OPINION: Politics has failed the Irish people

THE budget was a cold one. The restrictions on medical cards for the over-70s and the abolition of the death grant are grim metaphors for that which lies beneath the mindset behind the budget.

Still, the post-budget dust will settle soon enough. The questions, political theatre, and outrage will dissipate. The people, trapped in a repressive political system they could not have envisaged, will soldier on. The unelected “influencers” will keep representative democracy — and especially the “dissenters” and free thinkers — on a tight leash. The “rent seekers” spawned by the economic slump will continue to profit.

None of the analysis or comment prior to the budget had any effect. None of the analysis and comment since will have any effect. The only calculus that matters is the political one. The political orthodoxy that underlies the cult of austerity reflects the proclivity for power and the capacity of the hard left to leverage power to re-engineer society. Much of what has been imposed in the name of austerity is anathema to the tradition of socialism in Ireland. This budget, and previous troika budgets, are anti-marriage, anti-family, and destructive of community.