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Last Updated: Dec 19th, 2007 - 13:17:15 |
Irish General Election 2007: Some questions that voters should ask the politicians
By Michael Hennigan, Editor and Founder of Finfacts
Dec 17, 2006, 19:07
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Update January 28, 2007: The job description of the Irish TD in the Twenty-first Century
Update March 11, 2007: Irish General Election 2007: Soundbite Battle Score - Politicians 100; Journalists 0
Update April 29,2007: Irish General Election 2007: Tax cuts the easy part as public sector reform outsourced to the OECD and the Irish public
Main Page - Irish General Election 2007
Ireland has a part-time Government and Parliament and the results are self-evident.
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| Leinster House, Dublin, seat of the Irish Parliament |
Dáil Éireann adjourned for a six-week break on Thursday that rounds off 96 sittings in 2006 and the echoes of the sounds of closing stable doors reflecting the shambolic system of governance, continued to reverberate.
Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy ordered increased armed Garda patrols and committed 20 extra officers to fight organised crime in the wake of five violent deaths in a week. Justice Minister Michael McDowell plans to agree a list of offences with the judiciary where bail would only be allowed in the most exceptional of cases, following a report that 23 of 24 associates of a slain drugs trader were given bail by the courts despite serious charges against them.
So the penny only drops for McDowell on bail, after a week of gun violence.
Also on Thursday, Minister for Health said on the publication of the Health Bill 2006: “This Bill is a central part of the health reform programme. We are getting tough on setting standards and tough on enforcing standards. An independent organisation with teeth is now being created. ”
So a Minister for Finance can see virtue in providing tax incentives to promote the building of nursing homes but until a television programme exposed the appalling treatment of old people in some of them, it would never dawn on well paid ministers and civil servants that nothing was amiss.
Hundreds of millions of euros are wasted on IT projects and cost overruns on other public projects and it takes a public outcry to prompt the introduction of basic controls.
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| Willie O'Dea |
Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea will next month launch a multi-million euro publicity campaign to inform people about the Government's emergency plans for disasters.
To put it simply Mr. Minister, if a burst water pipe can turn Dublin's principal motorway into a car park for eight hours, then what can we seriously expect from a public governance system that only responds to a crisis situation when it becomes dire?
What a brilliant idea! A minister launching a publicity campaign in an election year, instead of proposing fundamental reform for a broken system! And don't be surprised if O'Dea fronts the campaign himself.
When Ministers simply work part-time on issues of government, should we be surprised at the glacial speed and the lack of ideas or interest in promoting reform?
The issue of reform isn't on the agenda and while partisans can battle over laundry lists of self-styled achievements and plans, the part-time Parliament and Government takes years for urgent issues to be tackled.
It for example has required a public tribunal, the involvement of the former Boston police chief and 2 reports on Garda (police) structural reform to come forward with proposed basic management system changes and nobody can honestly say when the changes will be implemented.
There are so many examples of neglect, incompetence, sheer cluelessness, laziness and inertia that can be summed up with an overarching conclusion: The Buck Stops Nowhere.
Last month the Irish Independent summed it up well: Five ministers were on hand to reveal plans for a fabulous new Dublin Metro line. On the same day, commuters witnessed the biggest traffic jam in Irish history.
I'm not into the journalism of holier-than-thou moral outrage expecting perfection, which is seldom found in any area of life. However, a system:
- that produces 30 ministers, the majority of whom would not get within an ass' roar of a credible management job in the private sector;
- where public service "reform" without credible job targets or accountability that was surreally termed "benchmarking" and gave Ministers a double-payment, single special payments averaging 10% to TDs, senators, the rest of the civil service and every public service retiree - but no publication of the final report on the system as everyone knew that the claim that public servants were underpaid compared with comparable positions in the private sector, was an absolute fraud;
- where the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern says post- so-called benchmarking that a six-hour day and half day on Friday applies in the public service;
- where the management consultancy industry has effectively become a branch of government with one Minister staking a claim to a world record, having commissioned 145 reports and reviews over a 4 year period;
- where a public planning tribunal investigating planning corruption has been sitting since 1997 but the system that spawned the corruption and makes millions for farmers, lawyers and developers, remains untouched;
- where the most significant reform effort over a decade was the back-of-an- envelope decentralisation plan;
- where the opportunistic lauding of competition in aviation, highlighted that we owe very little to our own legislature for the limited removal of anti-competitive restrictions in the economy. In the words of William Prasifka, the chairman of Ireland's Competition Authority, who said last June that “in too many areas, Ireland has not willingly embraced competition. European Directives forced the introduction of minimum levels of competition in the telecommunications and energy sectors. In other areas, such as taxis and pharmacies, legal advice or court actions precipitated change,”
- where the Taoiseach will receive pension earnings of €282,000 in his first year out of office; TDs get a 50% pension after 20 years service and the funding cost of a full indexed linked public service pension would cost 28% of salary for each of 40 years in the private sector, contrasts with 900,000 workers in the private sector who have no occupational pension and;
- where State planners cannot even plan for electricity demand resulting in the risk of Third world-style brownouts and balckouts according to the Economic and Social Research Institute
- is indicative of a banjaxed system of public governance.
