Why I’m rooting for the ‘lifeguard’

Why do I cheerlead Fine Gael and the current Government? Simply put, I’m rooting for the lifeguard.

A little over two years ago a failed Government reached the apex of their inflicted doom and& literally destroyed the economic sovereignty of Ireland. They dumped the country in the lap of the EU/IMF and high-tailed it out of office. What was left in their wake was nothing short of an economic nuclear winter.

In little over two years a Fine Gael-led Government has turned the fundamentals of our economy around. Battling against shared control of our own finances, consistent populist and unrealistic opposition and a continuing European crisis, Ireland is slowly clawing its way back.

Realistic thinkers will tell you it will take years to bring Ireland back and I am very encouraged by the progress made in 24 months. Fine Gael were elected to do a job in five years, not two, and we would do well to remember this.

Of course, the Government is in the midst of unpopular decision making. No executive voluntarily imposes property taxes, pay cuts and social welfare cuts.

Each and every difficult decision made to inflict a tax or cut is a direct result of the policies of Fianna Fáil who reigned for 27 of the last 30 years and& any other philosophy is severely unrealistic.

Of course Fine Gael could reject tax increases and pay cuts but this would halt recovery and bring Ireland back to the brink of economic disaster from which they have rescued us. This is a harsh medicine that people must swallow, but there is no alternative.

We are faced with a hypocritical opposition who oppose for the sake of popularity. Fianna Fáil reject the current property tax which they created.

Sinn Féin espouse a socialist ideal whilst they travel half-way around the globe to avail of private healthcare and use publicly funded ink to print hundreds of thousands of pages opposing each and every action of a Government getting Ireland back on track.

What the opposition utterly fail to comprehend is that if Ireland is not stabilised, a much worse fate awaits.

If a man is drowning, who is to blame — the person who pushed him in or the lifeguard battling to save him?

Jack O’Donnell

Castlebar

Co Mayo