Rabbitte attacks Fianna Fail at UCD Labour meeting

Issued : Sunday 26 September, 2004 by UCD

SPEECH BY PAT RABBITTE TD
Leader of the Labour Party
At the Labour Freshers Week Speech in UCD
On topic of
Challenging Fianna Fil Dominance in Irish Politics
Wednesday September 22nd 2004

PERSONNEL CHANGES WILL NOT ALTER GOVERNMENT SET IN STONE
This week saw yet another reason why Fianna Fil's dominance in the Irish political system must be ended. Thankfully, that dominance has been on the wane, as the local election results demonstrated. But with each passing event, it becomes clearer and clearer that this dominant Party in government has no imagination, no real understanding of the issues it faces, and no interest in anything except hanging on to office.
After more than two years of in-depth study and consultation, the Government this week produced its national Disability Strategy. A badly-drafted Bill that is riddled with sharp practice in its attempt to fool people into thinking that rights were being conferred on them; the announcement of a multi-annual funding package that couldn't be specified because it is still under negotiation, and the promise of sectoral plans that will take a further year to be completed. It was a case of the mountain groaning and bring forth a mouse.
One person with a disability, after he had studied the Bill, told me that he now had a right to have an assessment, and that assessment would produce a statement of all the needs it would not be practicable to deliver. Without adequate resources, the new and long-awaited Disability Bill will deliver nothing but longer waiting lists. And it is a damning commentary on this Government that the waiting lists we already know about, the waiting lists for essential respite, residential, training and therapy places have grown longer during each year of the celtic tiger. As we have grown richer, those in most need have been told to wait longer. And following yesterday's grandiose announcement, the small print says they must wait longer still.
And next week, too, is likely to demonstrate another reason why the sooner we
can get rid of Fianna Fil the better. Next week we are going to have a Cabinet
re-shuffle, much planned, much speculated about, much discussed. What will
change? Will the ethos of Government change? Will the willingness to buy votes change? Will the "devil-take-the-hindmost" mentality of the Government change? Will the level of competence change? Will the arrogance change?
I'm afraid the answer to all those questions is likely to be no. The hairstyles around the Cabinet table are likely to change a bit, and the flood of recent announcements designed to suggest that the Government has rediscovered its caring soul will continue, and may even accelerate as the Budget draws near. But in all the respects that matter, this Government is set in stone. No minor personnel changes are going to change that. We have, and we will continue to have, a government whose defining characteristics are dishonesty, arrogance and incompetence.
Perhaps, since its election, no issue has so marked the dishonesty of the Government as its behaviour in relation to the war in Iraq. This Government signed Ireland up to the so-called coalition of the willing without ever consulting the people of Ireland. They made us participants in a war that has produced some of the worst excesses of terrorism and hatred, that has been punctuated by human rights abuses of a shameful kind, and that has achieved nothing in the way of stability or peace in Iraq or the middle east. And whenever it suited, the Government denied they were doing it. The Taoiseach told us at various times he was opposed to the war, then in favour of it, then against it again, then the best friend America ever had.
The arrogance of the Government is to be met every week. As I said earlier, we are being led by a government that is willing to do whatever it takes to remain in office. We have already seen how they are willing to manipulate public spending for purely electoral reasons ? spending wildly in the run-up to an election, and then cutting savagely into virtually every aspect of necessary social spending in order to replenish the war chest for the next one.
And the consequence of this arrogance has been that people suffer. Not the people who bankroll the political parties in office, the fat cats and vested interests for whom Finance Bill after Finance Bill seem to be written. They don't suffer at all ? in fact their relative position has improved with each year this government has been in office.
The ones who suffer are those who are vulnerable or have no voice, or those whom the government thinks it can safely neglect. Widows have had their entitlements cut, people who have special dietary needs see the support taken away from them, lone parents are denied the opportunity to return to education or work, young couples trying to buy a home of their own face ever more insurmountable barriers.
Students face increases in registration fees of 40% a year on average, coupled with a virtual freezing of support grants. The Government supplies all the data to enable the OECD to call for the re-introduction of third level fees, and then pretends it is surprised by the call.
On this subject, we have argued and will continue to argue that there is no evidence from any other country that if you introduce or re-introduce fees you achieve a widening of access to third level. In fact, social inequality is greatest in countries which have third level fees. The case being made for fees is that Ireland needs to put more private money into third level education. However, the OECD Report itself establishes that Ireland is already above France and Germany in terms of private spending in third level as a percentage of GDP, and above France, Germany and the UK in total spending on third level as a percentage of GDP.
There are many models of third level education ? and Scandinavia is a good example - which have developed very equitable third level systems that are very accessible to all socio-economic groups.
We will continue to will continue to argue for an education system based on universal provision of education at all levels wherein those on higher incomes pay their share through the tax system. We already have a two-tier health system in this country, and we will not stand by while a two-tier system is being developed in education. Instead, we will continue to campaign for meaningful support for students in third-level education, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. And we will continue to argue that the only effective way to significantly increase the participation of the most disadvantaged communities in third level is to put much greater support in place at pre-school, primary school and secondary school where there is gross under-funding at present.
The way in which this Government has approached third-level education, and the way in which it has treated minorities and those who are at the margins of our society, is matched across a whole range of other areas of activity, all of them pointing to the same level of arrogance. I can list other examples, and I have to say I think it is important that we keep reminding ourselves of these things:
They have systematically sought to downgrade the work of Parliament, and have sought every way possible to escape Parliamentary accountability and scrutiny. They have filleted the Freedom of Information Act. They are still tinkering with their idea of setting up a government-appointed Press Council to put manners on a free press. They are going ahead with a decentralisation programme designed to undermine the coherence of civil service advice and decision-making, a programme that will cost millions and lead to chaos. They set about doing away with a recruitment and promotion system within the civil service that has been seen as fair and independent for years, and tried in the process to sneak in a plan to plant political advisers as permanent higher level civil service (thankfully they were forced to drop that one). They constantly mutter about the need to do away with election spending limits, the limiting and transparency of donations, and the need for proper accountability of spending in elections.
On the economic front they are breaking up strategically important state companies, like Aer Rianta, at enormous risk and for no apparent practical reason. They are committed to the privatisation of strategically vital utilities for purely ideological reasons, whether that makes business sense or serves Ireland's longer-term interest. They keep telling us that they are the Party and the Government that has brought tax down ? at a time when 52% of all the people who pay tax are paying at the higher rate.
But even worse than all of this, it seems to me, is their total neglect, to the point of hostility, of any concept of a society that reflects the prosperous economy we have become. We can all give examples ? what they add up to is a historic missed opportunity. The missed the opportunity of the boom, and despite the alleged conversion at Inchdoney we have all read about, they are going to keep missing it, because they don't care.

