Sir, – Fr Sean Healy began his recent article (Opinion, April 1st) with a simple, profound and even obvious statement: “Ireland needs a new guiding vision”. Given the economic chaos, political ineptitude and social despondency of recent years, the question must be asked and answered: What kind of Ireland do we want and what kind of political structures and policy decisions are needed to create it?
Fr Healy writes that we should aim at a just society in which human rights are respected, human dignity is protected, human development is facilitated and the environment is respected and protected. He then spells out the kind of policy decisions that are needed in order to achieve that kind of society.
None of our political parties would publicly gainsay his statements, but neither has any one of them ever made a commitment in principle to achieving this vision or put forward policies that would help to fulfil it. Instead, the establishment parties depend on the results of opinion polls and focus groups to formulate promises aimed at securing the votes of various interest groups and sectors of society. The over-reaching common good is simply not on the agenda.
Fr Healy’s article should be compulsory reading for every member of the Oireachtas. It would be wonderful if just 10 of them (from across the party spectrum) would see the light and jointly decide to make a new beginning.
Or the initiative could come from the ranks of the silent majority who long for a better version of our society. There could be no better way of marking the centenary of the 1916 Rising than launching a movement aimed at achieving a just society, a New Republic. – Yours, etc,
JERRY CROWLEY,
Belgrove Lawn,
Chapelizod, Dublin 20.
