We’ve all heard Simon Harris say in the past few weeks that he is looking forward to getting a new mandate from the people of Ireland and it is a laughable statement really because ‘the mandate’ is officially a myth in Irish politics.
Just think about the past ten years. Was there a mandate for the recent hate crime bill? Or the hate speech additions that are promised to follow? Was there a mandate for holding a referendum to change definitions and obligations in relation to family and care providers?
Was there a mandate to erase the categorisation of sex in Irish life? A mandate for net zero policies? A mandate to cripple food production and demolish the reputation of Irish farmers? A mandate for immigration and refugee policies? A mandate for changes to educational materials?
Was there a mandate for pretty much anything that our government has done across the past few years?
A mandate is only relevant if a party puts forward a specific set of detailed policies that the electorate votes for and then they faithfully follow the implementation of those policies (and only those policies) as requested until the end of their term. To the best of my knowledge, this has never actually happened.
Of course, life happens and throughout any term, circumstances may arise that are outside of the stated mandate and there is no possibility of the electorate having any say in these because there is no channel with which to do so and there needs to be.
And even with the stated mandate, what are the consequences for going ‘off-script’? There are none.
I’m really tired of having nonsense drivelled at me in this war of words that the Irish government are engaged in with the Irish public. If there is mandate that the majority political parties are following in this country, it certainly didn’t come from the Irish public. And I hold very little hope that it will do so after this election unless a harsh lesson is learned on the topic of ‘mandates’ by the majority parties.
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