THE PEOPLE have changed the political landscape and they have done much more. They have sent a very clear message to the parties about the formation of the next government. Fine Gael and Labour were given the confidence of the people to take us out of the present fiscal, economic and identity crisis and their leaders would fail to heed that verdict at their peril.
As tails are up after the most extraordinary result, it should be remembered that some 55.5 per cent of first preference votes, in an election with the highest turnout since the early 1980s, supported Fine Gael and the Labour Party in a ratio of almost two to one. The people, knowingly, decided to make them the two biggest parties with the biggest mandate given to any potential coalition in the history of this State.
Fine Gael and the Labour Party have, at the time of writing, 112 or 113 seats in the incoming 166-seat Dáil. They have a majority of about 28 seats, higher than Jack Lynch’s historic majority of 20 seats in 1977. They have an overwhelming mandate for change; they can secure the passage of any proposal through the Dáil; they are free from the constraints imposed by minority parties or the vested interests of Independents in recent administrations.
The election is now over. The battles have been fought and historic records set in the annals of both parties. It is to be hoped now, for the sake of the country, that they will get on with the formation of a broad-based government.
Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore had an hour-long meeting yesterday to set the framework for the negotiations on the formation of the new government. They have appointed their negotiating teams: Michael Noonan, Phil Hogan and Alan Shatter for Fine Gael and Pat Rabbitte, Joan Burton, Brendan Howlin and Colm O’Reardon for the Labour Party. They will be charged with reconciling the policy differences between the two parties.
Let there be no doubt, there are substantial differences. The government has to go to Europe within the next week or so on whether we will meet the 3 per cent GDP deficit in 2014 or 2016. There has to be a reconciliation on whether there will be €9 billion or €7 billion in cuts by 2014. There are taxation and spending cuts targets to be worked out. But, arguably, the area of biggest contention could be the parties’ attitudes to the Croke Park deal. These are the deal-breakers.
The people have given their verdict in the election and are accommodating themselves to the national results. There will be scant indulgence this time to what happened to the Garret FitzGerald/Dick Spring coalition in the early 1980s when the Labour leader, from his hospital bed, rejected the budget deficit of that time.
Fine Gael and Labour will lose public confidence and dismay voters if they engage in public arguments about the policy platform of the next government. They have won a historic vote of confidence from the people and they should rise beyond party politics to meet the challenges ahead.