OPINION: The art of forming government

The political dog’s dinner continues with Fianna Fáil examining the menu while on a strict Fine Gael diet. Both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will bed down together again. They have no real choice if they want to stay in power, unless Micheál Martin does a volte-face and invites Sinn Féin to join government.
He has form when it comes to eating his words, in fact chewing them up ungracefully. Prior to the last election he said he’d never ever dream of sharing power with Fine Gael … until he chose to do so to keep Sinn Féin out!
At this stage the differences between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are only in the spelling of their names. Both stand for the same thing. They should do the honourable thing and merge to form one party. That would be more honest. Then they could concentrate on policy and condemn Sinn Féin to the opposition benches for a considerable time.
The reality is that neither Fianna Fáil nor Fine Gael can ever expect to get an overall majority to run the country again. Forming one party will afford them that chance. Of course it will also hold their policies up to the mirror and they risk the wrath of the electorate.
An examination of the voting trend two weeks ago shows that based on first counts, both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael received 42.66 percent of the vote. If you check the figures from the 2020 election, the same figure was 64 percent. That’s some change. Both parties depend on transfers from each other to survive. One time such a transfer expectation was an almost impossible prospect, today it is a necessity.
The ‘merger’ of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will be delayed by the ongoing voting pattern of the remaining 58 percent of the electorate – about a third of whom, to use simple terms, voted left or slightly left – Sinn Féin, Labour, Social Democrats, Green, People Before Profit. The remainder voted, mostly, slightly right – Independents, Independent Ireland, Aontú.
While main party leaders secured huge personal endorsements in their own constituencies there were also others who did the same. The Healy Raes are still royalty in the Kingdom; Carol Nolan (Ind) in Offaly; Mattie Mc Grath (Ind) in South Tipp; Pearse Doherty (SF) in Donegal and the Independent Ireland stalwarts of Michael Collins, Michael Fitzmaurice and Richard O’Donoghue.
Another issue is the political expectation that citizens will pay the price of political shortcomings. Any gross failure – be it banks, climate targets, or whatever – has a huge financial cost, and it is always Joe and Mary Public who pay.
With the Anglo Irish Bank fiasco, the Euro and the climate failure, it was and will be the public who will be taxed simply to allay the ‘penalty’ of consistent political failures. We effectively voted for more of the same by returning the same major parties to power.
Watch this space for climate ‘taxes’ over the coming years as the country will never be in a position to reach the unrealistic targets politicians have signed the state up to. We all face extra taxes because of unworkable political expectations that have only one outcome, political failures.
While all the political jousting plays out the problems persist. Housing and homelessness top the list. Young people still face huge obstacles in owning a home as rents mount and more people than ever face homelessness.
A Department of Finance report, ‘Providing Stability and Certainty for Investment in Property in Ireland’ makes for sobering reading, according to the Gript news website. Fifty landlords (many of them investment funds) own more than 40,000 rental units (built or under construction) in this country. They own 46 percent of apartments built between 2017 and 2023, while private households own just 13 percent.
“The Review Team’s dataset includes roughly 50 landlords owning 34,000 completed rental units with a further 6,600 under construction as at April 2024. The dataset is extremely valuable but is incomplete, as there may be large landlords not included and for those who are included some data may not be verified, or verifiable,” the report said. It also stated that the current investor base includes Dutch, Australian, Canadian, German, UK, Irish and US companies.
Will the new government tackle this issue?