There was a time when unionists routinely referred to the administration south of the border as the ‘Dublin Government’.
Referring to a sovereign state as if it was some glorified town council had probably as much to do with deflating the notions of southern politicians as it had to do with recognising the political realities on the island of Ireland.
The story of that same Dublin Government and unionists took another turn lately with the announcement of €800m in funding by the Irish government for various infrastructural projects north of the border. Whatever about the merits of allocating close on a billion euro of funding to another jurisdiction, the real story here may well be the signalling to unionists by the same Dublin Government of just how generous and inclusive it can be.
That signalling deserves to be probed a little. Firstly, Irish people everywhere owe unionists an apology – they got it right when they spoke about the Dublin Government rather than the Irish government.
Modern Ireland is one of the most centralized countries in Europe and now consists largely of an administration centred around the Dublin region. This resulting power bubble is built around the interests of its political class, related state funded NGOs and the mainstream media. All of these elements are now largely dependent and reliant on each other.
But back to the idea of the ‘generous gesture’ so beloved of the same Dublin Government. The thing about handing over €800m for the provision of infrastructure in another jurisdiction is that it is intended largely as a gesture that is designed to make its donors look good.
Much the same can be said about the Irish government’s response to the war in Ukraine. Although there is widespread sympathy in Ireland for the people of Ukraine in the face of clear aggression from Russia, you have to wonder if an allocation of €3.5bn for the housing of Ukrainians in Ireland is not just a little disproportionate considering the scale of Ireland’s own housing crisis?
It’s worth remembering that the same Irish government allocated less than that amount in redress for Irish people whose homes have been destroyed by mica and pyrite. In contrast, many of the Ukrainians who have come here are from areas hundreds of kilometres from any fighting and in most cases their homes are in perfect physical order.
All that’s been needed for someone to access the government’s generous Ukrainian protection programme is a Ukrainian passport. Meanwhile, the Irish victims of mica have to go through a rigorous process to prove that their homes have, in fact, been damaged.
Of course, the reason behind the different treatment of both groups is clear. Sad and all as the plight of those in the north west of Ireland whose homes are literally falling down is, it will never be a global story in the way that Ukraine is. That is the key difference for the Dublin Government.
Presenting itself as some sort of vital player on the global stage is, quite simply, irresistible to the Dublin Government. This holds the promise of congratulatory backslapping by other European heads and even the possibility of a word of praise from EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Accordingly, €3.5 bn of Irish taxes along with the destruction of much of the Irish tourism industry is viewed as a reasonable price to pay for such attention.
It is on the global stage that the Dublin Government’s ‘generous gesture’ policy really comes into its own. Here, Ireland’s political class get to pretend that they are everything they are not – key global players whose interventions count in places like the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa.
This is clearly demonstrated in the area of overseas development aid where Ireland commits about €800m annually primarily in the third world. To be clear, such humanitarian aid makes a lot of sense especially in the times we now live in. The waves of illegal economic migrants flooding Europe threaten not only to destabilize western countries but also threaten to destabilize the countries they are fleeing by removing an economically active age cohort.
Yet, such considerations are rarely discussed by Ireland’s political class who put their own desire for popularity ahead of any robust debate on the conditions attached to overseas aid. The recent visit to Kenya and Ethiopia by Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin again highlighted this.
Ireland has donated about half a billion euro in aid to Ethiopia over the last decade. That’s all very admirable until you consider that a third world country like Ethiopia has an annual defence budget of $1.6bn and boasts an air force of 97 aircraft including nine MiG-23 fighter jets! It’s certainly impressive for what is considered a third world country and most certainly impressive when compared to Ireland’s own collapsing defence forces.
The question is – should a third world military power like Ireland really be enabling actual third world countries to buy MiG-23 fighter jets in the knowledge that someone else will be funding basic infrastructure like hospitals and schools? Don’t expect Micheál Martin (who also doubles as Ireland’s Minister for Defence of all things) to be asking difficult questions like that as he stuffs cheques into the pockets of his Ethiopian counterparts on one of his overseas tours.
That’s why the ‘generous gesture’ of providing €800m of infrastructural investment for projects north of the border should be seen as the self-serving gesture that it really is. The real beneficiaries here are intended to be the Dublin Government just as they are the beneficiaries around similar ‘generous gestures’ relating to the Ukraine and third world Ethiopia.
With a general election in the offing, we can again expect to see the ‘generous gesture’ strategy deployed by the Dublin Government in order to win over key elements of its own electorate. No doubt it will be dressed up and presented in lofty terms around national plans and strategic interventions but, at this stage, most people can see the real intent behind such actions.
The Dublin Government is neither generous or inclusive; in fact, it is entirely self-serving, calculating and largely exclusive. That’s something that is now being realised by a growing body of Irish people.
Since the cultural referenda around same sex marriage and abortion, it is clear that the political views of at least 1 in 3 southern nationalists are generally not reflected in Dáil Éireann or the mainstream Irish media. The controversial and highly unpopular policies around immigration being pursued by the Irish government illustrate that, if anything, the disconnect between the same Dublin Government and its own citizens is only growing.
In the evolving context of discussions around a shared island, it’s only proper that the same Dublin Government’s ‘generous gesture’ towards the North should be seen for what it really is.
That should be food for thought not just for unionists but northern nationalists as well.