Stop whinging if you vote as before

Is it expecting too much for the people to grasp that, even if all the banking debt disappeared, the hard reality is that it costs more to run Ireland than it generates in taxes.

That is the constant around which policy decisions about spending are made, even if there could be many improvements in how that money is spent.

As the political parties line up to out-lie each other, is it also too much to hope that a politician would challenge the whinging about water and property charges? Voters should be asked how they propose that the infrastructure be built and maintained.

The focus is on the charge itself and not on the service. Wouldn’t it be better if a political party promised that 100% of property taxes would be spent locally, or that the new water monopoly would be self-funding and not-for-profit, without the need for a subsidy of €500m, which is funded by cuts to other services?

Think what difference an extra €500m would make to disadvantaged schools or the disabled.

I do not want to hear anymore moaning about how difficult life is in Ireland, if the people who are moaning go out and again vote for Fine Gael, Labour, Fianna Fáil or even Sinn Féin. They do that knowing none of those parties’ promises are genuine.

The words of Pat Rabbitte, that election promises are just “things you say to get elected”, should be printed on all election literature, and those seeking re-election should have their expenses and allowances printed, too.

In the 2011 election, the myth was peddled that we voted for change, when 73% of people still voted for the same main three parties that 79% voted for in 2007. The only change was that more voted for Fine Gael.

So, if people vote for the main three parties in such numbers again, this May, then, please, no more whinging about the country because, people are clearly happy to wallow in denial about Ireland’s problems.

But those of us obliged to be exiles have a duty to point out this folly, and not to pander to people who claim they vote for the same, tired old parties because there are no good new candidates.

Every constituency offers first-time and independent candidates, from all sides of the political spectrum, who would make perfectly good representatives at local and EU level.

But even more contemptible are the people who can’t even get off their sofa for 10 minutes to go to their local school to cast a vote. If they can’t even manage to do that, they have no right to an opinion on the state of the country.

The reason Ireland has such a poor quality stock of politicians is because Irish people consistently vote for the same poor stock.

The buck for choosing better politicians stops with the Irish voters and, nearly 100 years after independence, it’s time they stopped behaving like 19th century Tammany Hall peasants and started to vote intelligently.

Desmond FitzGerald

Canary Wharf

London

England