“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.”
So said the British publisher, writer, and political publicist Sir Ernest Benn. Indeed his word sum up perfectly just why the public is so full of contempt for the current Government Troika of Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, and Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.
Yet, not only are the public angry with the Government, Fianna Fáil grassroots in Galway are also becoming disillusioned with Cowen, Coughlan, and Lenihan.
The public were ready to take cuts and knew that the recession meant there would have to be pain all around. However what caused people to be so angry about Budget 09 was the badly thought out nature of the cuts; the lack of any clear strategy as to how such cuts would stabilise and re-ignite the economy; and the Budget’s ‘hurt the poor to safeguard the wealthy’ mentality.
While many in Galway FF will not say it openly, they admit privately that abolishing and then not abolishing the medical card for the over 70s, and the flip flopping on the tax levy, reveals incompetence.
“Rowing back on the medical cards is a huge admission that Fianna Fáil did not use the resources of the boom as well as we should have,” a Galway FF councillor told the Galway Advertiser this week. “When we had the money we were happy to give people the cards but the moment we ran short we wanted to take it away, but politically you cannot give something and then swipe it back.”
This week’s U-turn was expected to assuage public anger but the elderly are still up in arms about the move and dissent is growing over the increse to classroom sizes. The councillor said the issue shows the Government’s inability to think out a measure properly, sell it clearly to the people, and then stand by it no matter what.
“There is worse coming down the line,” he said. “Further hard decisions will have to be taken as the problems besetting the economy will not go away. The Government has said it will not borrow and that’s good, but they have to get the money from somewhere. What will they cut to get it? Once they make the cuts will they stand by them? If they cannot make a decision on the economy it shows they don’t know how to manage it.”
The councillor also remarked that the follies and bumbling of Lenihan and Cowen on the economy will be paid for by councillors in June.
“After the 2004 locals when FF lost a lot of seats the leadership told us that it was the councillors’ own fault for not working hard enough and being active in the constituency,” he said. “This time Lenihan creates a mess of a budget and we’ll take the hit for it.”
