The most vulnerable hit again

Once again, the Labour Party has struggled with its conscience and once again the Labour Party has won. So Health Minister James Reilly has reversed the decision to cut personal assistance services to the disabled but most of the savage cuts in healthcare announced by the Health Service Executive last week are going ahead despite protests from the Labour Party and others. It was not James Reilly who climbed down but once again the Labour Pary rolled over.

 

In a two-horse race between Labour and its conscience, the latter came a very poor second. The only resignation I am aware of is that of Ennis Town Councillor Paul O’Shea, despite the cuts announced last week. In spite of protests and warnings of a split with Fine Gael and an early general election, not one Labour TD, senator or county councillor has walked the plank this time.
I don’t blame them either. Resigning seldom gets you anywhere. Paul O’Shea would be better off staying in the Labour Party and fighting for the causes he believes in within the party. He may not have much power in politics or in the Labour Party itself but he will have far less as an independent.

There really was never any big danger either that Labour was going to pull out of the Government on this issue. Lucinda Creighton is right – those cuts were agreed to by both parties last December. Note that Eamon Gilmore, unlike Party chairman Colm Keaveney, never said the cuts were “unacceptable”. The worst Gilmore could say about them was that they were “regrettable”.

I would have been amazed if Labour pulled the plug on the Government at this early stage. They are in for the long haul and are only in power about 18 months or so. They have another three-and-a-half years to go and a general election now would solve nothing.

I am not saying that because I hate elections. Like all newspaper people, I love elections. However, to be practical, a general election now could cause more problems than exist at present. Fine Gael would probably come back as the biggest party once again.

They could hardly form a new alliance with Labour, the party with whom they would have split from to cause the election. I doubt if Fine Gael would invite Fianna Fáil to join them in a new coalition or if they did, I would not expect Fianna Fáil to respond positively.

A coalition between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael is still out of the question. So also is a coalition between Fine Gael and Sinn Féin. I don’t know who would form the next government if an election were held now. Better to get on with what we have and give them a right good kick up the rear end if they fail to solve our problems and make matters even worse by 2015 or 2016.

Don’t for a moment think I am endorsing the present shower. It’s just that I think there is no alternative at present. We have got the Government we deserve.

Let us fight them tooth and nail when they impose savage cuts on the most vulnerable in society. Let us protest and march to the Dáil and Government Buildings when they fail to tackle the great injustices in our country. And let us kick them out in three years’ time.

Labour attacks on James Reilly and Fine Gael at the weekend reminded me of being savaged by a dead sheep. They were going to leave no marks. Labour are very much the junior partner in this Government. This is like a coaltion between dogs and rabbits. The rabbit may howl now and then at his conditions but at the end of the day he knows that the dog will always win. One snap and the rabbit is dead.

I do expect there will be further resignations from the Labour Parliamentary Party and perhaps even from Fine Gael over the next few years but not yet. I would not be surprised if there were some resignations before the end of the year, especially on the budget but the coalition has a large majority. The Government can easily survive despite losing some members here and there.

Despite present and some future tensions I do not expect the coalition to break up for at least two years. That’s my belief now but perhaps things might change in six or 12 months’ time. That’s the most exciting thing about politics, you never know for sure what might be around the corner. However, for what it’s worth, I don’t believe an election is around the corner.

I don’t have much pity for either party in the coalition. They promised us things were going to be different. A big majority believed them and gave them more seats in the Dáil than ever before in the history of the State. You might say they were elected under false pretences but that’s the nature of democracy.The fact is that running this country costs far more than what is coming in. Both parties knew that when they were in Opposition but that did not stop them from making false promises.

So there have to be cutbacks. There should also be huge increases in income tax but the Government is shying away from that and when it comes to cutbacks, the people who are suffering the most from those are the most vulnerable, the poor, the sick and the elderly.

They gained little out of the Celtic Tiger but are being penalised for the excesses of the Celtic Tiger, for which they had no responsibility. They cannot understand why this Government does not target the greedy bankers, the developers and others who caused our economy to collapse. They thought that Fianna Fáil was the party that pampered the wealthy.

But now they see the same policies being pursued by the present crowd. And when it comes to health cutbacks they wonder why this Government continues to pay massive salaries to hospital consultants and administrators while depriving the most needy people of the most basic home assistance.

Where is the justice in that, they ask.