So much to do, so little time to do it - The Dáil resumes

IT is a tragedy, and a very illustrative one, that as the Government elected with the strongest mandate for change in the history of this State prepares for the resumption of the Dáil today that polls suggest that something around half of the Coalition seats are in jeopardy. Had that once-in-a- lifetime mandate been grasped as energetically, and as forcefully, as it should have been then the prospect of such a purge could be dismissed with confidence.

Sadly it cannot be. Even more sadly this failure has further strained the civic optimism needed to sustain an active, participatory democracy. Describing this denouement as a tragedy is not a judgment based on an appetite for any particular policies or party but rather a weary recognition of how hard it is, almost impossible it seems, to change how we run our public affairs.

There are — there always are — a myriad excuses but, despite appalling economic circumstances, it is hard not to think that the public’s appetite for game-changing reform inspires or even moves our political classes — that assertion is proven at nearly every opportunity.