A Government in denial

Fianna Fáil is in denial and is desperately seeking a mechanism that will arrest its decline in popularity

Fianna Fáil is in denial and is desperately seeking a mechanism that will arrest its decline in popularity. At the weekend, following publication of The Irish Times/TNS mrbi opinion poll which identified the Government's damaged credibility and a growing public disillusionment with its performance, Fianna Fáil sought to blame the Opposition parties for creating the impression it had misled voters during last year's general election campaign. It insisted that no information had been withheld from the electorate.

Its protestations do not carry conviction. But they may have the effect of rallying hard-core Fianna Fáil activists and re-establishing party cohesion and discipline as the organisation prepares for the local government and European elections in 2004. As things stand, even Fianna Fáil supporters are disaffected. Large sections of the public - up to 92 per cent where health services are concerned - believe the Coalition Government failed to keep the promises it made before the election. And nearly 80 per cent are unhappy with its handling of the economy, education and employment.

The party has provided 10 pages of quotations, mainly from the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, to show that before the election it had acknowledged a downturn in the international economic environment, deteriorating Government finances and falling growth rates. But those developments were recognised by all parties. The dot com bubble burst early in 2001, with global knock-on effects. It was the response to those events, as an election neared, that are at issue.

The Fianna Fáil document ignored the fact that the Coalition Government had refused for two years to tackle high inflation rates, had kept public spending unsustainably high and that individual ministers had promised improvement in services that could not be delivered. Within months of a successful election, fiscal corrections were being unveiled in Cabinet. To suggest the Government was not aware that such retrenchment was inevitable adds insult to injury.

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There was a touch of poetic justice about the fact that Fianna Fáil's defence of its broken promises coincided with the release of information showing that "good news" letters concerning schools building programmes were issued in advance of the election by the then Minister for Education, Dr Woods. The undertakings given have not been kept.

Similarly, promised developments under the ten-year health strategy have not materialised. All public recruitment has stopped and the aim is to reduce the number of public servants by 5,000.

The Coalition Government has intimated that such actions suddenly became necessary because of a worsening fiscal situation. The reality is that remedial action should have been taken long before the general election. The Coalition parties won the election a year ago. They did so by offering voters a continuation of good times. The political price for such behaviour will be paid.