A 1920's System for the 21st Century
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| From Jackie Healy Rae's website: June 1997. The night Jackie Healy-Rae was elected TD for South Kerry the scene in Killarney was like Puck Fair, the Rose of Tralee and a Kerry welcome for the Sam McGuire Cup rolled into one. The party went on for weeks as the new TD went back over pot-holed roads to the villages and parishes that had sent him to Leinster House with such a resounding mandate. It was the culmination of over twenty years of successful local politics, ever since Healy-Rae was elected to Kerry County Council in 1973. Director of elections for Fianna Fáil in numerous campaigns, he became a supreme political strategist. But he broke from the party in controversial circumstances before the 1997 general election. When the party refused to nominate him as a candidate he ran as an independent. Against all the odds he headed the poll. Within a matter of weeks, Jackie Healy-Rae was playing an important role in the formation of the new government by supporting the Fianna Fáil -Progressive Democrat coalition...and winning important concessions for Kerry in return. |
Central to the state of chassis, is a 1920's era political system trying to cope with a modern Ireland, powered by American-owned world class companies.
In a paper, Dr. Frank Barry of UCD says that Professor David Farrell notes that Ireland’s single transferable vote (STV) electoral system is usually blamed for the brokerage style of politics practiced in Ireland. Political scientists have accorded it a key role in generating "…the heavy emphasis on constituency casework, faction-fighting between candidates from the same party (and) a focus on constituency and localist matters in election campaigns and parliamentary work".
Though Farrell himself argues that the relationship between brokerage politics and STV may be coincidental, others point out that "…as predicted by the theory of electorally determined parliamentary behaviour, the matters of real importance to (Irish ) deputies are constituency service, and on these matters deputies who must electioneer independently continue to act independently". Barry says that the current system certainly appears frequently to lock Irish politicians, competing against each other within the same constituency, into a type of prisoners’ dilemma
An illustration of the still thriving era of the bogman politician was reported by Fionnan Sheahan in the Irish Independent on Saturday December 16, 2006.
Who gives a tu'penny damn about an issue that would require some mental energy and more consultants' reports, such as local government reform, when there are more important concerns such as raking in more cash from the taxpayer?
The authors of a 2005 report looked at housing planning systems operating in four different countries: Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, and Australia.
The report says that there is probably no other country in the world that is as decentralised and devolved as Switzerland.
Even taxes are determined and raised at the local and the regional level. This has an important effect on the Swiss house market. Councils trying to attract new inhabitants – and expand their tax base – have to make sure they provide the right kind of housing. As a result, Switzerland has managed to build bigger and better homes while keeping house prices stable.
Why Swiss Planners Build What People Want
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Switzerland’s political structure is highly devolved. It allows the cantonal and sub-cantonal tiers of government to determine local tax rates.
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Tax autonomy leads to tax competition between councils and cantons. Providing inadequate land for housing means councils risk losing inhabitants – and therefore tax income – to neighbouring areas. On the other hand, council areas attracting new inhabitants are able to lower their tax rates or improve services.
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There
has been virtually no real house price inflation in Switzerland for more than three decades, while at the same time Swiss houses have become bigger and better, allowing more and more Swiss to live in the houses they desire.
Fionnan Sheahan reported that Environment Minister Dick Roche gave part-time local councillors
an early Christmas present worth at least €900 each to their wages. And some will get over €6,000 more, arising from the changes.
Councillors already pick up an average of nearly €30,000 each from the taxpayer.
