General election 2011 - Anger must be put aside after vote

AS we enter the final hours of what has been a peculiar, low-energy and fairly constrained election campaign it might just be time to look beyond the weekend’s anticipated excitements to try to separate what can be achieved from the unattainable.

For Fianna Fáil it seems they must prepare for a period of relative silence, reflection and rebuilding on the opposition benches. Unless, of course, they are prepared to consider the option that bordered on sacrilege for all of their predecessors.

Though it may be chastening — justly so — for a party so used to having decisive influence and access at every level of society it is for the best. The party, much less the country, could not endure another decade like the last. That so many senior Fianna Fáil figures have decided to call an end to their political careers before this election suggests that there is a less bombastic mood in the party and that a new reality may have dawned.

A purged, redefined and rejuvenated Fianna Fáil would again become a force to be reckoned with in Irish politics and it is unimaginable that the most influential political entity in the history of this state will not adapt. They may be at a very low ebb but it would be more than foolhardy to write their obituary.

They, at least, will be in control of their destiny. What any incoming Government would give to be able to say that.

When the next cabinet, be it Fine Gael or Fine Gael with Labour or even Fine Gael and others, meets for the first time they will have fewer options than anycabinet that preceded them. They may even face more unavoidable demands than any of their predecessors.

They will have to impose more cuts on an already angry and disaffected electorate. These cuts will almost inevitably focus on people who have suffered significant reductions in incomes and living standards.

They will face an unemployment rate not seen in decades and, when flesh must be put on election rhetoric about job creation, discover how very difficult it is to create viable, self-financing work in a relatively high-cost economy that has been beaten to its knees.

They may have to impose further pay cuts on public sector employees if the savings anticipated under the Croke Park deal are not realised and the worrying indications are that they might not be. Despite the divide that has grown between public and private sector workers this would do little to re-energise the country in the way it so very badly needs.

Once uncomfortable decisions like that could be long-fingered but the regular, unflinching assessments by our IMF/ECB paymasters make it impossible to defer hard, uncomfortable decisions like this.

Voter anger and a determination to get a pound of flesh may do for Fianna Fáil but without a degree of realism about what can be achieved their successors will face the same fate in a few years’ time. Friday will be the day to pass judgement but Monday will follow quickly enough. Then we will need patience, determination and unity of purpose like never before if we are to rebuild a society we can be proud of. Anger must be, for the medium term at least, be replaced with pragmatism and no little wit.