Boomtime may be back but this week’s election is a chance to punish a government that has devastated public services with austerity Can a government be re-elected after imposing harsh austerity on its citizens? If you were to pick one to succeed, it would surely be Enda Kenny’s centre-right coalition in Ireland. It came to power in 2011 and pushed through big cuts in welfare, health, education and policing. It raised taxes and raided pension funds. But over the past year, the Irish economy has palpably improved. Growth is the highest in the European Union. Emigration has slowed down. At least in Dublin and the other main cities, the buzz of boomtime Ireland is back. The governing Fine Gael and Labour parties are promising to reverse some of the tax increases and begin to repair the damage to public services. Their pitch is simple: as Kenny repeats in his carefully crafted mantra, “Keep the recovery going”. It should be a persuasive pitch, especially when coupled with explicit threats that, without the steady hand of the governing parties, Ireland would face Greek-style economic chaos and Spanish-style political gridlock. And yet it doesn’t seem to be working. Polls suggest the governing parties will lose a lot of seats and their majority in parliament in this week’s election. Continue reading...
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