Roche also increased the golden handshake paid to retiring councillors to twice the average industrial wage for those with 20 years' service.
Who gives a tu'penny damn that most workers on the average industrial wage have NO occupational pension?
Sheahan says that the multi-million package will significantly increase the €26m pie carved up by councillors last year. The increased allowances were put together after intense lobbying from
Fianna Fáil senators, who are mainly elected by councillors.
So if you're a senator, wouldn't you want to claim credit for giving some smarties to the councillors when you have to grovel to them for votes after the General Election in 2007?
Under the increases announced, every county councillor will get at least €937 more each and some will make up to €6,000 extra each.
Strategic Policy Committee chairpersons, of which there are five on each county council, will get paid an extra €920. The 10 chairpersons of regional assemblies and authorities will make an extra €3,000, while the chairs of county and city development boards will get €6,000.
The golden handshake for county and city councillors retiring after 20 years of service goes up to
€64,000 - a rise of €16,000.
The average industrial wage is €32,000, so a retiring councillor will get a lump-sum worth double the average worker's wages.
With the Seanad elections coming up next year, Fianna Fáil senators piled on pressure for increased wages and pensions for their "constituents".
Most senators are entirely dependent on the votes of city and county councillors for their jobs, as local authority members make up the vast bulk of the Seanad electorate.
The Fianna Fáil senators met with Roche in recent months to discuss the financial position for councillors. They wanted improvements in the allowances and gratuity. All 28 senators signed a letter sent out on headed paper by the Fianna Fáil Seanad Group to councillors nationwide, who saw it as a clear sign the Seanad election campaign is on the horizon.
The survey of wages, allowances and expenses for city and county councillors revealed average earnings of €29,550 per councillor in 2005. That's just €750 less than the typical worker's pay packet, or average industrial wage, which was €30,300 last year.
But many county councillors received far more than this for their services. The highest paid one in the country made almost €83,000 last year.
In the 2007 General Election, many of the candidates who will be vying for the 166 seats in
Dáil Éireann, will be uninspiring and if elected will play the traditional role of political messenger boy/girl. In the House. with the exception of Joe Higgins and Pat Rabbitte, parliamentary performers are a rare specie and mumbling with the aid of a script is surely one good cure for insomnia.
A TD or aspiring one, should be expected to put forward challenging ideas, defying conventional wisdom where appropriate and addressing issues of public policy beyond a forthcoming election.
The Irish electorate tend to opt for the messengers and when some of them become ministers, they are clueless without the prop of a consultant's report. Is it surprising that the default mode is to wait for the fire to break out before attending to the problem?
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| Cabinet Meeting in Cork City Hall, June 2005 |
In his paper, Dr Frank Barry says that a number of countries, and not just those new to parliamentary democracy, have changed their electoral systems in recent times. Most – including Italy, Japan and New Zealand for example – have switched to "mixed systems" of the German type, which combine national lists (where political parties offer lists of the most capable people willing to serve) alongside constituency representation. This would dilute the stranglehold of localism on the system and allow governments to devote more attention to difficult longer-term issues.
The final report of the Constitution Review Group (1996) chaired by Dr T.K. Whitaker cautioned that the present PR-STV (Single Transferable Vote) has had popular support and should not be changed without careful advance assessment of the possible effects. If a change were to be made, it went on however, "…the introduction of a PR-list or AMS (the additional member system, referred to above as the mixed system) would satisfy more of the relevant criteria than a move to a non-PR system" such as that of the UK, an option already rejected by the Irish electorate in the referendums of 1959 and 1968.
Wouldn't it be something to have a party with a radical platform for change with an opportunity to improve the quality of candidates offered to the electorate?
The following are some issues that voters should raise with candidates at the General election. As the present Government combination, will have been in power for 10 years, NOBODY should accept the excuse that they didn't have time or money to attend to an issue.
The Dáil sits for an average of 93 days each year and it's closed for months when there are urgent issues of public importance in progress. How many days should the Dáil sit and will you publicly support a change?
A TD's pay (excluding expenses) has increased by 120% since 1997 - double the increase in the average industrial wage. Tell me, are workers underpaid or are TDs overpaid?
In 1997, the Westminster member was paid a quarter more than the TD, who then earned €44,067. Nine years later the TD/MP pay gap has not just been closed, it has been reversed. Today, the Dáil deputy earns €96,650 and the MP earns 11 per cent less, at €87,132.
