Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony
Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony
Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony
RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony
Waiting for SIPO Anthony Public Inquiry >>
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Top Scientists Confirm Covid Shots Cause Heart Attacks in Children Sun Oct 05, 2025 20:31 | imc
Fraud and mismanagement at University College Cork Thu Aug 28, 2025 18:30 | Calli Morganite
Deliberate Design Flaw In ChatGPT-5 Sun Aug 17, 2025 08:04 | Mind Agent
AI Reach: Gemini Reasoning Question of God Sat Aug 02, 2025 20:00 | Mind Agent
Israeli Human Rights Group B'Tselem finally Admits It is Genocide releasing Our Genocide report Fri Aug 01, 2025 23:54 | 1 of indy Human Rights in Ireland >>
Climate ?Science? is Now Pure Politics Wed Oct 15, 2025 07:00 | Ben Pile The appointment of Imperial's Dr Friederike Otto to the IPCC shows that climate 'science' is now pure politics, says Ben Pile. Unable to produce actual evidence of 'extreme' weather, they resort to 'attribution studies'.
The post Climate ‘Science’ is Now Pure Politics appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Wed Oct 15, 2025 01:13 | Richard Eldred A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Britain?s De Facto Blasphemy Laws Have Been Decades in the Making Tue Oct 14, 2025 19:30 | Will Jones The overturning of Hamit Coskun's conviction for burning a Quran shows Britain doesn't have blasphemy laws. But in truth a fear of violent reprisals has created a de facto blasphemy law for decades, says Clarissa Hard.
The post Britain’s De Facto Blasphemy Laws Have Been Decades in the Making appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Climate Lunatics in Hamburg Pass Referendum Committing Germany?s Leading Industrial City to Deindust... Tue Oct 14, 2025 17:34 | Eugyppius Hamburg ? Germany's leading industrial city ? has just committed to deindustrialise completely in 15 years after a referendum on Net Zero by 2040 passed with 53.2% of the vote. This is utter insanity, says Eugyppius.
The post Climate Lunatics in Hamburg Pass Referendum Committing Germany’s Leading Industrial City to Deindustrialise Completely in 15 Years appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Miliband Approves UK?s Biggest Solar Farm on 3,000 Acres of Prime Farmland Tue Oct 14, 2025 15:28 | Will Jones Ed Miliband has approved the UK?s largest solar farm to date, covering 3,000 acres ? that's 2,000 football pitches ? of prime farmland in a "mass industrialisation" of Britain's countryside.
The post Miliband Approves UK’s Biggest Solar Farm on 3,000 Acres of Prime Farmland appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en
Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en
The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
The Dáil Reform Will Not Be Radical
national |
politics / elections |
opinion/analysis
Saturday March 19, 2016 15:26 by Paddy Hackett

The Dáil is a Bourgeois Parliament
There is a good chance that FF will bring about a new general election in the not too distant future. This is because it is confident that there is a progressive electoral shift towards it. It is also in a buoyant mood because of its inchoate election recovery. It more than likely has the resources to fight another election. Both FF and FG expressly indicated that they would not form “a grand coalition”. The GE16 result means, in a sense, that the electorate don't want such a coalition. On the other hand SF, through Gerry Adams, indicated before the GE16 that it is prepared to form a coalition with SF. This means that the electorate may want a coalition with FF, SF and others.
In the Irish Republic FF is seeking Dáil reform as a means of rendering it more difficult to blame it should it go into government to implement unpopular policies. It can then claim that the opposition, because of this reform, had joint influence over unpopular policies. The “radical” left sitting in the Dáil, conspicuously failed to expose this tactical ploy dressed up as a liberal proposal. The depth of reform advocated by FF and FG will prove shallow. There is no way this parliament will be invested with a radical character by FF, FG and SF. The failure to reform the Senate at the same time is an indication as to how narrow Dáil Reform shall be. There is no way that Dáil reform will entail yearly general elections and other such changes.
There is a good chance that FF will bring about a new general election in the not too distant future. This is because it is confident that there is a progressive electoral shift towards it. It is also in a buoyant mood because of its inchoate election recovery. It more than likely has the resources to fight another election. Both FF and FG expressly indicated that they would not form “a grand coalition”. The GE16 result means, in a sense, that the electorate don't want such a coalition. On the other hand SF, through Gerry Adams, indicated before the GE16 that it is prepared to form a coalition with SF. This means that the electorate may want a coalition with FF, SF and others.
Many of the independents and small parties probably lack sufficient resources for repetition of this political exercise. This may mean that they may loose seats that the FF party can pick up. Even if it fails to win sufficient seats to form a comfortable majority Fianna Fail may still fare well enough to form the leading party in a future government. Other things being equal it may too have learned from the mistakes of the FG-Labour coalition.
SF's parliamentary demagogic onslaught at the Dáil opening was just mere noise. Bombast over the homeless and other issues does not solve such problems. It was merely a tactical ploy to look good and concerned. Sinn Féin is merely exploiting suffering, as it has been doing in the six counties, to venally promote itself. Again there has been no attempt made by the parliamentary “radical” left to expose the cynical nature of this SF tactic. If anything it cooperates with it.
The nomination by the AAA-PBP alliance of Boyd Barrett as taoiseach was a way of suggesting that its politics is essentially no different than those of the major bourgeois actors sitting in the Dáil. The fact that SF and PBP mutually abstained from voting against each other's nominees for the office of Taoiseach is evidence of their close political relationship. It is a further manifestation of PBP’s grossly opportunist nature. Even the structure and political character of its alliance system is farcical: It is an alliance of two alliances (AAA and PBP alliance) with only one of these alliances (PBP) in alliance with another alliance (the Right2Change). If this is not convoluted farce nothing is. It is an mind defying arrangement that can only but justifiably cause confusion among the working class.
The abstention by the PBP in the Dáil division over the nomination of Gerry Adams as Taoiseach exposes the opportunism of PBP. If it is not a fake radical left alliance it would have voted against nominating the leader of a capitalist party, SF, for Taoiseach.
The Dáil forms an integral part of the bourgeois state. Consequently it cannot serve the class interests of the working class. Power cannot be concentrated in the hands of the working class through the medium of the Dáil. The fake parliamentary radical left by participating in parliament in the way that it has is amounts to a fortification of illusions in this bourgeois institution. The AAA and the PBP alliances are merely fig leaves for the SP and the SWP. These parties are so opportunist that they cannot relate to the working class under their own names but must hide behind these soi distant “alliances.” Essentially the SP and the SWP are respectively, at most, Social Democratic parties. They will end, at most, playing the same role as the present minuscule Irish Labour Party.
Instead the working class must struggle towards the establishment of revolutionary workers’ councils as its institutions of power.
|