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We have witnessed a moment of exceptional national unity in recent weeks. But that will give way – as it must – in the coming weeks as the economic, political and social forces which have always shaped politics and life here and elsewhere reassert themselves.
The crisis will certainly leave us with a larger state. So one of the first questions in the post-Covid era will be (though actually it will not wait that long) will be: how do we pay for it?
That is the point at which political differences reassert themselves – as they should; different people and parties have different ideas about how much the state should do, and how it should be paid for. That’s the essence of politics.
“Of course there will have to be tax increases,” mutters one senior official. Several of his colleagues grumble their agreement. Others ruefully ponder the prospect of public-sector pay cuts.
Things have to be paid for, shrugs one mandarin.
Things have to be paid for, shrugs one mandarin.
The chances of any of the smaller parties being wooed into the fold seem remote at this point: the most likely outcome is a Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael coalition supported by a scatter of Independents.
Such an administration would be the shakiest government we have ever had, leading in the worst of times. Paradoxically though, that weakness might be its greatest strength.
A government leading honestly and competently, levelling with its citizens about the choices it faced and the rationale for making them, might be stronger than you think.
