical reaction of most governments to Covid is a major factor which got us in this mess. Obviously inflation has been a looming problem for years, but our overreaction to Covid majorly accelerated the issue.
The reason this is noteworthy is because Sinn Féin, People Before Profit and the Social Democrats spent the entire pandemic egging the government on and urging even more radical restrictions than the ones we already had in place.
For months People Before Profit and the Social Democrats swore by “Zero Covid” – an absurd and impossible goal of trying to entirely stamp out what is obviously an endemic virus. These lads would still see us under restrictions to this day if they had their way.
Must go for #ZeroCovid strategy now. Need to drive down virus w/clear targets. We did last summer & can do it again. And need v strong #TestandTrace .
The reward for this is that we can open up internal economy, hospitality, schools, social life.@RoisinShortall #SaturdayRTE pic.twitter.com/6PuN3llEwn
— Social Democrats (@SocDems) January 23, 2021
Meanwhile, as reported in the Irish Examiner, Sinn Féin said “they agree with most of the premise of Zero-Covid approach but they do not believe it is possible without political will to pursue the same in the North.” In other words, they endorsed it.
In fact, Sinn Féin’s main criticism of the government on Covid was giving out that they weren’t following NPHET’s advice closely enough. Considering the fact that NPHET’s advice throughout was hyper-cautious and restriction-happy, if Sinn Féin was at the helm following NPHET’s advice, we would have had the same result at best, if not something even more restrictive.
In other words, it’s certainly true to say that the government has contributed to this crisis. But all of these parties yapping at their heels would have done the exact same thing, if not something more extreme again. The governing parties and the opposition are as bad as each other.
The energy crisis is much the same. The reason European energy costs have gone through the roof is because governments like our own have been running around shutting down sources of traditional fossil fuels in an effort to save the planet.
Which of the opposition parties don’t support that goal? They’re all aboard for the green agenda that got us here. People Before Profit, the Social Democrats and Sinn Féin all want to radically reduce Ireland’s carbon emissions, and fully support the cessation of these traditional energy sources.
Their only complaint about the government’s green agenda is that it doesn’t go far enough.
Opposition slams revised Climate Bill a 'betrayal' of climate movement https://t.co/WUkUVdynlV
— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) March 23, 2021
If any of them were in government, the instability of Ireland’s energy supply would be the exact same, if not worse.
The Irish opposition’s MO seems to be “Support the government one hundred percent in everything they do, and even give out to them for not doing more of it. Then shout at them and take the moral high ground when ideas you endorsed blow up in our collective faces and the country is plunged into crisis.”
What this country could do with, more than anything, is a healthy dose of culpability across the political spectrum.