New Cabinet faces, same tired politics

international | miscellaneous | press release

Wednesday March 09, 2011 15:19

by Malachy steenson - Workers Party

New Government - No Change

"New cabinet faces, same tired politics" - Workers' Party President

"When the 31st Dáil assembled at noon today" stated Michael Finnegan, President of the Workers' Party "the incoming government had the largest majority in history. More than 66% of all TDs will be members of the governing coalition".

"When the 31st Dáil assembled at noon today" stated Michael Finnegan, President of the Workers' Party "the incoming government had the largest majority in history. More than 66% of all TDs will be members of the governing coalition".

"This towering majority should give the new government the authority to sweep away the cobwebs of the discredited FF/PD/Green coalition and chart a new path for this country. Sadly it is clear that this will not be the case. The programme for government" continued Mr Finnegan "makes it clear and explicit that while there may be new cooks in the kitchen, the recipe is exactly the same".

"The greatest millstone around the necks of the Irish people is the EU/IMF deal with its criminal interest rates and counterproductive deadlines for deficit cutting. Despite all their bluffing and bluster during the election campaign Fine Gael and Labour have meekly accepted the rules imposed on us by the EU/IMF last November. Tinkering at the edges with an 0.25% change in the interest rate will not substantially change the picture at all. Over the next two years, the most vital years to stop the rot and start economic recovery the new coalition has committed itself to exactly the same conditions as Fianna Fáil accepted. In the December budget we have seen the devastation which that deal created amongst workers, amongst the unemployed, and amongst those dependent on Social Welfare payments. This devastation will be doubled next December, and further increased in December 2012".

"What is omitted from the programme for government are as revealing as what is included.
Significantly all mention of a wealth tax is excluded, all mention of a third tax rate for high earners is omitted; all mention of the elimination of the rules which allow an elite coterie of super rich to become tax exiles is excluded. It is clear that the tax burden will continue to fall on already stressed workers and households while the top 5% of income earners and wealth holders remain completely untouched. It is also significant that there is no mention in the agreed programme for government of the proper utilisation of our natural resources. This Dáil will convene as oil prices hover at $112 per barrel. Oil and gas are the most valuable and fought-over resources in the world. Ireland has proven large offshore reserves of oil and gas. Through Fianna Fail corruption these reserves have been signed away with zero benefit to the Irish people. The least we would have expected from this incoming government is a full Garda fraud squad enquiry into why those deals were signed, and a commitment to immediately reverse them".

"The present crisis of capitalism, either globally or nationally, was not caused by low paid workers, was not caused by pensioners or carers or the unemployed; was not caused by nurses or teachers or classroom assistants. Yet these are the groups that have been targeted by the state in order to refloat capitalism and to refloat the pre-existing banking system. It is an outrage that the most vulnerable are being asked to pay for the crimes of the most powerful elite. We will be ever vigilant that this government ceases to target the weakest in society and ensure that the pain is borne by those who caused this meltdown in the first instance" concluded Mick Finnegan.

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Comments (2 of 2)

Unclear on the concepts? (of your own form of government)

by Mike Novack

Thu Mar 10, 2011 17:30

""This towering majority should give the new government the authority to sweep away the cobwebs of the discredited FF/PD/Green coalition and chart a new path for this country. Sadly it is clear that this will not be the case. The programme for government" continued Mr Finnegan "makes it clear and explicit that while there may be new cooks in the kitchen, the recipe is exactly the same"."

Uh no --- there was NO majority chosen by "the people". You now have government "by coalition" and while this coaltion as a whole has a strong majority it consists of two factions with rather different agendas. In a situation like this the only things for which there would be a strong majority would be the few things where these two factions are in actual agreement.

This was a "throw the bums out" election result. YES the Irish people want change but appear divided on what sort of changes they want. And sorry, but it's rather clear form the result that there is NOT a mandate for the sort of changes you would like to see. If there were, the results of the election would have been very different, more of the candidates of the left would have been elected, enough so that the new government could have been a coalition of left parties instead of this hopeless left-right coalition.

Yes, "national unity" coaltions of this sort can often be effective dealing with national emergencies BUT that is true only when the issues of the emergency aren't related to the differences between the coalition partners.

Get out there and organize. Maybe do better next time. You need to convince the Irish people that YOUR preferred solutions are the ones that they should want (not just "something else").

'..throw the bums out..'

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party

Fri Mar 11, 2011 14:29

Or get our bums onto their seats?

Different agendas? Only for the electorate and the election. They've been in lockstep for years, labour left, FG right, and they'll march over us just like the FF/Greengos. Its coast to coast PDs under different cosmetic veneers.

The real oireachtas has shifted to the K KKlub.

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New Cabinet faces, same tired politics

Comments (2 of 2)