Dáil’s summer recess - Holidaying during state of emergency

The politicians are off on an 11-week holiday and the country can go to hell. That seemed to be the Dáil’s message yesterday.

Ceann Comhairle John O’Donoghue gave the game away when he blocked one question saying: “We’d never get out of here.” Well, they have gone now and they won’t be back until September 24.

The opposition always berates the Government at this time of the year for not sitting longer. If their bluff was called in past years, there might have been consternation across the floor, but this year is very different, because it is a time of great uncertainty.

The Government will continue working, but now its members are essentially unanswerable. We have just witnessed the worst deterioration in the public finances in the history of the State and the economy could be facing one of the nastiest downturns in history.

If those who insisted on their holiday break yesterday really believe that they are not needed now in midst of this crisis, how do they expect to convince people that they are needed at all? Unemployment has risen at an alarming rate, as have food and fuel prices. Many people will remember the downturn in the 1970s. It took over a decade and a half, with considerable European help, to extricate the country from that mess.

The cream of a generation ended up in exile. They, and their families here, were betrayed then.

This week when the Government cuts were announced, it was said that there would be no payroll cuts in health or education, but now we know the health budget is going to bear the bulk of the economising.

There has been wanton waste within the Health Service Executive, but if the payroll is not being cut, how are they going to economise — by eliminating frontline services? That would be an outrage.

The Tánaiste announced yesterday that her Department of Trade and Enterprise was saving €24 million by cutting back mostly on money for FÁS. This cut will be in an area of industrial education at a time when retraining is most needed.

The cuts have not been explained to the public, or to their representatives in the Oireachtas. It is as if the views of the representatives really do not matter.

“The country is actually becoming a disgrace,” said Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore. That is not fair. It is those who have run off on holidays who are the disgrace, because they are reneging on their democratic responsibilities.