Do not pass Go
Why, oh why are the opposition parties going to the meeting called by Department of Finance officials today?
Brian Lenihan once again says it is all so complicated and so difficult, and we must ensure the passing of the Finance Bill. Department officials are backing him up technically but let there be no mistake, this is purely a political play.
The Finance Bill needs to be enacted within four months of the budget, not including any time in which the Dáil is dissolved. There is no need to pass it as is.
Yet again we hear talk of how important it is that we fulfil our obligations to the EU/IMF agreement. Even the Minister says the Finance Bill contains details which have been ‘effectively approved’ by the IMF. He says it is important for our reputation, and the opposition are allowing him to get away with it.
Our reputation is in tatters. Across the world there is bemused incredulity at how our political leadership has imploded. Like the dismembered knight from Monty Python.
The reality is that Ireland’s economic future is a lot more important in global terms than our politicians are willing or able to recognise.
If there are changes to the agreement pushed through by a new government, they will be accepted. The alternative would create far more dangerous cracks in the world economy and the EU Finance ministers and the IMF are fully aware of this.
The opposition may be freezing with power so close to hand. They are missing the opportunity which the Green Party decision to withdraw from government has presented. That is the ability to reshape the agreement that will loom over their time in government. If they go along with the passing of the Bill they will give themselves an excuse that their hands were tied.
Folks, here is the knife to cut the ties that will otherwise bind you. Who is willing to take it in hand by boycotting today’s meeting and forcing Fianna Fáil to go straight to the President. Who indeed?
Politics at the Crossroads 
“If they go along with the passing of the Bill they will give themselves an excuse that their hands were tied.”
Which is precisely what FG want, and are forcing Labour into.
Even Micheál Martin has come out this morning and said it should be passed to ‘help’ the next government. Incredible that they are going along with this.
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Oppose it all the way and then push it through?
Wow…
Labour aren’t being forced into this, they are gung ho for it. It tells you everything you need to know about their political intentions .
They want the bill passed and so are facilitating its passage. They do not want to take the blame for the bill, so they are not voting for it even while helping it through. They want it to pass because they want to (a) be able to pull the “our hands are tied” stunt, (b) avoid passing their own savage and unpopular budget immediately and (c) tie Fianna Fail and the Greens to the contents of the bill.
It’s grotesquely cynical, but it would be a mistake to just think of it as them pulling a fast one. It clearly lays out for us what the political line of the next government will be: Fine Gael and Labour implementing broadly similar policies to the current of shower of b******s. There is a political consensus between the outgoing government and the incoming one. Fianna Fail, Labour, Fine Gael and the Greens are all fully signed up to the austerity/bailout suicide pact.