FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny last night said that 60 years after Ireland was declared a Republic “it is clear our Republic is in very serious trouble”.
Mr Kenny was recalling the birth of the Republic declared by former Fine Gael taoiseach John A Costello 60 years ago this week, in April 1949.
While it was the final step in establishing Ireland’s independence, it left the question of what kind of Republic it wanted to become unanswered, Mr Kenny said.
In the last 10 years Fianna Fáil had “turned its back on the very principles that underpin our Republic”, Mr Kenny told supporters at the launch of MEP Maireád McGuinness’s European election campaign.
Real republicanism was about “protecting the people from the rich and the powerful” but “our Republic has been undermined by cosy capitalism and crony government”.
The Irish economy would be in recession even without the impact of the global downturn, Mr Kenny said in his speech.
“Fianna Fáil’s bubble economy, supported by massive increases in public spending and unsustainable tax receipts from property, was never going to last.”
The Government was in “complete denial up to the very last” about what was happening, Mr Kenny said.
However, now that Fianna Fáil had acknowledged how bad things were, “the Irish people are being asked to pick up the pieces and to pay the price for the Government’s mistakes”.
He said Ireland was in serious trouble, which was shown by unemployment heading towards 500,000, the economy contracting by 7 per cent this year and a savage Budget.
However, such statistics did not tell the story of “the struggle that it imposes on hard-working families”.
“They don’t tell you about the complete absence of hope or opportunity for those who are burdened with the scourge of unemployment, and they don’t tell you of the absolute nightmare facing small and medium-sized businesses.”
He recalled emigration in the 1950s and 1960s in which Ireland was “a Republic of low growth and low ambitions; a Republic which failed to meet even the basic needs of its citizens”.
Mr Kenny said Towards a Just Society, a document produced by John A Costello’s son Declan, a member of the Fine Gael frontbench, had shaped a great deal of the party’s thinking.
It argued that freedom from foreign rule was not enough, but “we also had to create the kind of society in Ireland that would make everyone truly free”.
Now more than ever, Ireland needed “a new reinvigorated Republic”, Mr Kenny said.
Ireland needed “a government that is on the side of the people, not the powerful, a government which is willing to make the tough decisions to get our public finances in order, but knows that the most important priority is to get people back to work”.
Mr Kenny acknowledged that Ireland had been transformed from a country which was economically subservient to being economically independent.
However, he said politics was not about the past, but about “creating a new future”.
“I believe that our country’s best days are still ahead of us and that, under Fine Gael’s leadership, we can, and will, create a Republic worthy of our people,” Mr Kenny concluded.
