A chara, – Fintan O'Toole, in his article "Signs of a slow slide towards an ungovernable Ireland" (Opinion & Analysis, November 11th), would appear to confuse the notion of the unpredictable with that of the ungovernable. Something big is certainly happening in the Irish political landscape. The basically predictable era of 2½ parties (Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Lab) is being replaced by perhaps 4½ parties (Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, Independents and Labour). So the outcome of the next election has become much less predictable.
However, neither this nor the Government’s failure to deliver as yet on a slew of very big projects in the immediate aftermath of stabilising the country’s finances can be read as a slide towards ungovernability. Non-delivery is at worst evidence of poor management and at best evidence of over-ambition in the midst of severe crisis.
The ability of the State to absorb sharp differences and maintain stability, which Mr O’Toole appears to think has atrophied, is still very much in evidence. We are currently witnessing the absorption of Sinn Féin into mainstream politics north and south. This State is now honouring all of its war dead, including those of the first World War. This democracy is one of the few in Europe to have endured unbroken over the past 90 years. It has seen regular changes of government, variously hued coalitions and much healthy protest, usually within the law.
I see no evidence of a slide towards ungovernability either now or after the next election, whose outcome will undoubtedly be exciting but will, as always, produce a coalition governing with the consent of the electorate.
A simple reform that would add to both the stability and predictability of the political process would be the institution of fixed-term mandates for the Oireachtas. This would ensure, as in Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe, continuous if, on occasion, minority government without the artificial tension engendered by the current inherited system, whereby a government can fall and an election be called at any given moment in the lifetime of parliament. – Is mise,
GERALD ANSBRO,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – What a glorious election faces us in 2016, or earlier. It will be about who is the best of a bad lot, who might do the least amount of harm to society. I am filled with dread at having to face those choices on the ballot paper. Enda Kenny welcomed the “democratic revolution” after the last election, but I fear we might be about to have a “democratic coup” and the instability that goes with it. This might be a very good thing; it could hardly be worse. – Yours, etc,
CONAN DOYLE,
Kilkenny.