Political World
Cagey cabinet remains under fire over water
World of Politics with Harry McGee
De Valera only had to look into his heart to discover what the people of Ireland are thinking. The rest of us have to rely on more mundane methods – pub talk; opinion polls; headlines in the papers; other mood-o-meters such as what’s dominating Joe Duffy or how many people are turning out at protests.
My own sense of the water charges row is that a mind-shift in the public mood may have happened over the course of the weekend.
The first was the decision by Government to pre-release details of the revised water charges plan.
On the fact of it, this doesn’t look too positive but in a way it is. To find out why read on:
There’s no doubt that it’s a U-turn, a climbdown and fudge.
You have the ridiculous situation where €500 million is being spent on installing water meters that won’t be used for at least five years.
What does that remind you of?
Yep, the electronic voting machines.
One of the difficulties is that the technology might already be out of date by the time the meters start rolling – requiring further investment.
Instead, we will have a flat charge for five years. And that’s going to be much reduced.
Every household will be entitled to a €100 allowance. And the multiple tiers of charging have been replaced by two flat rates: €176 for a single adult household and €278 for a household with two adults or more.
That essentially means that families with three grown up children living at home won’t be hit with bills of almost €600 but will pay less than €200 when the €100 allowance is taken into account.
There’s a catch. You won’t get the €100 allowance unless you pass on the details of your Irish Water registration to the Department of Social Protection. That provides a powerful motive (a money motive!) for registration so the Government is banking on it being the incentive to get more people to sign up.
At the moment, only about half the 1.7 million households in the State have signed up – the Government is hoping that others will now follow suit, as they did when the Revenue took over the handling of property tax.
The proof of the pudding of course will be in the eating.
The second significant event that happened over the course of the weekend that might have changed the public sentiment was the over-aggression of protestors in West Tallaght on Saturday, and in other places in succeeding days.
The Tánaiste Joan Burton was penned into her car for over two and a half hours as she was trying to leave a graduation ceremony in Jobstown. The protest was organised on Facebook from the night before when it was learned that Burton would be there. A few hundred protesters turned up for what was an organised demonstration (no stewarts or no crowd control).
It quic
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
World of Politics with Harry McGee
An Opposition party is a bit like an invading army trying to surmount the defences of a seemingly impregnable fortress – constantly surveying the moat, the drawbridge, the doors and the battlements to spot any weakness.
For a Government party, the chink usually reveals itself when it tries to push through a deeply unpopular policy – like, for example, the decision to bring the eviction ban to a close at the end of March.
The Government’s thinking was that, by delaying the end of it, it was storing up problems for itself. The longer it left the measure in place, the bigger the queue of landlords who wished to sell up when the restrictions were lifted, triggering a huge number of evictions.
As it was, even ending the restriction now, according to campaigners such as Peter McVerry, was going to cause a “tsunami” of evictions.
Senior Coalition figures admitted that it was going to have an impact on homelessness in the short term.
As soon as the Government announced it was lifting the ban, there was a hue and cry from the Opposition.
Several back benchers in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael expressed concern but were brought around by assurances from senior Ministers that local authorities and approved housing bodies would be given the go-ahead to buy properties from landlords who were selling up and leaving tenants in situ.
However, if there are any upsides to the move, they will not become apparent for months at the very least, by which time there could be a big spike in the homelessness figures.
From the moment the decision was made, the Green Party TD for Dublin Central Neasa Hourigan signalled she opposed the move.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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World of Politics with Harry McGee
The last local elections in May 2019 were dominated by the story of a big swing; nothing to do with the voting though – it was the famous swing in the Dublin version of the Dean Hotel that former TD Maria Bailey took a tumble from.
That’s how exciting local and European elections are for the media and the public. As a political story, they ran a distant second to the so-called Swing-gate.
As it happened there were political swings too. In the locals, the Greens made big gains. Fianna Fáil and the Social Democrats made some gains. Fine Gael was treading water. Sinn Féin lost a fair few seats.
It was a little different for Europeans. The Greens gained two seats. Fianna Fáil gained two but failed to take one in Midlands North West. Sinn Féin lost two of its three MEPs. Fine Gael ended up winning four with Maria Walsh taking a second seat in Midlands North West.
At the time, Sinn Féin was on a downward slope and had been since the general election of 2016. What won it gains in 2014, messages of anti-austerity, protests against water charges, no longer applied. It was struggling to find its feet.
It lost almost half its seats in the locals, falling from 159 down to 81. Its share of the vote had dipped to below 10 per cent, a drop of 5.6 per cent.
So, the ‘read’ at the time of the 2019 election was that Fianna Fáil seemed to be continuing its recovery from the nadir of 2011 into the next general election. Fine Gael was in its second term of government and was concerned about holding its own. Sinn Fein looked like it would have a difficult general election.
For the Councils, Fianna Fáíl held remained the largest party in local government and showed strongly in working class areas of Dublin. Its European election was mediocre though.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
World of Politics with Harry McGee
In 1980s Galway, we teenagers thought we were different as we listened to U2, wore Smiths badges on our lapels, and railed against the conservatism of our parents’ generation.
But we weren’t. Ireland was a mono-everything society – church, State, political parties, race, and thinking.
We were more conformist than radical but didn’t know it at the time.
At the time there were two dominant political parties. Over 80 per cent of the population voted for them. They included a majority of practically every demographic.
Implicit in that vast vote for the establishment party was a deference, more or less, from the population for the powerful institutions of the State.
The death grip of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael was loosened gradually in succeeding decades. That said, until a decade ago, it was inconceivable to think any other party would be able to form a government.
Because if you didn’t want to vote for Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, where did you turn?
Labour might have been an alternative. But the party went in with Fine Gael in 2011 with 37 seats and got hammered in 2016 and were left with seven. So they were hardly going to step up to the breach, were they?
The battering of Labour told us another lecture. There had been a long tradition in Irish politics of the smaller party in government taking a hiding after the election. Labour were (nominally) the small party in government and suffered because of it.
What people did not fully realise then was that it was not just the smaller party in government that was coming out worse when they next encountered the electorate. It was also the main party in government.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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