 

Because this government doesn't care, we missed the opportunity to change our society, and to unpick the structures that have held people back in the past. Take for example, the level of inequality in Irish society. Partly as a result of our relative underdevelopment, Ireland in the 1970s was one of the most unequal countries in Europe. In other words, the gap between rich and poor was one of the greatest in Europe, as was the number of people living in poverty. This was a common feature of the less developed EU states, such as Ireland, Spain and Portugal.

 

As we have become richer, however, we have not become more equal. On the contrary, while lower unemployment has reduced one risk of poverty, new vulnerabilities to poverty have opened up, especially for the elderly, for lone parents, and for people with disabilities. Despite the massive increase in wealth, our society has not become fairer. Large fortunes have been amassed, sometimes with little being returned to the community, while Fianna Fil and the PDs have deliberately redistributed wealth upwards. Greater equality should have been a feature of economic development, but it has not been achieved.

 

Meanwhile, as the boom progressed, rather than breaking down the structures that hold people back, and our society back, many were strengthened and reinforced, or simply left untouched. We continue to allow huge fortunes to be made in property development at a cost to homebuyers, rather than asserting the rights of the community to develop land for housing. We continue to retain a tax system that is fundamentally unfair, since it allows some of the wealthiest to make little or no contribution to the common good. We continue to maintain the connection between politics and private money, in the interests of funding the Fianna Fil machine.

 

Time after time, might has been allowed to be right. Many of the well off have avoided paying tax, the illegal dumper has been ignored, the corrupt developer has succeeded. Powerful elites have triumphed over national interests, and the state has failed to act.

 

So, as a country, we are materially richer, but it is entirely arguable that we are poorer in a lot of ways that matter. The structures within our society which have held people back have not been tackled. Instead, the public realm has been diminished, and private gain lauded at the expense of collective well-being. The state has become less accountable, and our democracy has been tainted. Fianna Fil and the PDs, rather than having the vision to build a new and fairer society, have encouraged the robber barons to pillage, and confined what remains to a purposeless drift.

 

It is for all these reasons that I return to the theme you have asked me to address, the need to challenge Fianna Fil dominance in Irish politics. As new members of the Party, I hope you will join us not just in accepting that need, but in doing something about it.

Over the next two years, and in the general election, we must set ourselves the target of becoming the natural choice for people now desperately seeking an alternative to this incompetent, out-of-touch and arrogant government. To do that, we have to become the major force that shapes and drives an alternative. We have no choice but to work towards that goal.

 

There are many different elements to that task, and they will require a great deal of work over the time ahead.

 

Based on our constant values, we have to develop new resonances with the Ireland of today that reflect the way people's lifestyles, aspirations and expectations have changed. We have to address the needs and idealism of young people in particular, because so many of them have become alienated from the practice of politics, and have stopped believe that you can make a real difference through politics.

We have to work hard at substantiating the difference between our values and those we fight against, and be able to show how we can translate that difference into a better society while sustaining a vibrant and dynamic economy. We have to generate a sense of vision and movement. We have to be unafraid of new ideas. We have to focus all the time on the big picture ? the principle that Ireland needs and wants change. We have to create excitement and trust in an electorate that is badly disillusioned by the antics of some politicians and the broken promises of others. I fully realise that is an enormous task, and I am hoping that you will be prepared to work with me on it.

ends