Socialist Democracy statement on the Irish general election 2024
Election bribes: one for everyone in the audience
An election based on bribery and the failure of opposition
November 2024
Dáil Éireann.
The catchphrase “One for everyone in the audience” is associated with RTE’s long running “The Late Late Show”. If you were selected to be a member of the live audience you were assured of some sort of reward: a gift, voucher, holiday and so on. The current, extremely rushed, election for the Irish Dáil is based on the same proposition.
The recent budget involved a raft of giveaways that the electorate can put in their pocket or anticipate in the near future. These one-off payments are intended to generate a feel-good factor and offer some temporary relief to people impacted by rising living costs. A further calculation is that a series of scandals involving the main opposition Party, Sinn Féin, will rule them out and leave the way free for a return of the existing Coalition.
The budget giveaways are
funded by the revenue generated by the Irish state operating as a tax haven
for multi-national capital. A low corporation tax, often much lower
than the headline 12.5%, has led to a flood of capital into the state.
This has accelerated in recent years following agreements by governments
to close loopholes and set an international baseline rate. The Apple case,
at the heart of which was conspiracy between the Irish government and Appe
to siphon tax revenues from other EU states, reveals how this operates.
The downside of the tax
haven model is that it strangles any independent economic development.
The tax surplus cannot be used to invest in the economy or to improve public
services. Part of the understanding is that services like housing are left
open to international investors who are guaranteed a favourable rate of
return in the form of rents and profits. Hospitals, roads and so
on are built by private firms with eye-watering mark-ups in prices. In
addition, this culture of corruption reaches into the national economy,
leaving almost all projects facing these increases. The prime example
of this is the escalating cost of the new National Children’s Hospital.
Recent scandals that made headlines were the extortionate costs of the
Dail bike shed and modular housing units for refugees. These are
not isolated outliers but evidence of an unproductive economy in which
parasitic practices such as price gouging and rent collecting have become
dominant.
The problem is that the trade unions and opposition parties support this economic policy. The only differences are around spending targets.
At one stage Sinn Féin in government seemed a way to an alternative. They have been hit hard by scandals and cover-ups, but their vote had already begun to decline when the Coalition challenged their housing policy as an unworkable word salad. The leftists, advancing a left government led by Sinn Féin, are caught in the same trap.
The lack of an economic alternative also means the lack of a political alternative. The Irish government quietly fuses with NATO, supports the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, and facilitates US arms transfers to Israel. These violations of Ireland’s much heralded military neutrality have provoked no serious opposition.
Most workers will find themselves asked to choose between different versions of the status quo. The task of building an alternative platform lies ahead.
The central points we should look for are:
Housing for All. End the housing crisis through a massive expansion of the public rental sector.
Defence of migrants and asylum seekers! Unity of the workers! End the Direct Provision regime. Recognition that the exclusion of refugees from housing is bound up with the exclusion of poorer Irish workers.
Full rights for tenants! No evictions!
Removal of private capital from the health and social care sector. For a publicly funded and fully integrated health and social care system accessible to all on the basis of need.
Public ownership and control of Irish Water. An environmental policy that challengers the abuses of agri-business and protects the lands and the waters.
An anti-imperialist foreign policy that breaks from Britain, Europe, the US and the drive to global war.
Finding a candidate or party that represents this programme is a big ask. Many promise a socialist future based on the income of a tax haven, or raise the flag of Palestine without acknowledging the proxy war in Ukraine or proposing any concrete action to challenge the collaboration of the Irish government.
However, it is better to wake up than to live a dream. We don’t have an anti-imperialist and socialist party. Building one involves seeing the corruption and oppression at home as one with the barbarism and warmongering abroad.