Sir, – With regard to forming a government, can someone clarify is it a Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael or Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil joint framework document? Furthermore, in keeping with the prevailing mood, does it just keep rotating, and so risk putting us all in a spin? – Yours, etc,
STEPHEN O’HARA,
Carrowmore,
Sligo.
Sir, – If we are to believe Fintan O'Toole and Una Mullally, nirvana is just around the corner and all we have to do is boot Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael out of power (Fintan O'Toole, "FF and FG have produced a colouring book for adults", Opinion & Analysis, April 21st; Una Mullally, "Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael exposed as intellectually dead", Opinion & Analysis, April 20th).
There is no mention, never mind analysis, of the alternative policies on offer from the vast majority of TDs who were elected in February on a platform of booting Fine Gael out of office, and who have as yet, unaccountably, failed to form an alternative government.
Could it be that these change- supporting TDs are all clamouring to join the opposition because they realise that anything but nirvana is likely to be on offer over the next few years?
Not only will the economy have to be rebuilt from a base at least 10 per cent lower than we achieved in 2019, but the costs of dealing with the Covid-19 crisis, together with the costs of Brexit, global corporate tax reform, global trade wars, and combating climate change will have to be borne before we can even think of regaining the average standard of living we enjoyed in 2019.
Certainly we can address issues such as income inequality, housing, healthcare, childcare and care of the elderly, but we will be doing so, in all likelihood, out of an economy and tax base far smaller than we enjoyed in 2019. The notion that some of us are not going to have to pay a lot more tax so that more of us can benefit is fanciful. We will be lucky to retain existing benefits even if we all pay a lot more tax.
Certainly, in the short term, we can borrow more to ease the pain. We paid off a €10.6 billion debt taken out in 2004 which was costing us €450 million a year in real money (“State will save close to €450 million a year as it redeems a €10.6 billion bond”, Business, April 20th). Right now we can replace that borrowing at near 0 per cent interest rates, but how long will that last when almost every nation on earth tries to tap the debt markets on a vast scale?
And with Italy on the verge of bankruptcy, I wouldn’t be counting on the EU and ECB to come running to our rescue.
As the Chinese curse would have it, we live in interesting times. – Yours, etc,
FRANK SCHNITTGER,
Blessington,
Co Wicklow.
A chara, – Mike Burke (Letters, April 21st) misunderstands the Green Party position on forming a new government. As I understand that party’s position, it’s not that “it wants to spend five years . . . sitting on the opposition benches with no power or influence”; rather it does not want to be lobby-fodder propping up a government dominated by the two parties that by any measure lost the election. Fine Gael lost 15 seats, returning only 35 TDs. Fianna Fáil lost six seats, leaving it with only 37 elected members, plus the Ceann Comhairle, who was returned unopposed.
More significantly, its substantial lead over Sinn Féin in the polls at the start of the election campaign was whittled away so that in the end it was 2.35 percentage points behind Sinn Féin in the popular vote.
The winners were clearly Sinn Féin (37 seats, up 14), the Green Party (12 seats, up 10), The Social Democratic Party (six seats, up three) and some Independents (although four “Independent” ministers either lost their seats or did not seek re-election).
The winning parties can only muster 55 seats between them, and more importantly have very little ministerial experience, with Eamon Ryan and Róisín Shortall being the exceptions. Democracy demands that these three parties form the next government. They cannot do it alone, but they need the experience of office that one, not two, of the losing parties can bring to the table. Which one, Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, will step up to the plate in the national interest? – Is mise,
JOHN HEARN,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.