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This afternoon, President Michael D. Higgins will, at the request of An Taoiseach, formally dissolve the 33rd Dáil and call a general election to summon the 34th. On Friday November 29th, three weeks from today, voters will be asked to deliver a verdict on the performance of the outgoing Government and choose new leadership for the next five years.
This is the most solemn responsibility that is thrust upon the ordinary citizen in a democracy. It is an opportunity that the vast majority of the human beings who have ever lived on this planet were never granted – the chance to peacefully remove from power the people who govern them and replace those people with somebody more satisfactory.
It is the considered view of this publication that the present Government should, indeed, be sacked.
Considered, because their record is not entirely without merit. As the recent budget demonstrated, this Government has provided competent stewardship in some areas, and for example their long-term investments in Ireland’s sovereign wealth fund are to be highly praised.
Additionally, the Government deserves credit for negotiating a difficult Brexit aftermath competently and on balance to Ireland’s advantage. It has also achieved a good record in Northern Ireland, where the restored institutions are in place in part because of the efforts of our current leadership. Domestically, Ireland remains a pretty good place to live despite our challenges. This is not an election like that of 2011, when there was no doubt about the Government’s total failure on multiple fronts.
That said, taken in the round this Government’s failures and offences against the public massively outweigh whatever credit it is owed.
On immigration, this Government has either consciously or through incompetence inflicted a crisis on the Irish public where none need have emerged. It began with unwise promises – such as that of the Green Party to provide all asylum seekers own-door accommodation within six months – and has ended in open civil strife across the land. The outgoing Government – consciously or unconsciously – prioritised the welfare and needs of refugees over the needs in many cases of Irish people. That is a dereliction of duty which has made Ireland a less stable, less happy country.
On crime, the Government has taken decision after decision that made our streets less safe. This ranges from littering central Dublin with methadone injection clinics to allowing morale in the Gardai to fall so low that retirements often outpace recruitment. Our prisons are full, and as a consequence many who should be in prison are on our streets.
In Education, Government has handed over elements of the curriculum – especially those around sex – to the most extreme radicals in academia, and then repeatedly mislead the public about its intentions. In the cultural sphere, it has launched attack after attack on free speech, spending months pushing hate speech legislation that horrified a large segment of the public.
This is a Government that, in the Spring, expended copious energies trying to delete the concept of motherhood from the constitution. Our reporting, which uncovered Government internal memorandums which contradicted their public statements, strongly suggests that this is a Government that tried to mislead the public into constitutional change. There are few greater crimes against democracy and public trust.
It is a Government that accommodated a man with deep seated hatred for women in Limerick Women’s Prison, where he admitted in court to threatening vulnerable women with rape. All of these are policy decisions, made by our elected politicians. They are not simply things that happen by themselves.
In part this is because Ireland has a Government that often outsources its policymaking to the most ideological and most radical groups in Irish society – taxpayer funded NGOs. Billions of euros of your money, annually, flow into the pockets of groups like Alcohol Action Ireland and the National Women’s Council. The result is a nanny state of unprecedented proportions. Alcohol hidden behind pointless doors in Supermarkets. Endless rising carbon taxes. A refusal to expand Dublin Airport. A ban on flavoured vape juices. The list is endless.
Then, of course, there is the sheer incompetence in relation to the management of public money. A Government that spends hundreds of thousands of euros on a Bike Shed does not, de facto, deserve a reputation for competence. This is before we consider the farce of the National Children’s Hospital, or the endlessly delayed Dublin Metro.
Nor have we taken into account other issues of management, like the abhorrent treatment of children and families with scoliosis. Or the crises in recruitment for nurses and teachers. Or that the state seems incapable of getting drugs out of Irish prisons.
Finally, we could make a case against the Green Party alone. These past five years have not altered the trajectory of the global climate even a fraction of a degree – but they have altered your bank balance adversely and consistently. You pay more for energy, more for fuel, more for heating, more for travel, and more for food. You have been hectored and blamed, and subjected to endless gimmickry, the latest of which is the deposit return scheme.
What has any of this achieved?
The Government’s case for re-election, if it could be summed up, will likely amount to “despite everything, it’s grand really”. Our counter argument would be that the successes of this state have very little to do with those governing it, while the failures can be almost uniformly laid at their door.
Gript Media will not be endorsing anybody in this campaign. The choice on November 29th is yours alone. We make no apology, however, in stating our view that if elections are about holding a Government to account, then this one has a lot to account for.
Voters have a chance in three weeks. After that, the next five years will be whatever you’ve asked for. If the polls are right – and we will find out soon – then we are about to ask for more of the same.
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