Madam, – The country is in dire financial straits and we need a tough budget and a four-year tax and cut plan. But this Government is unlikely to be there to implement such a plan and the Opposition wants (or says it wants) a general election to give a mandate for the tough choices ahead.
The problem is that Labour’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” fiscal policy will make it difficult to know what choices are on offer, and Fine Gael’s budgetary policies seem not that different from the measures presently being pursued. On the other hand, the Government says an election is the last thing we need at this crucial time but the Opposition seems unwilling to help the country, Tallaght-strategy like, to get through this wobbly period lest they help the dreaded Fianna Fáil party too.
But what if a Dáil group were now formed from Government and Opposition deputies to discuss and propose the necessary adjustments to government as part of an agreement that would involve the Taoiseach now naming a date in late spring for a general election. I suggest four members from the Government and four from the Opposition with, perhaps, a voting chair drawn from the Seanad. The Government would, of course, need to make the ultimate budgetary proposals although, as always, it would be the Dáil itself which would have the final say. In this way, the Opposition would get its date for an election, political uncertainty would be removed, all parties would have ownership of the hairshirt policies that need to be pursued and, for once, we would have real political leadership across the Dáil chamber.
Unlikely? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Four years of nationalisation! – Yours, etc,