We are a Government

The news reports this afternoon suggest that Fine Gael and the Labour party have agreed the terms for the coalition government of the 31st Dáil Éireann. For the Fianna Fáil party the true cost of Ireland's €85 Billion bail out can now be measured. It cost them over 70% of the seats they held in the Dáil and brought about the end of 12 years of power. Unlike the recent fall of other governments, the revolution that saw the removal of Ireland's longest ruling political party did not require gunfire or bloodshed, just the ballot box and what former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern referred to as “stupid oul’ pencils”

It has been said that Irish society was held up by the three pillars of the Catholic Church , Fianna Fáil and the Gaelic Athletics Association. Today, after suffering the greatest defeat in it's history the Fianna Fáil party fell. After Ireland’s defeat of England in spectacular style in the Cricket world cup, perhaps the GAA should feel nervous.

While the removal of Fianna Fáil from power had been widely expected, a forgone conclusion in fact, it was the margin of the loss that was shocking. 70% of those eligible to vote turned out to deliver their verdict not simply on the government, but on the decisions they took that fed the property bubble and the led to the banking bust, and even for a party braced for the worst the result came as a shock. Fianna Fáil held 77 seats after the May 2007 election, not enough for a majority but enough to ensure they were the senior party in the coalition that followed.  By the time the counts for the 2011 election had finished, Fianna Fáil had won just 20 seats. From the party that had governed the Republic of Ireland for three quarters of it’s history, Fianna Fáil are now the third party in Irish politics, and in terms of parliamentary seats they are closer in size to the party in fourth, than the party in second. Their fall had been quick, it had been great and it was well deserved

Ireland is now faced with an unemployment rate that has soared form 4% to 14%, and this is despite the thousands of immigrants who left Ireland, their only remaining trace the cars bought with loans from Irish banks left abandoned at Dublin airport as their keepers looked for greener pastures. Those who claimed to be in the know spoke of soft landings, resilient banks that were adequately capitalised, and accused those who argued otherwise of scare mongering. What we really needed was someone who actually knew what there were talking bout, Those people did exist, but they were shouted down by the ever up-beat bankers and developers who believed that this property boom would continue

While there is increasing anger at the perception the bail out favoured the banks despite their reckless behaviour, the electorate has given the government a clear mandate to clean up Irish politics and improve corporate and banking governance. The price was high but we have an opportunity to permanently change Ireland for the better.