People say to me openly and privately that they fear what the next government might so as they sweep in at some stage. Be it Sinn Fein or another dastardly form of a FF/FG setup, fears are extoled about what comes possible next. These fears are not without merit.
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That said, despite whatever government that will come next, has to take on the power might of the state civil service. This by no means, is a small thing. It’s a tremendous. There are more than 300,000 public servants. Each section of the services within, has their own representative unions, rep’s, local and national legal divisions, intermixed all along the way with rules, protocols to be adhered to
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Add into this cacophony of paper chasing, duplicate filings and triplicate filings, where there are multiple check and constant legal reviews, committees who like to get their say in – there are matters that then go before further Oireachtas groupings who send matters back and forth for more readjustments repeatedly before sending them back again for more civil servant review and legal adjustment – before being reversed sent back to Senate and Dail committees for more glancing over, addendums proposals and debating over.
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Then we have others who might take to the high courts of Dublin in order to further legal question aspects of ongoing legislations being enacted or about to be enacted – and the mess of the civil service along with solicitors, barristers, judges kicking things up and down levels of court, debating over further legal points and seeking weights of evidence and/or looking at other previous precedents – and you start to get just an inkling of how things are done in Ireland to even begin try instigating the barest of fundaments changes to Irish law and subsequently, to society.
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So, for any new party to come in and try upheave all this and more – will be a mammoth undertaking to say the least. This of course, is at Irish level. Then there are the EU heads that might and regular do, interfere with home politics and proposed party agendas. Take for example, just the annual budget that the Irish government announces. The proposed budget is fought over by government elected, working with or in conflict with many outside groups, each representing their own interests. Then there are local TD’s wanting to get their ‘tuppence’ in so that they are PR seen to be contributing and also trying to advocate for their areas (for votes) too. Finally, when a budget proposal is settled along with financial figures – after months of to and fro’ing, then it quietly sent to EU heads for their approval – before it is then taken back to selected elected for more approvals or rejections – before it is all finally settled – and only then on public budget day does the rest of Ireland’s elected and public get to hear what’s been trashed out and fought over.
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Let me spell it out. For any new party taking over a government- who others say such parties are going to upset everything, this is simply not possible in many, many cases. The might of the civil service, the legal professions, the EU heads, individual TD’s, senators and individual groups along with unions and worker local representative groups, are all going to try change, stall or stop any radical changes that any new party will try propose.
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To carry out any radical change, will take a near miracle – and most certainly will not likely happen over days or weeks. You will be lucky if they even happen over months. In a lot of cases, we are taking years and decades.
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To conclude, for Fianna Fail, Fine Gael or others with their own agenda, to come in with their usual scare tactics and sat that one party is going to quickly upend everything, is almighty hogwash. The same parties that are trying on scare tactics, only know full too well from personal experience what it takes to even instigate the smallest of changes – but they deliberately leave out many factors as they want the public to swallow their election time scare tactics instead!
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…But you’re not also supposed to cop that either.
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Parties coming in have to work with the current setup, at times appeasing them and even quietly begging them to instigate even the smallest of fundamental changes. For big ones to occur, near revolutions will have to take place! Add to this mess – all this is before the corrupt, conflict of interest elected, cronyist, nepotistic also get their oar stuck in to further screw things up in their favour!
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There will be NO radical changes over night with any next government. Far from it. The weight and power of home/EU bureaucracy won’t allow it. Don’t swallow the FF/FG scare tactics