Country needs stable government: Time for our politicians to get real

Now that the main ceremonies to commemorate the Rising are over, perhaps we can expect politicians of all shades to get on with the important job of forming a stable government.

After all, it is hardly a tribute to those brave souls of 1916 that, 100 years on, Irishmen and Irishwomen seem unable or unwilling to establish what they so willingly fought and died for. Obfuscation and back-biting will not achieve a government; only hard work, ingenuity and a willingness to compromise can do that.

From the moment the results of the general election were announced, it was clear that the formation of a government was going to be a numbers game.

With 50, Fine Gael has the most Dáil seats, but this is 26 fewer than it secured in the 2011 general election and 16 fewer than it had going into the election.

Fianna Fáil won 44 seats, but that now is effectively 43 following the election of Seán Ó Fearghail as Ceann Comhairle. Sinn Fein has 23, while Labour is now on seven. In mathematical terms, that means that a coalition of Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, and Labour could form a government without having to rely on Fianna Fáil or Independents.

That prospect is unlikely, to say the least, as Fine Gael insisted it would never contemplate forming a government with Sinn Féin. Sinn Féin finds such a possibly equally disenchanting but would the world turn in such an event?

We often get very cynical about politics in this country, especially when we complain that a government elected to office has broken promises and assurances made beforehand. But political promises are a two-way street and the electorate cannot have it both ways.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael insisted they would not go into coalition with each other or Sinn Féin, while Sinn Féin also indicated it would not seek to form a government with either.

They did so by way of seeking a mandate from the electorate. In the case of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, that inevitably meant getting enough seats to govern alone or with the aid of smaller parties or Independents. However, neither Fine Gael nor Fianna Fáil were given such a mandate, so the promises they made before the election are null and void.

The body politic needs to get real in one other important respect: The antipathy towards Sinn Féin. It is hypocritical for citizens of the Republic to insist on power-sharing between unionists and nationalists (effectively Sinn Féin) in the North while refusing to contemplate it in the Republic.

The numbers game leaves Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in a quandary. The worst option for them would be an alliance with Sinn Féin but the next worst option would be a coalition with each other.

But what about the worst option for the country? Months or years of uncertainty would be damaging economically, socially, and politically. Considering the difficulties for either Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil to secure the support of enough Independents to govern, it is incumbent on them to start talking to each other rather than about each other.

It is time for the politicians to get real, too.