The word “manifesto” derives from Latin via the Italian “manifestus”, meaning “obvious”, a fact providing ample grounds for any voter to file an immediate complaint of false advertising against a host of political parties. The more we know, the less it makes sense. At least, that’s how it feels amid the blizzard of election manifestos that has created nothing quite as much as voter befuddlement.
In a quick-fire election campaign thronged with new parties and rivals accusing each other of producing financial fictions, the policies on offer – and, more pertinently, that are deliverable by the next government – are about as obvious as the view from inside a house with no windows.
This much is clear: to tackle the housing crisis, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are intent on retaining the first-time buyer’s grant and the shared-equity scheme, but the smaller parties on which they will depend to form a government want the measures abolished, while Sinn Féin wants rid of the Land Development Agency but the Labour Party, which will be indispensable to its hopes of forming a government, wants the agency enlarged. So that’s crystal clear then.
Even less comprehensible is Fine Gael’s obnoxious proposal to give every newborn child in Howth and Donnybrook, Foxrock, Dalkey and Montenotte €1,000 to save and multiply until they are 18, while 230,000 children are living in deprivation, more than 4,400 of them have no homes, almost 9,000 are stuck in the asylum system and the State fails to provide suitable accommodation for children at risk of harm in a crisis described by one judge as a looming “tsunami”.
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Whose bright idea was it that the auction politics of throwing money at voters who do not need it is the way to uphold the egalitarian principles of a republic? Maybe the same person who realised that children cannot vote and neither can many of their parents because they have no home address to register.
Inspired by a curse-on-all-their-houses, the following is my manifesto of comparatively inexpensive tweaks to tackle some of the issues facing this country, but which have been eclipsed by an establishment consensus that monetary sticking plaster measures such as universal one-off handouts should be prioritised. While there are some worthwhile policy proposals in all the parties’ manifestos that do not need repeating here, there is a general absence of practical initiatives that do not necessitate enormous expenditure, and yet have the potential to tangibly improve people’s lives.
1. Racism and the rise of the far-right
Lies, disinformation and propaganda are widely regarded as threats to democracy and to the safety of minorities. By introducing critical thinking and media literacy to the school curriculum, students would be facilitated to learn how to distinguish truths from untruths, the imperative to interrogate information sources and how to form independent opinions.
In addition, social media platforms must be regarded by the law as publishers with all the concomitant liabilities for defamation.
A hate speech act is urgently needed so that gardaí will not stand by while individuals scream threatening racist abuse at vulnerable targets, as shown in RTÉ’s shocking fly-on-the-barricades documentary about protesters at designated accommodation centres for international protection applicants.
[ The normalisation of hate-speech in Ireland is almost completeOpens in new window ]
2. Redistributing wealth
A new higher VAT rate to be levied on the retail of such luxury goods as top-of-the-range SUVs and sports cars, yachts, collectable watches, fine wines, helicopters, private jet fuel, designer handbags, and spa and non-medically needed cosmetic treatments. Anyone willing to pay the equivalent of the national median house price for a wristwatch can afford to pay extra tax on it.
Local councils to be fined for failing to spend their allocated budgets for housing for the Traveller community.
3. Saving the planet
Impose penalty points on drivers who keep their engines running while sitting in parked vehicles, thus simultaneously reducing fuel consumption and pollution. Reopen disused railway lines, and provide a direct service to Donegal, for both passenger and freight services. Imagine the Ring of Kerry and the rest of the Wild Atlantic Way unclogged by cavalcades of tour buses, juggernauts and cars every summer.
[ Reducing emissions: A simple step you can take while drivingOpens in new window ]
4. Fairness
Make it a legal requirement for hotels to advertise their single-occupancy rates alongside the standard per-person-sharing prices and for supermarkets to supply smaller quantities of food in packages, such as bread, vegetables and chicken fillets. As almost a quarter of all households in Ireland consist of one person, this would contribute to a reduction in food waste, and would benefit the environment as well as singletons.
5. Gender equality
The history of how women and girls have been treated is one of Ireland’s greatest scandals. Actions, not words of contrition, are the proof of sincerity when your country promises to never again subjugate, enslave, abuse, stigmatise and impoverish half the population. By creating a national women’s museum, the State would acknowledge the wrongs that have been done and provide cautionary tales against them happening again. By locating it in Dublin’s GPO, the financial investment would be relatively small while the symbolism would be powerful for a State that airbrushed women from the history of its foundation.
6. Elitism
Abolish politicians’ free car-parking for life at Leinster House. Extend the Seanad franchise to everyone of voting age.
7. Protecting workers
In addition to prioritising the Occupied Territories Bill, give legal immunity to employees who refuse to handle Israeli goods in abhorrence of the slaughter that country is perpetrating in Gaza.
[ Israel must face boycotts, human rights lawyer sayOpens in new window ]
8. Warfare
Hold a referendum proposing to disambiguate Ireland’s constitutional neutrality with wording that would be more justiciable than the current “devotion to the ideal of peace” and “the principle of the pacific settlement of international disputes”.
9. Accountability
Extend the Dáil’s ridiculous two-and-a-half-day working week. There is no valid reason why TDs cannot be in the workplace five days a week. Making a show of attending constituents’ funerals is not a valid reason. Require civil and public servants to reply to correspondence from members of the public, thus negating the clientelist culture of having to ask a politician for help.
10. Transport
Dublin Bus to be fined every time it advertises on its digital time displays that a bus is due to imminently arrive – but never appears. That ought to make things just a bit more obvious.
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