FF-FG merger would not be good for democracy

Your editorial (Aug 25) endorses Bill O’Herlihy’s Béal na Bláth recommendation that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil should form a single party.

You, therefore, see nothing wrong with the amalgamation of two of the most powerful political parties into what would be an unchallengable monolith.

Do you not remember the period since the 1980s when one party won all elections for nearly a quarter of a century? Did they not have a virtual monopoly of power as a result? Did that not end during the Celtic Tiger era with the country eventually going bankrupt? The amalgamation of the two dominant political parties should be rejected because such an amalgamation would have serious implications for the health of our democracy.

We saw what happened when one party was in power for the best part of a quarter century. Being human power went to their heads with the dire results that we see around us.

Amalgamating the two parties, which have dominated Irish politics since independence, would be even more likely to make for long terms in power.

Such a situation would be good for neither the politics, nor the economics of this country.

A Leavy

Sutton

Dublin 13