Result brings hope of a new beginning for our nation

DID you have a feeling of “today is the first day of the rest of my life” as you emerged from your slumbers this morning?

If you did then you were one of several hundreds of thousands, indeed probably millions, of your compatriots at home and abroad who, as a consequence of the weekend’s events are, for the first time in a long while, looking forward to whatever the future might bring with a renewed hope and spring in their step. If you didn’t have that particular pleasure this morning, then I sympathise with you in your detachment from the day-to-day banalities of the community of which you are a member.

Anyone with the best interests of our political system, and by extension our nation, at heart will rejoice that something of a line in the sand has been drawn in relation to the country’s difficulties and that from today, for the first time since those difficulties became apparent, we can look forward with a degree of confidence to a renewed effort, on the part of a government, to grapple with them on our behalf.

Confidence is the crucial difference between Thursday last and today. It is the gift of the electorate, as expressed through the democratic process of our General Election 2011, to Enda Kenny and Fine Gael mainly, and to Eamonn Gilmore and Labour also.

The very substantial majority which they jointly enjoy represents not only a significant endorsement of their respective policies but also a statement of confidence and trust in their capacity to deal with the relevant issues in a more effective manner than their predecessors.

In that context they will enjoy, for the foreseeable future at least, the fundamental essentials for any government, and squandered some time ago by the outgoing Fianna Fáil/Green coalition. Confidence and trust cannot be taken for granted though — having been bestowed by the electorate, and presumably earned by the recipients, it is very much for the latter to maintain the new relationship; that is the challenge which confronts the incoming government.

A word of caution too: notwithstanding the magnificent campaign run by Fine Gael and the landmark result for Labour, it should not be overlooked that the meltdown of Fianna Fáil was a disproportionate contributor to the result and that a significant element of the support for both parties is of the ‘soft’ variety, a cohort who tend to vote in opposition to a party, rather than in support. Ironically, the adjective most likely to be used for this type of support within the Dáil chamber would be ‘flakey’.

’Soft’, ‘flakey’ or indeed ‘floating’ are mere adjectives however — the noun ‘support’ is the important word and that support is very real, for the present at least, having been quantified and certified in the ultimate manner at the weekend. It has been hard-earned by Fine Gael, Labour and indeed Sinn Féin. The support for all three has crystallised into a tangible mandate to set about their work in implementing the policies set out in their respective manifestos, and it will last only as long as they adhere to them — one of the many legacies of our recent difficulties is a much-heightened level of political awareness across the electorate as a whole.

That new level of political awareness certainly did for Fianna Fáil, among a myriad of other factors, prominent among which were massive vacuums in the crucial areas of political trust and confidence. In addition, however, there were unconscionable lapses in both campaign management and candidate strategy, for which there can be few, if any, excuses and which will presumably provide the primary focus for the postmortem which will be the only item on Micheál Martin’s agenda as he settles into his first week in ‘ordinary time’ as leader of the party.

Ironically, one of the first places he might look to for guidance is across the floor of the Dáil chamber. Enda Kenny has done a remarkable job on Fine Gael since assuming the party leadership in 2002 in similar circumstances. I clearly recall taking my own seat on the government backbenches at that time, and looking across the chamber at the main opposition party in total disarray.

Fianna Fáil’s circumstances are considerably worse than those of Fine Gael nine years ago — 20 (optimum outcome at time of writing) TDs, only one in the capital, and not a female in the ranks, is a stark commentary on the depths to which the party has plunged.

To Enda Kenny now falls the task of repeating his party performance at national level, and he will have the support of the entire nation as he does so.

And where would we be today without his reconstructed Fine Gael?

One thing for sure is that we wouldn’t have that renewed hope and spring in our step — long may we hold on to it.