TDs will earn basic pay of at least €100,000 in 2007 compared with €72,000 earned by members of the Australian House of Representatives.
A comparable country to Ireland, such as New Zealand, which is similar in population size (4.1m) and economic scale and performance to Ireland, manages with 120 MPs compared with our 166 and has one chamber - no upper house. In 1999, in a non-binding referendum, the New Zealand people voted to reduce the number of MPs to 99: some 84 per cent voted in favour. Even more remarkable: the Kiwi MP is paid just €56,730, under two thirds the Irish rate.
The Sunday Independent reports that the
Taoiseach's wage packet has rocketed to €266,492 a year - a 140% increase in less than a decade brought about by the 23 separate pay increases enjoyed by senior politicians. Those increases mean a humble backbench deputy now earns as much as the Taoiseach took home back in 1997 when the FF/PD coalition government first came into office.
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CABINET & TD PAY SURGES |
| |
1997 |
2006 |
| Taoiseach |
€95,947 |
€228,924 |
| Tanaiste |
€95,947 |
€228,924 |
| Minister |
€89,461 |
€210,141 |
| Minister of State |
€68,386 |
€144,396 |
| TD |
€44,068 |
€96,650 |
Self-styled "ordinary Joe" Bertie Ahern is among the top earners of Prime Ministers in Europe with almost double the pay of the PM of oil-rich Norway, which has a fund for future generations worth more than $200 billion.
The issue of pay and expenses is relevant because there is no evidence of a productivity trade-off in return for huge increases compared with Irish private sector workers.
In addition, we Irish who are dependent on foreign firms for 87% of our exports, have not discovered a magic formula for permanent prosperity.
Pay is one of several perks not available for most politicians' constituents.
An audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General's office has found that a pint costs as little as €3.70 in the Dáil visitors' bar, more than 50 cent cheaper than elsewhere in Dublin.
The audit has also reportedly raised concerns about the slow rate at which TDs pay off their bar tabs and the falling profit margins at the four bars and restaurants in Leinster House.
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| John O' Donoghue, T.D., Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern TD., met members of the Shannon Region tourism industry, Marie Slattery, Shannon Heritage and John Madden, Temple Gate Hotel, Ennis, at the Shannon Development tourism stand at Holiday World Dublin. Ahern expends much of his time opening events, shops, pubs and offices but he seldom makes major speeches on public policy. In the period between elections, he does not make himself available for indepth media interviews. SEE: Bertie Ahern's Permanent Campaign |
D'you think it's fair that Dublin TDs pick up more than €20,000 tax free each year for travel and subsistence allowances when most people have to buy their own lunch and pay for travelling into work?
Documents obtained and compiled by the Sunday Independent under Freedom of Information show that despite their close proximity to Leinster House, the travel expenses of some of the Dublin TDs were more than those of a large number of their rural colleagues.
One of those topping the Dublin list is FF's Charlie O'Connor, who, according to the released figures, received €28,602 for travel and subsistence expenses over the 12-month period.
All Dublin TDs receive €8,227 in a constituency travel allowance and miscellaneous expense allowances, and all claimed additional travel expenses and subsistence during the year, including for trips abroad.
Some of those taking home tidy sums in expenses include members of FG's front bench as well as the leader of the Green Party Trevor Sargent who took home €20,900 despite living in Balbriggan.
55 TDs, a third of all Dáil deputies, and eight Senators were also paid expenses in excess of €60,000.
Defending the system, officials in the Houses of the Oireachtas describe the expenses as "an essential and public cost of the democratic process".
What extra work did you do in return for your benchmarking pay rise?
TDs often claim that they do loads of committee work during the long holidays. Of the last 15 committee reports and consultants' reports, how many of the key recommendations have been implemented?
Are you embarrassed that 900,000 workers have no pensions at work and will have to rely on a meagre handout from the State?
Would you support the use of the National Pension Reserve Fund of €20 billion that is being set aside for public sector staff (it will have risen to this level by the time of the General Election) to ease in a mandatory pension for private sector workers over several years?
With 17% of tax revenues coming directly from property and possibly at least 30% when indirect services are taken account of, how would you propose to make up the tax shortfall after 2008 when revenue from property is expected to fall?
