Ireland needs fresh political thinking, not mass protest

Sir, - Sinead O’Sullivan offers an interesting analysis as to why public dissatisfaction in Ireland doesn’t give rise to more robust protest (“Ireland’s left has failed to penalise government for decades of inaction but the right has”, Opinion, October 24th).

Her hypothesis, that Ireland has a pressure-release system made up of polite negotiation and politically-driven financial largesse directed at the masses, is accurate.

The third variable she cites in this national cooling system is more sombre and disheartening, namely the one-way ticket to Sydney as our young people vote with their feet.

Where I disagree is the suggestion that the left must learn how to disrupt at a level that is sufficiently expensive – by which I interpret she means economically and civically – to ensure the State is forced to act on reform.

There is no doubt that our political and economic model needs reform. It would be a dark day in Ireland, however, if it was to take mass protest – likely to result in violence and antisocial behaviour – to get us there.

Any belief that such mass protest, whether coordinated from the left or the right, is not likely to emulate incendiary outcomes already seen in other European cities, where anti-democratic external actors have been fomenting extreme responses, is naive.

In my view, reform needs to be predicated on fresh political thinking that can best be delivered by a coherent left option being offered to the electorate. Such an option would need to be measured and represent a realistic and equal partnership role in the next government, whereby policy change can be driven through.

There is a responsibility on – and, indeed, an opportunity for – the parties of the left to work together to develop and present such an option. In the absence of this, and with a continuation of the current Government inertia identified by O’Sullivan, we will, almost certainly, experience French-style social upheaval, likely sooner rather than later. - Yours, etc,

GERRY PRIZEMAN,

Clontarf,

Dublin 3.