Bad news didn’t get any better in 2009

There is hardly any need to tell you what you already know – that 2009 was one of the worst years in living memory. Things were so bad that I believe the coming year must be better.

The problem about that, however, is that I said something similar this time last year – that 2008 was so bad that 2009 could not possibly be worse.
I don’t know how 2009 was for you personally. I hope that if you had a job at the start of the year, that you will continue to work in 2010. I hope that if your health is good, that it will stay good and that if you don’t feel too good, that things will improve for you in the coming year.
It was another terrible year for the banks, which have been in a state of near collapse throughout the year. Our two biggest banks, Allied Irish and Bank of Ireland, on which we have relied so much throughout the years, have not yet loosened the purse strings to get the economy moving again. The construction industry, on which we had pinned so much hope throughout the Celtic Tiger years, continued its downward spiral.
The motor industry, the great barometer of how the economy is doing, continued to nose dive. Farming had one of its worst years ever.
Worst of all, as a consequence of the poor state of the economy in general, thousands of people lost their jobs in almost every sector in all parts of the country.
And as the economy worsened, all the parties in Government were blamed for the global crisis and they took a hammering. The Progressive Democrats, who were founded supposedly as a party to stop the rot in Irish politics, went out of existence and their leader – what’s his name? – joined Fine Gael.
The Greens would also have been wiped out had there been a general election during the year. And Fianna Fáil hit its lowest level of support in 80 years. If a general election was held last year, Fianna Fáil stood to lose about half the seats it has in the Dáil.
The elections that were held – at local and European level and at two by–elections – were a disaster for Fianna Fáil and the Greens. A large number of people – many of whom obviously were former supporters of one or other of those two parties – took pleasure in voting for anybody bar Fianna Fáil or the Greens.
But despite their troubles – or, more likely, because of them – the Government survived. The main reason for its survival was because both parties know the electorate is out there waiting to dump them out of power. So their only hope is to stay together for as long as possible and postpone the evil day.
There are some in both parties who believe that if they can manage to stay together until June 2012 – the latest date by which a general election must be held – they just might manage to hold on to the bulk of their seats, as the economy, hopefully, improves. But that, I believe, is wishful thinking on their part.
I accept that the general public can have short memories but Fianna Fáil in particular is disliked at present with such intensity that the memory of the bad years will not have faded away when it comes to elect a new Dáil.
So, of course it was a great year for Fine Gael and Labour. Both parties gained huge support in the elections held last June. Fine Gael have for the first time replaced Fianna Fáil as the biggest party outside the Dáil and Labour are threatening to overtake Fianna Fáil  and become the second biggest party.
While Enda Kenny might not be the most inspirational of party leaders, he has to be given credit for taking the party out of the depths it had sunk to at the 2002 General Election. He will not be replaced as leader – neither by Richard Bruton nor by anybody else – while Fine Gael continues to scale the dizzy heights.
As leader of the Labour Party, Eamon Gilmore displays the best qualities of leadership and continues to plough an independent path for Labour inside and outside the Dáil.
It is hard to say at this early stage of the year whether any major questions will be raised about any of the leaders during 2010. There have been some voices raised within Fianna Fáil against Brian Cowen’s style of leadership during the past 12 months but those voices have had very little support. However, if support for Fianna Fáil continues to drop, I will not be surprised if those voices gain in strength during the coming year.
Outside of the Government parties, the only party not to do well during the year was Sinn Féin, which actually lost ground, especially in Dublin, when and where it should have been capitalising on the misfortunes of Fianna Fáil and the Greens. It will be interesting to see if its support in the North continues to hold up at the British general election, which will be held in 2010.
One of the saddest pieces of news to emerge from last year was the news that the Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, was seriously ill. We can only wish that his own health improves as he continues to battle for the health of the Irish economy.
And may we all in time look back on the coming year as the year of the rebirth of the new Celtic Tiger economy in Ireland.