Rebuilding Ireland - Our fear of change costs us dearly

TWO unrelated events yesterday, and another on Thursday, suggest that we needlessly pay a very heavy price for our innate conservatism.

They suggest that our inability to manage the kind of evolution that leads to continual improvement and enrichment in a society is one of the main reasons for the unprecedented challenges facing us all.

These events identified the lethargy that grips so much of our public life and how we manage — or mismanage — our affairs. They pointed to something bordering on a fear of change that has diminished us and will cost us even more unless we try to apply some of the ideas and satisfy the great energy and hunger for reform shaping today’s national discourse.

These events pointed to our predominant instinct to be ultra cautious fearing change might mean we’d become radical and therefore reckless. Of course the truth is very different, as can be seen in societies that have recognised that blind conservatism and stagnation are debilitating first cousins.

The first of these events were the comments made by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin after the publication of the final section of the Murphy Report which dealt with the appalling paedophile and former priest Tony Walsh. Walsh, who is in jail, was described as the “most notorious child sexual abuser”.

Archbishop Martin, while not in any way trying to pretend that the Catholic hierarchy had not behaved dreadfully in these matters, pointed to the culture of deference, procrastination and negotiation that allowed paedophiles a free rein. It was not until these attitudes changed to something far more appropriate — a commitment to child protection and equality before the law — that the monsters and the institutions that shielded them could be confronted. This change should have come decades ago and saved hundreds if not thousands of children from this active evil. Our reluctance to change earlier is one of the reasons thousands of Irish people carry the life-long scars of the hurt inflicted on them by their childhood abusers.

The second reference to this national phobia were some of the remarks made by Transport Minister Noel Dempsey after he announced that he would not contest the coming election. He, with a considerable note of regret, suggested that it is far too difficult to reform our public affairs and that the job should be undertaken by a special forum rather than our political institutions. He recognised that our Dáil deputies too often do the work of county councillors and that this must change.

There will be an election within months and, it seems, the result is a foregone conclusion though it is still hard to believe that recent poll figures will be translated into votes and a radically changed Dáil.

Fine Gael and Labour need to present an agreed blueprint and timetable for the kind of reform we all know is essential to the rejuvenation of this country if they are to make the poll findings real. Not doing so would inevitably feed the fear of change that has us where we are. A commitment to establish a department for reform with a full five-star minster would be a good first step. The IMF may tell us how to spend our money — and theirs — but we are the only ones who can rebuild Ireland and to do that it’s time we recognised the great positive power of constructive change.