Elaine Loughlin: Is any political party prepared to put the State's interests first?
If events 10 years ago this week had been different Labour could now be filling the seats occupied by Sinn Féin as the largest party in opposition.
Mary Lou McDonald's party, which is now poised for power, could learn some important lessons by looking back on the Fine Gael-Labour coalition before making any promises ahead of the next general election.
Meanwhile, history appears to be repeating itself with the Greens, who through conceding too much of their core identity to Fine Gael, are at risk of losing their voice in this current Government and will lose even more when the country goes to the ballot box next time around.
The 2011 general election came at a tumultuous time in Ireland's history, a downbeat nation had awoken from the 2008 nightmare and was staring into the financial abyss. Effectively insolvent we had surrendered economic independence to the Troika.
In an unusual move the two largest parties in the Dáil coalesced, Labour added its 27 seats to Fine Gael's 76, giving the new Government breathing space of 30 seats. But this thumping majority would be needed over the next five years as the conveyor belt of tough decisions faced by the Government became relentless.
At the time and even now, those who followed Eamon Gilmore into power said they were doing so for the good of the country.
But this altruistic move was not appreciated by the electorate and some in the party now feel that they would not act out of a duty to the State if called upon again.
"I have no doubt it was a government that righted the ship and saved the economy," former Labour leader Brendan Howlin says.
Labour had set themselves up to go into Government during the 2011 election campaign. Mr Gilmore urged voters to reject the dangers of a single-party Fine Gael government and instead asked the electorate to give his candidates the chance to stand watch over Enda Kenny's party as the country tried to dig itself out of depression.
“People didn’t want a single-party Government and there was no other combination around," former minister Ruairí Quinn said in 2014.
Looking back, former tánaiste Joan Burton says: "I just don't think the voters would have understood if the Labour party walked away.
"The country basically had ceded economic management to the Troika. We had really lost our independence and sovereignty to the Troika and that certainly weighed very heavily on my mind."
With the new Government effectively working as an agent for an absentee landlord who flew into town once a month to make sure the peasants were behaving themselves, many difficult decisions were foisted upon those who had taken up office in Kildare Street.
"It was an extraordinarily difficult period. Certainly in the first couple of years of that government we literally didn't know economically whether we would survive or not or whether the euro would survive as a currency, and what the implications of that were," Mr Howlin recalls.
Indeed, Mr Gilmore in his memoir details a meeting held in the Sycamore Room of Government Buildings during which a return to the punt was mapped out with then-governor of the Central Bank Patrick Honohan as the collapse of the euro seemed like a tangible possibility.
Mr Howlin says:
Many of those mistakes came before Labour entered coalition. They should have seen it coming.
Their "Every Little Hurts" election slogan, which famously featured six cuts and charges they claimed Fine Gael would bring in if it was allowed to form a single-party government, would come back to repeatedly haunt them and hurt them.
By the first three austerity budgets many of the issues featured in the election adverts had been implemented including a Vat increase, a levy on wine, a reduction in child benefit rates, and tax on savings.
But Ms Burton argues that her party still managed to block some of Fine Gael's most unpalatable proposals.
"There would have been a different type of economic recovery had we not been in government. But what you stopped happening is never understood," she says.
A decade on and the Labour Party has yet to recover from the punishment beating it received in the 2016 election and for many, the wounds remain raw.
It was clear after last year's general election that there was a weariness on the part of many to grasp the reins of power.
Forming governments into the future will become progressively more difficult if parties believe that a stint in power will only lead to political annihilation when the next general election comes around.
"If the most successful strategy is to echo back people's concerns at the doorstep, whatever they are, and promise all things to all men it's ultimately a very destructive type of politics," says Mr Howlin, before warning that Sinn Féin should be careful in what they commit to ahead of the next general election.
The near demise of Labour does pose broader questions for all parties.
If there is no reward for doing right by the country but a guaranteed future bounty for those who step back and put party first, where does that leave us in any future crisis?
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March 10: Taoiseach Seán Lemass was forced to dissolve the Dáil and go to the country after Fianna Fáil failed to win a seat in the Mid Cork by-election. Instead, Labour's Eileen Desmond took the seat previously held by her husband Dan Desmond, which led to an unacceptable mathematical situation for Mr Lemass and his Government.
March 11: Garret FitzGerald resigned the leadership of Fine Gael and was succeeded by Alan Dukes. The described his departure as a "shock decision" which came after almost 10 years at the helm during which he led two coalition Governments.
March 14: After being wrongfully jailed for 16 years, the Birmingham Six were freed.
March 15: Former Fine Gael minister Hugh Coveney died in a fall from a cliff. The front page and four further pages of coverage were dedicated to the politician the following day. In one piece Tony Leen wrote: "When Charlie McCreevey said yesterday that Hugh Covneney was one of the few representatives he knew without an enemy in politics, it reminded one of John Bruton's words on the night of Coveney's 1994 by-election victory: 'Cork has given itself a representative to be proud of'."
March 13: Renua, a new political party led by Lucinda Creighton is launched. At the time, the reported that everyone was hung up on the name which had been previously used for a boiler service, food shop and a trad band.
March 10: Over 100 illegal drugs were accidently legalised for one day. The Government were forced to bring forward emergency legalisation to close the loophole which made ecstasy, certain amphetamines and an array of former headshop drugs legal to possess.
HSE chief Paul Reid will be in for a morning grilling when he appears before the Health Committee to answer questions on Covid-19 and the vaccine rollout.
The Finance Committee will have plenty to discuss when representatives of the Central Bank of Ireland appear with mortgage arrears, business interruption insurance and the recent Davy case all in the spotlight.
The committee has also made it clear that it wants the stockbrokers to come before it, with chair John McGuinness stating: "The organisation clearly has very, very many questions to answer after Davy received a significant fine from the Central Bank of €4.13m for breaching market rules. The more information that Davy provides the better. It is a matter which we will pursue as a committee.”
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan recently said cutting Ireland’s carbon emissions by half over the next decade will be immensely challenging but it is achievable. Meeting this ambitious target will not just require political buy-in but the support of all sectors. Expect some interesting contributions from Dr Brian Caulfield of Trinity College, DCU's Dr Diarmuid Torney and National Transport Authority chief executive Anne Graham, when they appear at the Joint Committee on Climate Action from 12.30pm.
Sinn Féin's Kathleen Funchion is bringing forward a Bill that would enable any adopted person to access a copy of their birth certificate. The Government has said it would bring forward its own legislation in this area, however, it will be under pressure to support the opposition Bill.
Last week, the Dáil heard criticisms of the Land Development Agency from both members of the opposition and the Government. The controversial measure, which detractors say will result in the "theft of public land" and will drive up house prices, is up again for debate this week
TDs are in for their weekly instalment of the Covid vaccine rollout reality show as Health Minister Stephen Donnelly appears in the Dáil on Thursday morning to take questions. The Taoiseach has already indicated the March vaccination targets will be challenging to meet so expect some testy exchanges in the chamber.
We use the terms every day but do you know what they mean?
The title given to our president when translated directly means person at the top. To get a 'lámh in uachtar' over someone means you have the upper hand. Interestingly, uachtar also is Irish for cream, and as we know the cream always rises to the top of milk.
This is an old term for leader or chieftain and was chosen as the title for head of Government under the 1937 Constitution of Ireland. The word is understood to date back to the Iron Age. While not commonly used now, one of the interesting old Irish names for the devil is Taoiseach an Bháis, or the chieftain of death.
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