Shades of Green and Blue
Irish politics meets Spot the Difference. With a general election less than two weeks out, we try our best to separate those most identical twins: Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
“They’re all the fu**ing same” is a phrase we’re all familiar with, especially in the weeks leading up to an election. It gets bandied around to accuse all politicians of being nothing more than self-serving corrupt elites, ineffective through incompetence or design, unwilling to affect change for the ordinary person — so the saying goes. Politicos would guff at these remarks: such sweeping generalisations fail to recognise the nuance and complexity of liberal democracy, they would say. While the phrase is usually seen as easy cynicism, touted by those who feel failed by the system and so do not pay any close attention to it, when uttered in the Irish state, the words amount to a deft, politically-astute piece of analysis. This is thanks to the fact that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have dominated electoral politics since the foundation of the Irish state.
In just under 100 years, Ireland has seen the Catholic Church take control of society, and subsequently lose control; an illiterate population be transformed by education; anglicisation, recession, the joining of the EU, the Troubles, increased prosperity, greater multiculturalism, the Celtic Tiger, recession again and progressive social change, to name a few of the changes we’ve experienced.
In this century of seismic shifts, countless crises and periods of progress, either a Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil government has been in charge through it all. It’s mad that a country plagued by poverty, emigration and social repression would return the same two seemingly identical parties each election. So, can we actually find a difference between the two major parties?
History
The Treaty’s significance extends far beyond the historical and right into the contemporary. Not only did it lay the foundations for the partitioned 26 county state, it created the rift between nationalists that would lead to the modern-day Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil parties. Following a narrow victory for the pro-treaty TDs led by Michael Collins, Eamonn De Valera and fellow anti-treaty republicans marched out of the Dáil in protest. They believed the agreement, which forced Irish TD’s to swear an oath of allegiance to the British monarch and partitioned the island, to be a betrayal of the ideals of 1916.
In 1926, when De Valera decided the political wilderness was not for him and wanted his feet back in the corridors of power, he founded the Fianna Fáil party. The pro-treaty TD’s founded Cumann na nGaedheal, now Fine Gael.
Ideology
Leo Varadkar infamously described Fine Gael as the party “for people who get up early in the morning.” While coming in for heavy criticism over the remark, it gives us a fairly good starting point for judging the ideological outlook of the party. It encapsulates an attitude of personal responsibility: it is not up to the state to look after you, you must get up and do it yourself. This places the party on the economic right; lowering taxes for the middle classes and businesses, minimal state interference, and a general ethos of individualism.
Fianna Fáil historically marketed themselves as the party for the average worker and small farmer. They employed a policy of placing tariffs and embargoes on foreign goods to encourage reliance on products manufactured in Ireland. This insured industry and jobs were not lost to foreign competition. Coupled with a social housing program through the 1930/40’s which built suburbs such as Drimnagh, Crumlin and Cabra and accounted for around 60% of all home construction during this time, it is understandable why it was regarded for a time as the party of the people.
Since the 1960’s however, the party has edged closer and closer to the business-friendly approach of their rivals. They don’t want heavy taxes being placed upon people, but simultaneously want high spending on areas such as health and housing. This leaves the party in the precarious position of attempting to be “all things to all people.”
This policy of low taxes and high spending led to the overheating of an already booming economy in the lead up to the 2008 recession. When recession hit the country, our thin tax base and high spending left us particularly exposed to the worst effects of the financial crisis. While Fianna Fáil created the conditions for the crash with their developer and banker-friendly policies, it was ultimately the job of the Fine Gael/Labour coalition elected in 2011 to carry out the punitive measures in response. Public sector pay cuts, reduction of social welfare, and cutting children’s allowance are just a few of the policies that were introduced. Austerity began in 2008 and unrelenting cuts were inflicted upon the Irish people until 2014.
Policies
Housing:
Fianna Fáil is promising to build 200’000 homes over the next five years, 40’000 units per year, which would equate to an almost 100% increase on the new builds figure for this year of just 19’000.
Fine Gael have proposed the same figure of 40’000 houses per year needing to be built to solve the crisis. It’s worth noting that the sitting government has failed to reach the building quota of its housing initiative Rebuilding Ireland every year since its conception. This has led to an almost 200% increase in homelessness since they took charge, rising from 3’808 in 2011 to the current number of 10’448.
Climate Change:
Once again, there is little to split the parties here: both say they’re committed to increasing reliance on renewable electricity to 70% by 2030; both intend to increase the carbon tax year on year at the exact same rate of 6%; Fianna Fáil are promising the complete ban of diesel cars from cities by 2030, with the total banning of all cars running on fossil fuels by 2035, Fine Gael says it will ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030.
Ireland has consistently failed in its attempts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and we’re on course to keep missing our targets. Our failure to meet these EU initiatives is likely to incur heavy fines running into the hundreds of millions. Such political short-sightedness is unlikely to change under Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil with their strong reliance on the farmer vote, a group that isn’t exactly enthusiastic about climate action.
Education:
While there is well-documented crisis in third level funding and a massive debate to be had over creating a more inclusive second-level system, it has been largely ignored as these are not the issues which will see politicians gain re-election, in other words, these issues are irrelevant to the “grey vote”, that demographic of older voters who can be relied on to get out and cast their ballot.
Fianna Fáil didn’t bother to put their education policies in their manifesto, a 152-page long document. Outlined briefly on their website their promises include freezing of tuition fees and increasing funding for higher level education to the sum of €100 million. A civic society grouping of trade unions, employers and students have stated a minimum of €377 million is needed to combat the problem.
Fine Gael, while in coalition with various parties of the left in 1996, scrapped the then €2000 tuition fees. In stealth, these fees have gradually increased to their present-day total of €3000 under the guise of student contributions.
Funding per student now stands at half its pre-recession levels in 2008. With seemingly no political will, neither Fine Gael nor Fianna Fáil have offered anything that would recoup this massive deficit.
Green and Blue — What’s the Difference?
So, one party is a little more inclined to the British than the other. One sees itself as more representative of the ordinary person than the other. And both think they’ve the ideas needed to clean up each other’s mess. All clear?
Ultimately, the distinctions between Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael are more tied up with history, class and demographic than actual policy. A vote for one over the other is likely to reflect your outlook on the world more than anything else. But between either or, the world we get might be no different.
Carl Gannon
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