Why do you think that politicians have jumped on the stamp duty bandwagon while they stay well clear of the issue of farmers becoming multimillionaires through sales of land?
The Mahon Planning Corruption Tribunal has created 10 millionaires among the legal professions. Why has the corrupt land rezoning system remained unreformed ?
The top 10 payments to barristers and solicitors are:
- Desmond O'Neill €3.7m
- Patricia Dillon €3.3mm
- John Gallagher €2.8m
- Patrick Quinn €2.5m
- Eunice O'Raw €2.5m
- Mairead Coughlan €1.8m
- Patrick Hanratty €1.5m
- Annette Foley €1.1m
- Henry R. Murphy €1.1m
- Susan Gilvarry €1 million
The Progressive Democrats have taken the strongest public position against development land reform even though the corrupt system creates an artificial scarcity of land in a country that is 4% urbanised.
The day of the brown envelope containing a few thousand pounds to buy a local politician's vote is over but anyone who believes that corruption has ended, is a fool.
PD President Tom Parlon has said that any move to change the existing land rezoning system, would be a move "to the left of Stalin."
Urban voters, should ask PD candidates why they support a corrupt system that has resulted in more than a doubling in the site cost as a percentage of the cost of a house in 10 years.
It was estimated in 2003 that site costs accounted for 42.5% of a house nationwide compared with a typical range in the mid 1990s of 12%-15%. In the US, land accounts for 20% of the total cost of a house. In Denmark the figure is similar while in Portugal the land factor drops to 15%.
Up to €4.6bn of the €18.5bn of taxpayers' money that will be spent on new main roads over the next decade will go into the pockets of landowners. Fred Barry, chief executive of the National Roads Authority is reported as saying that the increases in the cost of land for major roads projects as "disturbing".
Land acquisition accounts for 23% of the cost of roads projects in Ireland, but just 12% in England, 10% in Denmark, 9.4% in Greece and 1% in Iceland. A further 2% of the €18.5bn provided in the Government's Transport 21 for road building over the next decade will go to archaeologists.
In a bizarre twist, PD leader Michael McDowell is leading the campaign for abolition or reform of stamp duty while PD President Tom Parlon can take credit for the road building bonanza for farmers on public welfare via the Common Agricultural Policy from Brussels - - welfare that is still primarily funded by German and Dutch taxpayers.
There are 278,000 working in construction - more than double most European countries. Where d'you think the 100,000 or more generally computer illiterate workers, who will lose their jobs over the next decade, get work?
Have you any significant reform proposals on how the country is run at national and local level?
D'you believe that the way the Government developed it decentralisation plan should be admired?
It has been reported that just one staff member of the Data Protection Commissioner has opted to move to its new offices in Portarlington. In December, the Justice Minister opened the new offices as part of the Government's programme for decentralisation. However, a solitary member of the 22 staff from the government agency volunteered to make the move from Dublin to Co Laois.
Speaking at the opening, Michael McDowell rejected criticism of the poor uptake for the move.
What would he say about the plan if he sat on the Opposition benches?
Why have you supported a rip-off of chemist shop customers for years?
Voters in Limerick East can directly question Progressive Democrats' Minister of State Tim O'Malley who is a pharmacist and former President of the Irish Pharmaceutical Union and another PD candidate is also a pharmacist, Senator John Minihan who is standing in Cork South Central.
The following is from a June 2006 OECD paper:
A combination of entry restrictions and price regulations has resulted in an uncompetitive, distorted and expensive retail pharmacy sector. Ireland is the fourth most expensive country in the euro area for medicines (Department of Health, 2003). Pharmaceutical prices at all levels of the distribution chain are set by government-industry agreement. Wholesale prices are set by comparing UK prices and an average of five other countries, taking the lower of the two. The retail margin depends on who is paying. For medical card holders, the government fully reimburses the patient and pays a fixed disbursement fee of around €3 per item to the retailer; other prescriptions and non-prescription medicines have a 50% markup. Overall, the retail margin is around 33%, which is one of the highest in the European Union. Moreover, unlike in many other countries, pharmacists are not permitted to reduce costs to the consumer and insurer by substituting a cheaper generic equivalent.
The number of public servants have increased by 18% - 53,400 - since December 20000. What significant reforms if any would you propose for the public sector?
There is no difference in the quality of staff in the private and public sectors.
