Mayo View: Political football set to topple the government

by Caoimhín Rowland

Ireland stands alone in Europe and the Anglosphere as a nation flush with cash but without a political party demanding smaller government.

It’s a bizarre fact that the Irish government is spending billions more now than ever before during the tenure of the country’s sole centre-right party, Fine Gael.

A party that, by all accounts, should occupy the space of neo-liberal policies shaped by the US Republicans under Ronald Reagan and the UK Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher—policies aimed at minimising state involvement in all aspects of life.

Yet, in a uniquely Irish twist, this centre-right party has successfully implemented and expanded free school meals for primary school children—a wildly popular policy that showcases a level of humanity rarely seen from centre-right parties in neighbouring nations.

Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has often been criticised for "Thatcherite" policies during his time in charge, particularly by opposition parties who pointed to his "Welfare cheats cheat us all" photo-op.

However, the Irish elite, a class Varadkar himself comfortably sat in, often allude to the difference between the wealthy in Ireland and those in England: in Ireland, we blame the system for poverty; in England, they blame the parents.

There’s an empathy in the Irish character that is often underrated and dismissed by cynics.

Admittedly, it’s hard to assert this with a straight face when 14,000 people and counting are homeless, and thousands more migrants are camped along the canal in our capital city while designated buildings burn at the hands of racists.

Another unusual break from political tradition comes from newly elected Fine Gael Councillor Alma Gallagher.

Working in social housing and hailing from Ballyhaunis, she clearly understands the most pressing issue in Mayo: vacancy and dereliction.

Currently, the responsibility falls on Mayo County Council to collect taxes on derelict properties, which means they must identify sites, send out notices, and chase homeowners for a paltry 7% of their property’s market value.

Mayo County Council’s housing department already has enough on its plate with social housing, pyrite, and Croí Cónaithe grants.

The responsibility for collecting this tax should shift to the Revenue Commissioners, as Councillor Gallagher has rightly argued.

With Mayo having the second-highest rates of dereliction nationwide, none of us need statistics to recognise the blight that is evident in every town and village in the county.

A Fine Gael councillor, who could very well be a TD after the next general election if rumours are true, as she is anticipated to have her name in the pot alongside Minister Alan Dillon, is proposing what can only be described as an un-Fine Gael tax.

Any new tax, especially a property tax, would usually be laughed out the door by many of her party colleagues.

But amid a record-breaking housing crisis, if we don’t take dereliction seriously and penalise the owners of these eyesores, when will we?

Of course, on the other team, there’s a class of people I often forget about.

While I busily attend going away parties for friends scurrying off to Australia and rant about the latest pyrite-riddled home listed on Daft. ie for €1,500 in tiny north Mayo villages to family members, there’s a set of people beside themselves with the latest news that property prices have risen by 9% over the previous year.

All the while we’ve barely been able to catch our breath at the existing cost of securing a home. It seems never-ending, anyone with an asset looking to downsize is selling up, and quick.

But yet the market rises, these people vote and vote not for the opposition, making the overtures of free school meals and plans for a central vacancy tax from Fine Gael all the more fascinating for a party keen to widen its tent.

This shift in government thinking has left Sinn Féin somewhat bewildered.

No number of Wolfe Tone gigs or cultural nationalist revivals will help them when the upcoming budget presents a challenge.

How can Mary Lou’s party demand that the government spend even more money than it’s already disbursing?

The only voice of dissent cautioning against further government spending is that of Central Bank Governor Gabriel Makhlouf, who warns that a giveaway budget could cause inflation to rise once more.

Sinn Féin’s sole Mayo deputy, Rose Conway Walsh, will be chief amongst the rebuttals once she delivers her statements to Dáil Eireann, in relation to the upcoming budget in her role as opposition spokesperson on Public Expenditure.

The Greens could yet be the ones to pull the plug on this government, potentially triggering the anticipated autumn general election.

Their fresh anger is directed at Fianna Fáil over its delay in implementing the "land-hoarding tax," also known as the Residential Zoned Land Tax.

Finance Minister Jack Chambers has been hounded by Green Party TDs since news emerged that the tax is being "long-fingered" by the new minister.

From the outset, the tax has caused undue stress and harm to many farmers in this county, but the broader aim was to penalise speculators and wealthy hoarders.

Once again, farmers are being scapegoated and blamed for delaying this much-needed tax.

The ongoing manipulation of the Green agenda versus the farming community will continue ad nauseam, while our housing crisis deepens, dereliction thrives, and division among the opposition grows. 1-0, Simon Harris.