Sir, – Stephen Collins lists various possible reasons for the retirement of relatively young Fine Gael TDs, including the hostile political environment and the generous financial terms for those who retire (Opinion & Analysis, February 17th).
However, he conspicuously ignores the most obvious reason which might lead people towards the exit, namely Fine Gael’s participation in the current Coalition and the stultifying effect it is having on the party.
The Coalition has meant that Fine Gael TDs outside Dublin have had to treat Fianna Fáil, for decades their only local competitors, as their “colleagues”. Both parties have had to stand over and defend Green Party policies on climate change which are crushingly unpopular among their own constituents.
Meanwhile, the formation of the Coalition gave free rein to Sinn Féin to build its support through rampant populism and establish themselves as an alternative government, an outcome which was foreseen in 2020.
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Stephen Collins was a vocal advocate of the formation of this Coalition, writing a string of columns supporting its formation in the summer of 2020, and has recently called for the current Government to seek a second term (Opinion & Analysis, December 9th).
If being a perennial junior coalition partner to Fianna Fáil is the best that Mr Collins thinks that Fine Gael can offer, should he really be surprised that relatively young TDs should consider throwing in the towel and focusing their talents elsewhere? – Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – Stephen Collins suggests that young people are falling away from politics in a manner not seen previously.
However, the best examples he can present in support of his idea are a man close to 50 who has been in the job for almost 26 years, and a man over 50 who’s been in the same job for almost 16 years.
Perhaps it isn’t so much a sudden exodus of youth from Irish politics, but merely a career change by some individuals who’ve spent a significant portion of their lives doing the same job every day. Young people in 2023 remain as committed to politics as they ever were, perhaps even more than previous generations, sparked to some degree by the referendums on marriage equality and repeal of the Eighth Amendment. It seems that what young people are tired of is not politics, but the type of politics that has, among other things, led Ireland into a major housing crisis. – Yours, etc,
TOMÁS HENEGHAN,
Dublin 3.