The principal difference between working in the two sectors is in the systems of accountability. In the public sector, some outcomes cannot be measured in profit and loss terms. However, in areas such as education and health, outcomes can be benchmarked against the best in the world.
Excluding the cost of additional numbers in the Irish public sector, pay increased by 38% in the period 2001-2006. The cost of pensions jumped by 81%
The increase in the average industrial wage for a male worker in the period 2001-2005, was 19%.
CLICK here for details: Irish Public Service 2001-2006: Salaries up 59%; Payroll up 18% - 38,000 workers and Pensions up 81.3%
New Zealand has the same population as Ireland's with a thriving economy and a national debt to GDP of 22% compared with our 2007 target of 25%.
The following table shows employment numbers in the different branches of public sector employment (as at September 2004), excluding State-owned commercial trading operations (e.g ESB, Aer Lingus etc).
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New Zealand |
Ireland |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Branch |
Employment numbers |
Percent of total |
Employment numbers |
Percent of total |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Public services |
55.4 |
22.5 |
85.7 |
29.6 |
|
Health |
55.3 |
22.5 |
98.4* |
34.0 |
|
|
116.2 |
47.2 |
82.0** |
28.4 |
| Police |
10.5 |
4.3 |
11.9 |
4.0 |
|
Regular defence forces |
8.7 |
3.5 |
11.3 |
4.0 |
|
Total |
246.1 |
|
289.3 |
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Source: Treasury Report T 2005/84 dated 28 January 2005. Released under the Official Information Act. Irish Data: Central Statistics Office
*Irish health employment rose to 105,000 in June 2006
** Irish Education employment rose to 92,000 in June 2006
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| Source: OECD - Ireland is fourth lowest for outsourcing of central government services |
The OECD says in relation to its 30 member countries, that amongst the most significant changes of the past 20 years that will continue to be important for future reform are:
- more open government;
- focus on public-sector performance;
- reforms to accountability and control;
- reallocation of resources in response to change;
- introduction of market-type mechanisms; and
- reform of public employment systems.
When will the public health service be at a standard where private health insurance will be unnecessary to ensure a top class level of care?
2 million Irish citizens are covered by private health insurance - equivalent to the total workforce.
Everyone professes to support greater transparency in public affairs. Are you satisfied with the baby steps that have already been taken or have you proposals for additional measures?
Most of the information that is released by the Freedom of Information Act, should be made available as a matter of course, online. There is much more that can be done in this area.
The Government is the largest procurer of goods and services in the economy and the system has huge potential for conflict of interest and corruption.
Without compromising commercial confidentiality, the Government for example, should publish the total purchases from suppliers above a particular threshold.
The revelation of the former chairman of the Revenue Commissioners Seamus Pairceir’s seamless transfer from the public service to a lucrative tax consultancy deal with Ben Dunne, is hardly an isolated incident and highlights the need for more than baby steps in shining a light on an area where insiders have the potential for huge pickings.
Where would you tell a Government that cannot even plan for electricity demand, to get off?
From an Irish Times editorial of Dec 19, 2006:
Last year, a report from the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment warned that Ireland's business prospects are being damaged by electricity costs and the ESB's dominant position. It noted the entire cost of upgrading the distribution network was being charged to current users. And it found no provision for investment had been made in the National Development Plan.
As with the transport sector, this Government appears unwilling to confront trade unions and vested interests. Under pressure from the EU, it encouraged foreign involvement in new generating capacity, while restricting ESB investment. That did not succeed because of the State company's dominant position and control of the network. Since then, the ESB has invested in Northern Ireland as part of an all-island electricity market. And a cross-Border interconnector has been built. Not much sign there of a reduction in dominance. But then, the Government has a vested interest. For the past three years it has taken up to 30 per cent of the ESB's hefty profits in the form of an annual dividend. It is time consumer needs took precedence.
....and finally
Who knows who would be willing to confront trade unions and vested interests but what's surely bizarre about current politics in Ireland is that the junior party in the current coalition, the Progressive Democrats, appear to have abandoned the key principles it once stood for, while its recently appointed president Tom Parlon, the former leader of the Irish Farmers' Association, embodies what it has become - a mini version of Fianna Fáil.
More comprehensive detail here on some of the issues covered:
Irish Economy 2006 and Future of the Celtic Tiger: Putting a brass knocker on a barn door!
