The Church of Ireland Archdeacon of Dublin has said that what was on offer from the political establishment in the election campaign was "frankly unbelievable and even irresponsible."
Speaking at St Paul's, Glenageary, Co Dublin, yesterday, the Ven Gordon Linney asked, "How do they get away with it election after election after election?"
"Some politicians treat us as if we know little or care little about the real world, the world of the Celtic tiger. A world of ignored and abandoned children at risk. A world of seriously ill people lying for hours and even days on hospital trolleys.
"A world of disabled people, including little children, dragged through the courts. A world of women denied vital healthcare facilities," he said.
He continued that this world was one where "up to 150,000 people \ on public housing waiting lists. [It is\] a world of the frail elderly denied their statutory rights to nursing home care and cheated out of their pocket money. A world adjudged by others to be the most corrupt country in Europe.
"That's not even the half of it and yet it is difficult to get even a whiff of any of it behind the meaningless handshakes or slick photocalls that pass for political engagement. It is so obvious they don't want to know or be troubled by it."
We "must challenge the spin-doctors and others who combine to mislead or confuse us while hiding less palatable facts and possibilities.
"It would be helpful, for example, if they would tell us what plan B is if the economy fails to reach the economic growth rate that current plans rely on. A number of responsible commentators have warned of problems ahead, so if there are to be serious cutbacks in government spending who will pay?"
"Could it be that we want to be misled and, like them, don't want to be troubled? That we have a need to be assured that there is always more for us? Are we in fact the guilty ones who create the environment of greed and indifference and even corruption, which is not about voting for Councillor X or Senator Y but is essentially about voting for ME?"
"It is no accident that the word individualisation crept into the tax code in recent times. It's the culture of every one for him or herself, echoing Mrs Thatcher's famous phrase: 'There is no such thing as society.' We choose not to be our brothers' or our sisters' keepers," he said.