COMMENT: Gilmore’s views lack any real bite

Eamon Gilmore’s demands on Fine Gael are clear and unambiguous. “These are our conditions for remaining in Government and if you don’t like them, we’ll withdraw them.” No threat there of withdrawing from Government. No plan to go into Opposition and lead the assault on Fine Gael’s austerity plans.

We were told recently that Gilmore and Brendan Howlin stormed out of the all-powerful Cabinet sub-committee on the economy after the Fine Gael members refused to double the universal social tax on wealthy people earning over €100,000 per annum. They remained outside the door for all of 15 minutes but they went back in again with their tails between their legs when nobody came out to talk them out of their protest.

Labour ministers, TDs and councillors all over the country have been getting so much stick from the general public that they have now resorted to pretending to their supporters that they are standing up to Fine Gael and fighting for the cause of the common man.

That’s why we have been reading so many stories in the papers over the past few days talking about Labour demands on Fine Gael to ease up on the austerity stuff. We are told that Gilmore is at odds with Taoiseach Enda Kenny in pre-Budget negotiations between them on this issue.

If you believe everything you are told, then you can see Gilmore banging the Cabinet table with his fists and insisting that the €1bn saved on the promissory note deal be used to go easy on the austerity in the October budget. Apparently, he is demanding that the full €3.1bn target in spending cuts and tax increases in the budget need not be achieved.

Well, if they think we believe all that, then they think we will swallow anything. Where have they been over the past two-and-a-half years while the brightest and best of our young school-leavers have been forced to emigrate due to Government economic decisions?

I didn’t hear of any tables being banged as the Cabinet decided to cut vital allowances for people caring for the sick and the elderly. Did they walk out in protest when medical cards were withdrawn from poor people who can no longer afford to visit their doctor?

To paraphrase the late Jim Kemmy when referring to Willie O’Dea in a different context – they act like Mighty Mouse when addressing their own supporters. But they act like Mickey Mouse when dealing with Fine Gael.
Labour are in Government under false pretences. They promised us before and during the election that they would stand up to the bankers and to the IMF – it was going to be Labour’s way and not Frankfurt’s way. In Government the opposite is the reality. Germany is still running the Irish economy.

I always liked Eamon Gilmore and was delighted when he succeeded Pat Rabbitte as leader of the Labour Party. However, I have become very tired of all the spin and all the feigned concern about the plight of ordinary people under the Government’s austerity programme.

He was at it again this week, saying he was “really pleased” that the vast majority of Labour Party TDs supported the Government’s strategy on the economy. He said his fellow TDs in Labour had shown “enormous courage and enormous fortitude in doing what was the right thing”.

So it took enormous courage and enormous fortitude to deprive some of those who are unable to look after themselves of any kind of outside help. That, according to the Labour Party, was “the right thing to do”. The Labour Party was founded to look after the most needy in our society. If they cannot do that they would be far more honest if they just packed it in and went the way of all other failed parties in Irish politics.

It doesn’t take rocket science to see that austerity doesn’t work. We can see it all around us but I’m afraid that people like Eamon Gilmore don’t see it because they are cushioned against the heavy hand of austerity by big salaries and allowances along with the prospect of large pensions when they are thrown out of power in a few years’ time.

The politicians are not the only people who seem to be out of touch with the plight of people struggling to get by each day as austerity bites even deeper. This Monday, I listened to a couple of political correspondents on radio giving their assessment of how the various ministers had performed since coming into office. If I was expecting a critical analysis, I am afraid I was sadly disillusioned. Political correspondents who spend all their working lives in the corridors of Leinster House where they eat, drink and be merry with the politicians they are supposed to be analysing, are the last people we should expect informed judgement from.