Administrative abuse, political complacency and lack of accountability provided the backdrop against which the Government was judged this year when the electorate transferred much of its support to Independents and others and to Sinn Féin. A year that opened with news that officials at Irish Water had been paid €85 million in consultancy fees, closed with tens of thousands marching against water charges in Dublin. In between, cover-ups and continuing hardship damaged public trust and ensured that Fine Gael and the Labour Party took a hammering in the local elections.
Unrealised expectations and the impact of water charges on lower-income families drove public sentiment. Exit from the EU-IMF bailout in 2013 had been widely promoted by the Government parties as a new dawn that marked the end of austerity. But the reality did not accord with political hype. A recovering economy and falling unemployment figures failed to impress those disillusioned voters who viewed the water tax as a further increment in austerity.
Political and administrative incompetence surrounding the establishment of Irish Water was so pervasive that it allowed Opposition parties to move from positions of grudging acceptance of the charge to outright rejection, in response to public anger. Lack of awareness of the developing storm was shown when Taoiseach Enda Kenny undertook to provide details of charges in advance of May elections. It was a disaster. Since then, the Coalition parties have admitted to mistakes and offered major financial concessions. But protests rumble on.
Unacceptable behaviour
Dissatisfaction with the Government’s performance did not originate with water charges. Former minister for justice Alan Shatter and former Garda commissioner
Martin Callinan
refused to acknowledge abuses of the penalty points system by serving gardaí and criticised whistleblowers. Cancellation of points for favoured individuals ignited public anger before the controversy spread to include allegations of telephone tapping. Relations between the
Garda Síochána
and the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission became poisonous. The departures of
Mr Shatter
and Mr Callinan brought Government resolve to engage in a shake-up of a closed and defensive policing culture along with the introduction of additional powers for the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. It also saw the appointment of Noirín O Sullivan as the first female Garda Commissioner.
Elsewhere, unacceptable behaviour continued. Dismay grew with the news that executives within the unregulated charities sector were receiving excessive salaries. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were caught up in the controversy when the Dáil Public Accounts Committee investigated prominent party members linked to Rehab and the Central Remedial Clinic.
Following mid-year political meltdown, Eamon Gilmore was replaced as Labour Party leader by Joan Burton and there was a clean sweep of ageing Labour ministers. Phil Hogan, who had presided over the Irish Water debacle, escaped to the EU Commission. James Reilly was replaced in Health by Leo Varadkar and a seriously rattled Enda Kenny led on.
Sharp decline
In spite of election outcomes, the Government parties hoped they could rebuild popular support on the basis of a strong economic recovery and rapidly falling unemployment. Attempts to generate a feelgood factor through a mildly expansionary budget failed to counteract negative sentiment, however, but drew criticism from the Government’s fiscal advisory council and the EU Commission. By year-end, opinion polls showed Fine Gael and the Labour Party to be in sharp decline, with a combined support base of 25 per cent, compared to 32 per cent for Independent candidates and others. The electorate had shifted its focus from national to local issues.
Within Fianna Fáil, Micheál Martin continued to insist – in spite of changing circumstances – that his party would not form a government with either Sinn Féin or Fine Gael. As the most popular political party, especially in working class areas, Sinn Féin attracted sharp criticism from Government and Fianna Fáil sources. Much of this related to its treatment of sexual crimes by IRA members and, in particular, Gerry Adams’s treatment of Maíria Cahill. But economic policy remained its weakest point as it demanded the abolition of taxes and additional spending in the Dáil, while refusing to balance the books and introduce UK welfare cuts at Stormont. Stand-off in Belfast threatened the future of the powersharing Executive.
When it appeared the Government’s situation could not get any worse, rising rents, static rent supplements and a shortage of social housing brought about a dramatic increase in homelessness. An overhang of properties in negative equity had served to disguise the situation in Dublin. The emergence of a full-blown housing crisis hit like a thunderclap.