Government to Electorate: ‘We are taking the ball and going home’
When asked on RTE News tonight what he thought of the results of the North Kildare by election, Brian Cowan reiterated the Willie O’Dea view on government policy by saying that now that the people of North Kildare had no government representative they would find it hard to come by much in terms of government largesse. Put another way, government policy is to redistribute tax receipts according to who votes for the government party. Put yet another way, government policy is to blackmail the electorate and buy the election.
The big story of the North Kildare and Meath by-elections is not that of the winning and losing candidates. It is the disappointing voter turn-outs of 37% and 40%.
If any two constituencies could be said to have felt the worst effects of government mis-management and incompetence over the last ten years then North Kildare and Meath fit the bill better than most. Both have felt the pressure of economic centralisation in Dublin. As more and more Dublin-based workers are forced to live and commute from ever greater distances, the effects on infrastructure, services and community cohesivenes in the towns of Meath and Kildare have been huge. Overcrowded schools, underserviced housing estates, and massive traffic congestion are everywhere to be seen. Many communities have turned into dormitory towns with their populations rising in the early hours for the long commute to the city centre and arriving back home after dark just in time to go to bed and get a few hours sleep before starting over the whole circus again.
You would think these areas more than anywhere would see the consequences of bad government and mobilise themselves to do something about it. But over 60% of them don’t. Either they don’t see any connection between their low quality of life and government incompetence or else they do see it but don’t believe voting will make any difference.
But voting is the only way to make a difference, however small that difference is. Voting won’t make everything rosy overnight but it might force the likes of Brian Cowan and Willie O’Dea to treat the electorate with a bit more respect rather than the sheer contempt they seem to have at the moment.
Did I mention before that we only have ourselves to blame?
Mark Waters marked time at 10:55 pm on March 12th, 2005 .
