Government parties must regain voters’ trust

Many people perceive that principle has been sacrificed in favour of pragmatism with the resignation of Róisín Shortall.

Current ‘group think’ or consensus in Government seems to suggest that Deputy Shortall somehow failed to fully appreciate realpolitik. I suspect that she understands the concept of realpolitik all too well.

Arguably, what she objected to was the sustaining of ‘parish pump’ politics, however inadvertent. Parish pump politics derives from a clientelist-based politics which through its privileging of the local over the national has bedeviled the creation of solidarity and social equality.

What some individual politicians need to realise is why so many people are dismayed, rightly or wrongly, at the perceived lack of support for Deputy Shortall. Quite simply, they expected much more from this Government.

It is imperative that the Fine Gael/Labour administration regain the electorate’s trust by disavowing a self-interested politics which has the potential to corrode democracy.

Dr Margaret O’Keeffe

Mayfield

Cork