Political largesse must be stopped in its tracks

AND so it comes to pass. For months the almost permanent political surveys have determined that Fianna Fáil will take an absolute routing if an election is held.

The only question will be how bad it’s all going to be — how few Fianna Fáil TDs will be returned.

The “if” is now gone from the equation and the “when” is only two or three months away following the decision by the Green Party to tender their notice of intent to walk if FF does not hold an election by the end of January.

Already, but not necessarily related, Rory O’Hanlon, a former FF minister and an elderly TD of many years standing, and Dermot Ahern, current Minister of Justice and a TD of 23 years standing, have indicated that they will not be standing come the election.

How many more ministers and TDs will decide over the coming weeks that they will not be standing? We have a ludicrous, but taxpayer funded, system in Ireland that rewards TDs who resign, ie do not stand, or worse still, whom the electorate in its wisdom rejects. Either way they are equally rewarded by the taxpayer for their years of growing fat on the back of the taxpayer. I’m not sure which is worse.

Is it the chap who resigns many years before normal retirement age and gets not one, but many rewards for doing so, eg a lump sum worth two months of a TD’s pay, a golden handshake worth one and half years of a TD’s pay, an enhanced pension in the first year of retirement and a 60% pension thereafter? If he or she is a minister he/she will, also, get a step down payment amounting to 75% of a minister’s salary and a ministerial pension of 60% of ministerial pay on top of the TD’s salary. In the case of Dermot Ahern that largesse will amount to a grand sum of almost €320,000 in the first year and about €130,000 per year thereafter.

Or is it the guy/girl who the electorate decides is not up to the job? It amounts to a reward for failure particularly when our democracy has been so debased and our parliament has no teeth whatsoever. It would appear that we are a very generous people. We just do not look after ourselves.

This all begs another question and that is who is the wiser? The sitting FF TD who goes for election and is rejected, or the sitting FF TD who spares the expense and the feelings of rejection that an election will bring and takes the loot anyway? The answer to that question is in last part of that last sentence. Will we see many more FF TDs decide to cut and run?

Let’s not forget that when Government announced two years ago that lump sums and pensions payable to public servants would possibly change in the future we had an exodus of senior public servants wishing to grab the booty while it was there for the grabbing. It’s not illegal. In fact, it’s probably defined as human nature, but it is cynical.

Thanks to the failings and failures of this and the previous two governments we have entered our darkest hours. The money we will owe, and will need to pay back over the next decade and more, will ensure that it will be difficult to see any light at the end of the tunnel for a long time to come.

The last thing we need to see right now is politicians milking the state for all its worth. That they might claim that they are “entitled” to it will not wash. It will not be accepted by the citizens of this country.

Given its failure to include anything in the four-year plan that might suggest that politicians are going to share the fate of the citizens makes one wonder if these guys think they can walk on water. Such largesse, if it continues, will not be forgotten.