Accountability - Distractions from a real challenge

THERE is a far, far better chance of Kilkenny making it five-in-a-row next September than there is of even half — anyone for a quarter? — of the 230-plus recommendations made by the Commission on Taxation being implemented by this Government. This is not how it should be or, how we wish it to be, but we know in our hearts of hearts that that is what will happen.

We know too that the majority of Colm McCarthy’s recommendations will be quietly forgotten. We know this because almost every time Fianna Fáil has had the choice of doing the right thing, or doing that which will keep the party in power, it has done the self-serving thing, shamelessly.

The party, ever since the infamous election of 1977, has clung to power by avoiding the hard decisions that might have helped avert the crisis threatening the independence of this country. It has benchmarked and subsidised and derogated its way from stand-off to stand-off, each time pawning a slice of our future.