New political party needed for public sector efficiency and reform?

[patslatt]

Despite its small size,the PD party was very influential in persuading the major Irish political parties to adopt liberal economic policies over the last twenty years as international economic thinking tended towards liberal economics. This was driven by Irish voters' dissatisfaction with very high taxes and excessive government spending.

Could Irish voters' dissatisfaction with the service delivery and the lack of reform of the public sector in many of its departments similarly give rise to a new political party? It could happen under three possible conditions:

[] If the HSE continues to flounder as its spending slows down,the media will be saturated with even more stories of systemic failures in hospitals and personal tragedies.
[] Unemployment rises above 10% with the highly paid public sector workers continuing to get pay and pension increases,angering the public.
[] Voters despair that existing political parties are capable of public sector reform.

The existing political parties are indeed incapable of strenuous public sector reform because their party power bases would be damaged in an inevitable confrontation with reactionary and powerful public sector unions. Fianna Fail has been conceding so much to the public sector in pay and pensions Benchmarking and Social Partnership that at times it seemed an agent of unions. And if the opposition wins power,the Labour Party which prides itself on trade union relations will block strenuous public sector reform in any coalition government.

So the voters who want such reform have no party to represent them. The problem is they don't realise that and floating voters are likely to shift their votes between the traditional parties in the next general election. The only thing likely to change this is a massive international recession lasting for several years,which would keenly concentrate minds.

[FutureTaoiseach]

I certainly hope so but the reality is that we are going through a period when the Left has won a propaganda-victory because of the subprime crisis. This is not because the Left are right in general but because they have succeeded in creating a false analogy between the financial-services sector in particular and the economy and the role of govt in general. The lessons of the financial-crisis are that the govt has a responsibility to regulate - not that the govt has a responsibility to own parts of the economy. Only when enough Irish people realise that will there be a real opportunity for an economic-liberal party to make a real impact on the Irish political scene on economic-philosophy alone. However I believe if combined with a Eurocritical message such a party would stand more of a chance, as the future of the EU is the other big issue on the radar for the Irish people, and one in which a Libertas-type party would already have proven itself to share the analysis of a substantial part of the Irish people who voted no. Granted many others on the "no" side opposed Lisbon from different, even leftwing perspectives, but I firmly believe that there are also enough pro-reform centre-right economic-minded voters who opposed Lisbon in part from that angle to make a new economic-liberal party a viable proposition, provided it successfully harnesses real and present concerns of the Irish people with respect both to economic-reform and the future of Ireland within the EU.

[Leftfemme22]

Oh look, Patslatt continues on his one man crusade to massage the notion of a PD continuum into the national psyche. Neo-liberal wingnuttery is dead Pat. You seriously need to come to terms with that reality. Governments everywhere are scrambling back to the centre-left to fix the f*ck-ups your voodoonomics have created. Don't you see that? Are you that ideologically retarded that you firmly believe that adding fuel to the fire is a sane and responsible course of action?

This is moving from amusing to delusional very quickly mate. Talk to somebody, I genuinely fear for your mental health....

I fear you are trying to convince yourself, more than anything, of the benefits of neo-liberalism to prevent a total nervous breakdown as opposed to convincing anyone else...



It does work....dribble dribble... Lower taxes....dribble....privatise everything....dribble...trickledown benefits.......dribble...there should have been less regulation..... dribble....it's all those civil servants fault.....dribble.......i'll show 'em''''droooooool

[geraghd]

Despite its small size,the PD party was very influential in persuading the major Irish political parties to adopt liberal economic policies over the last twenty years as international economic thinking tended towards liberal economics. This was driven by Irish voters' dissatisfaction with very high taxes and excessive government spending.

Could Irish voters' dissatisfaction with the service delivery and the lack of reform of the public sector in many of its departments similarly give rise to a new political party? It could happen under three possible conditions:

[] If the HSE continues to flounder as its spending slows down,the media will be saturated with even more stories of systemic failures in hospitals and personal tragedies.
[] Unemployment rises above 10% with the highly paid public sector workers continuing to get pay and pension increases,angering the public.
[] Voters despair that existing political parties are capable of public sector reform.

