So two Green TDs have been temporarily suspended from the party for voting with their conscience over the ownership of the National Maternity Hospital.
What’s the betting that come the next election, most of the remaining 10 Green TDs will be permanently removed from the Dail for failing to vote with their conscience?
The decision was taken after Patrick Costello and Neasa Hourigan failed to vote with the Government on a Sinn Fein motion in the Dail.
But the two deputies need not feel alienated, for they are not alone, as 34% of the electorate will also be voting with Sinn Fein in the next election if the latest poll is to be believed.
It’s not that the Shinners have found some magic formula that has made them more attractive, it’s just that an increasing number of people feel they have no other alternative.
There is every chance that Mary Lou McDonald will be the first female Taoiseach because the public simply cannot face the prospect of another five years of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.
Even those without a nationalist bone in their body will be tempted to vote Sinn Fein in the hope they will bring about the radical change needed, especially when it comes to housing and the health service.
With all due respect to Mary Lou and co, it’s a case of in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king as both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael turned a blind eye to the needs of the electorate.
It’s not that these parties are out of touch with ordinary people, it appears to many voters as if they are preordained to always do the wrong thing.
The evidence stares the public in the face on a daily basis, for when there is a clear choice, the vested interest will always trump the public interest.
The National Maternity Hospital is a case in point, for despite earlier promises that the hospital must be built on publicly-owned land Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Greens once again capitulated to a Church body.
Whether Government TDs realise it or not, there are palpable levels of public anger at this decision which will be remembered come the next election.
The proposed plan announced last week to gift €450million to private developers – enabling them to increase their profits and further inflate apartment prices – will be the last straw from many people.
While couples struggle to raise a deposit for a home we have a government handing up to €144,000 in a subsidy scheme to further enrich wealthy developers.
Yet the Housing Minister refused to reveal if his department was lobbied by developers for such a scheme or if there was a cost-benefit analysis carried out when quizzed in the Dail by Social Democrat TD Cian O’Callaghan.
With the cost of living spiralling out of control, rents going into the stratosphere and the Government on the side of the developers and institutional landlords is it any wonder Sinn Fein are topping the polls?
When Fine Gael came to power in 2011 there was an oversupply of housing yet over 11 years later we have a situation where there were just 851 properties available for rent in the entire State at the start of this month.
The same survey showed that the average rent in Dublin was €2,202 a month while outside the capital rents were costing on average €1,567 a month.
Instead of heading off what was a growing crisis during the last decade both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael initiated policies which exacerbated an already dire situation.
Their appalling record when it comes to building social housing as well as
the tax breaks for vulture funds and institutional investors in the rental market has alienated voters.
The decision to throw nearly half-a-billion euro at developers with no tangible return for the State or a reduction in the price of their properties shows the bias towards the vested interests continues.
Meanwhile, the scare tactics of pointing to Sinn Fein’s past doesn’t work any more when voters know they have no future if the present set-up continues.
Once Sinn Fein drew its support mainly from people who aspired to a united Ireland but for generation rent it’s less about Irish unification than supporting a party which they hope will help them find somewhere to call home.
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