There will be an election within the year. People who claim knowledge of these things say it will most likely take place around next Easter.<\/p>\n
Lots of bloggers<\/a> have been commenting on the political parties\u2019 maneuverings as they try to position themselves. I\u2019ve never been that interested in that side of things- polls, photo ops, the doings of people who build up a perceived power by attempting to limit or influence the flow of information to the electorate. They all put me off. They put me off because they feel less a part of the real business of politics- making decisions- than PR- the justifying or obscuring of decisions. <\/p>\n I turn 30 this year. And over the last two years the realization has crept up on me that decisions made now are going to have effects that will last longer than I will. That may seem an obvious statement to you but I can honestly say that it came as a shock to realise that there might not be a chance to go back and fix our mistakes. <\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with life and death.<\/p>\n Figures released this week via Freedom of Information show that MRSA infections rose, not fell<\/a>, in the last year. Those figures represent injured and dead people. Avoidably dead.<\/a> <\/p>\n I have no time for anyone or any group of people who tell me that change comes slowly in these areas. Where lives will be lost, change must be forced to come quickly. And where there has been no improvement- where there has been the opposite- how can staying the course be justified? From a perverted pragmatism born of the absence of a moral base to policymaking, Ireland has been complicit in an officially sanctioned programme of torture<\/a>. <\/p>\n I never thought I\u2019d write that sentence when I was in college. On the Tuesday after a Bank Holiday I have got into a macabre habit without noticing it. I scan the weekend\u2019s road deaths to make sure nobody I know was killed. I shouldn\u2019t have to do that. <\/p>\n Did you know that the Chairman of the National Safety Council resigned last year<\/a>? He said that he needed to take responsibility for failing to convince the Government to invest in its own road safety policies. The government took no responsibility. It appointed Gay Byrne instead. Uncle Gaybo hasn\u2019t told us how his powers to convince are getting on so far. <\/p>\n 1688 people have been killed on the roads since the last election year, 2002. [Garda<\/a> and Roaddeaths.ie<\/a> links]<\/p>\n These are some life and death decisions- not to invest in a road safety policy which could save lives. Not to invest the time and effort needed to eradicate MRSA from Irish hospitals. To turn a blind eye to torture, for fear of what the current US administration might do to rebuke us for our morals. Most decisions made in the political realm aren\u2019t as dramatic. Mistakes lead to financial losses rather than lost lives. Or they erode the quality of our lives, instead of ending them outright. <\/p>\n The last 16 years have seen the biggest building boom this country has ever seen. Houses had to be built, no question. After all, where would we all live?<\/p>\n The decision here was taken to not try to answer that question. Or, to put it another way, to leave answering it up to the people who owned land banks. It\u2019s said that to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Well, to a developer with land, his land always looks like the ideal place to build houses and apartments. <\/p>\n
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