One of the things about news reporting in Ireland is that many of the things that should be front page news are frequently buried on the inside pages while much of the inconsequential fluff that rightly belongs inside the newspaper often ends up on the front pages.
So it was with recent media reports on what may well signal a significant u-turn on state policy regarding Ukrainian refugees. Recent media reports hinted at far reaching changes to this – namely that new Ukrainian arrivals would be provided with accommodation for three months after which they would then have to find their own accommodation.
The same media reports also went on to compare the treatment of Ukrainians in Ireland with other European countries and clearly hinted that the offering in Ireland was extremely generous compared to most other countries. It even quoted officials as saying the current approach was ‘unsustainable and unsuitable’. For good measure, it even quoted officials as also saying Ireland’s international protection process was ‘simply not sustainable into the future’.
The strange thing about this is that precisely the same comments would, up to just twenty four hours previously, have been regarded as the dark mutterings of some far-right extremist group. Indeed, since the war in Ukraine started and the first Ukrainians started arriving to Ireland in 2022, anyone even mentioning terms like ‘pull factors’ would be roundly condemned by one and all in Ireland’s stifling political consensus culture.
The real story here is not the apparent sudden u-turn in policy, the need for which most Irish people have been talking about for at least the last year, but the way political consensus now operates in Irish society.
This is a society in which dissent or contrary views on anything are actively discouraged. Irish society once silenced dissent by calling people ‘communist’ but today it reserves the term ‘far right’ for anyone who dares to question the consensus position promoted by the country’s political class and their attendant media.
This produces the near comical scenario evident on the 24th October when Ireland’s political class suddenly and inexplicably appear to have adopted the very views of those it had spent months castigating as a moral danger to all of Ireland.
The other thing about this is that there was no reporting on the reasons for this apparent sudden u-turn. Instead, we are treated to the journalistic equivalent of Chinese whispers with terms like ‘sources said’ and ‘officials said’ much in use.
We’ve all been here before. Remember how during Covid many similarly cast-iron positions and policies were summarily dumped in the space of a day when it suddenly became politically expedient to do so? It’s worth recalling that, when unvaccinated Ukrainians were on their way to Ireland, the mandatory requirement to have a Covid vaccination cert in order to enter the country was suddenly dropped over night!
The Covid lockdown provided numerous other examples of sudden and inexplicable u-turns and about turns on things that had seemingly been set in stone. Trusting the science really does seem to be a moveable feast for those in charge in Ireland.
Surprising to say but this does not really reflect all too badly on those in power. People in power everywhere have a tendency to abuse their position by arbitrarily changing their views as needs require. That’s just the way it is in Ireland as it is in most other places.
But what it really does reflect badly on is the political opposition or what passes as the political opposition in Ireland. The job of a political opposition is to ask the awkward questions that government would prefer were not asked and reflect the views that the proverbial man or woman in the street might hold. In this case, that involves questioning a government’s open-ended, and clearly unsustainable, policy on immigration and Ukrainian refugees.
In doing this, any political opposition in Ireland would be merely reflecting the views of ordinary Irish people. Even the proverbial dogs in the street in Ireland have been questioning the insanity of the FF/FG/Green government’s policy of commandeering thousands of hotel beds throughout Ireland to house Ukrainians – most from safe parts of Ukraine – in Irish hotels with full welfare benefits included indefinitely.
But this is precisely what the political opposition in Ireland has not been doing. In fact, it has adopted the view that the government’s failure has been that this failed policy has not gone far enough.
This is a failure, most of all, of the political opposition and Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald needs to own that failure. What we have in Ireland now is more an administration rather than a government in the accepted sense of one that operates in a democracy with a functioning political opposition.
The significant thing about an administration is that all the power players are basically on the same side – there is no opposition. That about describes modern Ireland where the political rulers, its token political opposition and a compliant media are essentially on the same side.
This might help to explain how seemingly cast-iron policies can suddenly change overnight without the need for explanation apart from some ‘official sources said’ comment.
Meanwhile, we have the spectacle of Ireland’s ruling political class along with its token political opposition and attendant media apparently charging lemming-like to adopt a new policy position at complete variance to the one it held just hours before. And most important of all – there are no questions or explanations about how the administration could get it so wrong.
No one really knows if Ireland’s administration has changed its policy on immigration and refugees or if this is just some elaborate kite flying exercise ably facilitated by the Irish media. It does show, however, just how opaque much of the decision making in Ireland really is. Perhaps that’s the real difference between a government and an administration.