The existing political parties are indeed incapable of strenuous public sector reform because their party power bases would be damaged in an inevitable confrontation with reactionary and powerful public sector unions. Fianna Fail has been conceding so much to the public sector in pay and pensions Benchmarking and Social Partnership that at times it seemed an agent of unions. And if the opposition wins power,the Labour Party which prides itself on trade union relations will block strenuous public sector reform in any coalition government.

So the voters who want such reform have no party to represent them. The problem is they don't realise that and floating voters are likely to shift their votes between the traditional parties in the next general election. The only thing likely to change this is a massive international recession lasting for several years,which would keenly concentrate minds.

Your premise doesn't fit with your proposal. Firstly you of course fail to mention the fact that FG have tackled the issue of public sector reform consistently for the past 8 years or so such that anyone with that issue as their main one have FG to vote for. Secondly if you assume that a coalition govt can only exist with FF and/or Lab in it, then the issue of either party vetoing public sector reform exists for any party (new or old) that puts public sector reform as a major part of their policies.

[Supermanpolitician]

Same old rubbish. A new political party is not needed. Accountability throughout politics is needed.
We had a PD party which was the opposite of Ronseal. It promised one thing (public sector reform etc) but failed miserably because it did not have the cojones to stand up to FF and the unions. They didn't do exactly what theysaid on the tin. In fact they represented special interest groups and were the opposite of their free market ideals.
No where has this been more clear than in health. Nobody has any real objection to private hospitals. But what the PDs gave us was a half hearted, state subvented scheme where private companies got access to public land under a magic word called co-location.

[patslatt]

Your premise doesn't fit with your proposal. Firstly you of course fail to mention the fact that FG have tackled the issue of public sector reform consistently for the past 8 years or so such that anyone with that issue as their main one have FG to vote for. Secondly if you assume that a coalition govt can only exist with FF and/or Lab in it, then the issue of either party vetoing public sector reform exists for any party (new or old) that puts public sector reform as a major part of their policies.

It's easy to talk about reform in opposition, Doing it in government is a wholly different ballgame.

[shannonBlueShirt]

It's easy to talk about reform in opposition, Doing it in government is a wholly different ballgame.

But your suggesting that a new party be formed who talk about reform from outside the dail but we will implement reform once there is government...

R. Bruton has being calling for reform of PS for years... I believe once he is in government the will implement reform of the ps...

Do you not agree?

[patslatt]

Same old rubbish. A new political party is not needed. Accountability throughout politics is needed.
We had a PD party which was the opposite of Ronseal. It promised one thing (public sector reform etc) but failed miserably because it did not have the cojones to stand up to FF and the unions. They didn't do exactly what theysaid on the tin. In fact they represented special interest groups and were the opposite of their free market ideals.
No where has this been more clear than in health. Nobody has any real objection to private hospitals. But what the PDs gave us was a half hearted, state subvented scheme where private companies got access to public land under a magic word called co-location.

Given the risk that colocated hospitals will be nationalised or marginalised if the opposition wins power,access to public land was necessary to incentivise them.

[patslatt]

But your suggesting that a new party be formed who talk about reform from outside the dail but we will implement reform once there is government...

R. Bruton has being calling for reform of PS for years... I believe once he is in government the will implement reform of the ps...

Do you not agree?

What reforms? Will Labour,the most likely coalition partner for FG, allow it?

[mccafferty cat]

Its extraordinary that several people (usually PD supporters or members) keep making calls for things like this - a new right wing party, taking on vested interests, blah blah blah.

1) Have you learned nothing from the failure of the PDs as a political entity?
1) You laud the PDs with crusading against vested interests, the public sector scandal, etc - but seem to have missed the fact that they were in Government for 11 years and these problems still exist