Programme for power, not for Government

We are in the depths of the greatest recession since the 1930s, the spectre of mass unemployment is rising, we are mortgaging our future to the banking system and we have a budget deficit of over €24bn... And we have a vaudeville show for a Government. The farce surrounding the new Programme for Government show that we have a coalition which is happy to cobble together any face-saving exercise to ensure it retains power and avoids the wrath of the electorate. Any media commentary beforehand regarding the possibility of the Greens pulling out of Government was nothing but filling airtime and column inches. The Greens may, in some people's eyes, be political novices, but not even they would act like turkeys voting for Christmas. Both the Green Party and Fianna Fáil knew they had to rebind themselves together, for better or for worse, until the electorate do them part. And they even went as far as acting out the charade of bringing the negotiations to the eleventh hour in order to add an element of non-existent drama to the whole occasion. All of this, deeply cynical as it may be, would be relatively harmless, except for the fact that, at a time when we need leadership and direction, we receive u-turns, mixed messages, confusion and obfuscation. On the one hand, our Government establishes a Commission on Taxation, the report of which it says, will be considered in tandem with An Bord Snip Nua. Then, it becomes sidelined by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance who says the focus is on expenditure cuts and not new taxes. The Bord Snip Nua report outlines a raft of public service expenditure cuts, but the new Programme for Government instead proposes some public service expansions, including 500 new teaching posts. The proposal to reintroduce third level fees - which has been consistently flagged by this Government - is now ditched. One would be forgiven for thinking the Greens had only just become part of the coalition! All of this must be confusing both to the markets, the international bankers and lenders and most importantly, to the foreign industrialists. If we needed to vote Yes to Lisbon to bring ensure prosperity, foreign investment and jobs, what then do we need to say to this Government to ensure the same benefits arise. How about: 'Ditch the pretence, agree a strategy and at the very least sound out a consistent message, which whilst painful, would at least, allow us as a nation know where we are going.'