A cruel and inhumane Government

These are amazing times we are living in. Well, really not so amazing when you come to think of it.

There was nothing amazing about the latest opinion poll published in the Sunday Times at the weekend, which showed that the two Government parties, Fine Gael and Labour, have plummeted in support over recent weeks. It would have been amazing if the honeymoon they both enjoyed had continued after the Budget.
You might argue that an opinion poll at this stage is completely irrelevant as there is no prospect of any election within the forseeable future. Opinions change and by the time the next election comes the public may have swung back again to Fine Gael and Labour.
However, I would argue that they are not completely irrelevant, even at this point. They do show us – as if we didn’t know already – that the public in general are very unhappy with the Government. Actually, you only have to listen to talk-in shows on the radio, read the letters’ pages in the papers, keep your ears open when your friends and neighbours are talking to know the people are more than unhappy with the Government. They are furious.
I think the main reasons for their fury are not so much the savage cuts and the new charges and taxes announced in the budget but also that they believed this crowd would be completely different to the last lot. They hammered Fianna Fáil because they blamed that party for landing us in the mess we are in. Now they are being hammered themselves and the hammering is being done by the people they thought were going to be their saviours.
They accused Fianna Fáil of being in the pockets of the bankers and they believed Fine Gael and especially Labour, would not bail out the banks. Those two parties in opposition gave us the impression that if they got into power, those reckless bankers, who gambled and lost, would bear the losses themselves. The ordinary people of Ireland would no longer have to carry the can.
What happened? Well, you know yourself. The new Coalition continued the same policies as the old one. The policies they rightly condemned a month or two previously were now the only policies to follow. Once again, old Tweedledum followed old Tweedledee. Or was it the other way around? You couldn’t tell one coalition from the other except that there was a name change from FF/GP to FG/Lab.
I am not saying now that Fine Gael and Labour are following the wrong policies. What I am saying is that they are not following the policies they promised us before the election.
They fooled us – or they fooled enough of us – into giving them a thumping record majority in that election. That’s why people are so angry. That’s why Fine Gael support is now down to 30% and Labour has slumped to a miserable 11%.
The reason why an opinion poll at this stage can be very relevant is that it can have a huge influence on how a government conducts itself, even when there is no election on the horizon. Poor opinion polls can put the frighteners on politicians who see their seats in danger and nothing focuses the mind of a TD more than the prospect of losing his or her seat.
One opinion poll, like last Sunday Times one, should not cause panic in the ranks of the coalition. It’s too early for that. But if the next opinion poll shows a similar pattern and the one after that confirms the slide, then the stability of the Government is at risk.
Believe me when I say I don’t want to see that happening. We need stable government to get the country back on its feet. We need a government with a good overall majority that will not be afraid to take the tough decisions that are necessary to get us out of the mess.
However, a lot of the measures outlined in the budget were not just tough but they were also cruel and inhuman.
I have always supported the concept of local rates. Call them what you like, household charges, property taxes, water rates, service charges. We pay for the amount of electricity we use or the number of spuds we put on the table. We should also pay for the amount of water we use or the bulk of waste we produce. The more we use or produce, the more we pay and the less we use, the less we pay and those who cannot afford to pay must be assisted in every way possible.
That is fair enough. But it is not fair and it is actually cruel and inhuman to force everybody to pay the same amount, no matter how much or how little they use or produce. No matter how big or how small their house or their property is.
I also support the Government’s plan to have septic tanks registered to ensure they are properly maintained. I am not looking on this as another revenue-creating measure but one to ensure water supplies are not contaminated. I don’t know for sure yet how this is going to be implemented but the plan sounds simple enough and, if followed, should ensure septic tanks will not contaminate the ground water. Again, I hope implementation of the legislation will be fair rather than cruel.
The maintenance of a pure water supply is one of the main functions of any local authority but too many local authorities have failed over the years to provide us with good-quality water. Perhaps they have not had the money or the other resources needed to do this.
How many times have we read about warnings to people not to swim in Lough Derg, for example, and not even allow their dog to paddle in the lake because of contamination? How many people or groups have been prosecuted for such contamination? Tell me when you last read the name of any person fined for pollution.
In the meantime, I hope you can have a Happy Christmas.