What Ireland Would Be Like If Fianna Fáil & Fine Gael Were In Power

Share:

IT’S VERY rare in today’s world to reach any kind of political consensus, and Irish politics is absolutely no exception.

While Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael aren’t everyone’s cup of tea even their harshest critics wouldn’t deny that some of the policy suggestions they have mentioned in recent years could improve the country’s myriad crises the current government seem to have no answers for.

Some supporters would even go as far as to say that if FF/FG were government the average citizens’ life would be greatly enhanced.

WWN takes a look at what life would be like if the old foes went into coalition and transformed from observers in opposition to the ones actually in charge:

1) Housing

Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar said in a recent interview that a fresh look at housing policy is long overdue and that the ‘social contract’ between government and the citizenry has been broken.

Fiann Fáil TDs have stated that the governing parties should look at the State building affordable housing.

What fresh breaths of air such outlooks are. With these insights and policies being pursued Irish people could be rescued from a housing market hostile to renters and first time buyers but more than welcoming to foreign investment funds.

2) Health

Stephen Donnelly has spoken of the scandal of waiting lists and a failure of the HSE to recruit much needed staff in areas such child psychologists.

What Ireland could do with someone with this type of fire in his belly heading up the health department. He certainly wouldn’t have hired Robert Watt to head up the Dept of Health, not on that ridiculous salary and not after his leaked comments about being apathetic about implementing Slaintecare.

3) Environment

The Greens are in government currently so it would be unfair and foolish to suggest FF/FG could improve upon Green policies including increase in data centres, failure to stockpile fuel, massive road infrastructure projects, not bothering with new rail lines and the continued polluting of waterways by the agri-sector.

4) Crime

You’d have to be living under a stone not to notice the uptick in violent assaults and lawlessness in certain towns and suburbs. Fine Gael, the self-described law and order party wouldn’t stand for this, nor the continued under-resourcing in areas such as cyber security.

And the days of white collar criminals laughing at taxpayers would surely end. Fine Gael in government would send a chill down their spine and never accept the sudden dramatic drops in tax being paid by so-called ‘letterbox firms’.

5) Economy

Fianna Fáil know a burst bubble when they see one, and there’s no way with their hands on the tiller that they’d make the mistake those currently in government are making – doing less than zero to address the huge overreliance on multi-nationals for the bulk of Ireland’s tax intake.

6) Young people

The two parties are stridently supportive of an open economy and foreign direct investment. The idea that they would let the very lifeblood of economic growth be hammered by low entry-level salaries and exorbitant living expenses all while ignoring the massive pension deficit which will engulf the country in the coming decades is laughable. Micheál Martin himself says he fears his children won’t be able to afford a home, what the Irish people wouldn’t give for a Taoiseach with such concerns at the forefront of their minds right now.

Share:
X