sequel to the article of March 31st.
by DR. O'Connor Lysaght.
The salient fact about the result of the recent Irish General Election is that both Fianna Fail and the Labour Party are strengthened; the former may now rule in comfort for most of the new (18th) Dail's maximum term, the latter holds 22 seats now, more than at any time in its history, apart from the brief Dail of 1927, when Fianna Fail was still refusing te CORRE: its seats.
15% of the electorate voted in the election, this was the largest percentage since the General Election of 1954. It would have been higher still, but for Dail Eireann's known weaknesses as a part of the Irish pewer structure, and the unrealism, up to now, of political party proposals for dealing with it. That the vote was so large, was due to the centre of the General Election debate. This turned on the twin questions concerning the division of the benefits of the econemic programme, and whether this division would not best be left to the single party Fianna Fail administration, that had so far failed in this task, or to a coalition of its opponents, such as broke up in the midst of the 1957 economic crisis. The electorate decided in favour of the former, though only after pressure from the 9Pposyition had cause4 Sean Lemass to hint that major changes would take place, when his Government returned to power.
Is this likely to be fulfilled? Little is known, as yet, about the composition of the reconstituted Government, but what is known is fairly hopeful; the retirement from office ef the veteran Minister for Health, Sean Maclentee, seems to foreshadow an advance towards a National Health Schette.. In agricultural matters, the new Minister, Charles Haughey, has probably done as much by grants, etc. as anyone to lessen a move towards Fine Gael, In these and other spheres, progress will be encouraged by the opposition parties whd are unlikely to stop relevant propaganda however slack they may be else~ where. Even more important is the evidence (in articles;lectures ,etc.) that the chief controlling groups in Irish society are now aware of the flaws in that society's welfare provisions and of the necessity buy their position's survival by drastic reforms in the services concerned. Such changes are unlikely to be adequate, lest they jeopardise present economic policy, but they will be adequate to outdo Fine Gael, except as far as the latter can resort to obvious dem@gogy.
For Fine Gael seems to be paying the price of its divisions. A month before the election, it announced adoption of the Costello scheme for a planned economy without its regulators that would have ensured the effieacy of the planning; the only proposed new eoonomic control was the extension of the powers of the Central Bank so that it might enjoy parity of straigthwith its equivalents in such states as the U.K.; extended public ownership was not mentioned; and Costello himself has proclaimed his support for foreign companies investing in Ireland. Thus, all that could be seriously emphasised was a demand for greater social welfare expenditure, a matter in which Fine Gael's record is unconvincing, and greater agricultural expenditure, from which it had already gained most possible benefits. The party actually lost three urban seats; its gains were two seats from the Mayo smallholders, and
Irish Election Post-Mortem continued.
and these, in the view of the Government's new ae ing policy, are
likely to prove symptoms ef what was, rather than will be.
Fine Gael might have done better had not Brendan gee re eres
the Labour Party, come out firmly against any coalition, oo
party's readiness to hold any balance of power in the new Dail. Sin ;
believed Fine Gael could obtain in one election the twenty odd seats it
needed to put up a credible single-party Government, the party's vote was
lessened proportionately, those who valued stability voting Fianna Fail, an
the more radical preferring to vote Labour rather than support Fine Gael's
doubtful reformism., Thus today the Irish Lahour Party not only holds a record
22 seats, but holds, amongst them, more seatS in Dublin than ever before.
Yet there is a real danger in euphoria. In the elector, the Labour Party
lost two seats: that of the Socialist Republican, Noel Browme, and that of
its only Connacht T.D., Jack MeQuillan, Few of the new Deputies seem likely
to adequately replace the former, while a number of them seem only too
representative of the opportunist tradition that he opposed. McQuillan's
defeat shows, yet again, the Party's weakness among the small farmers and
the necessity to proselytise more determinedly in their areas. But there is
also the danger in the party's traditional ranchland strongpoints; in these
areas, its constituency organisations are controlled by its Deputies, who
are rarely prepared to tolerate rivals; thus, under the Irish system of P.Re,
a Lavour T.D. may head the poll in a 4-seater constituency and then have his
surplus second=preference votes distributed entirely among the candidates
of “te bourgeois Parties, there being no Labour second-string to ensure
Soulatful areas. The Labour T.D.'s refusals to act like members of a potenkial
governing party caused Labour to actually lose votes in the ranchlands
while it gained votes elsewhere,
Such are the prospects for the 18th Dail and the Parties therein, On
the evidence, Fine Gael is likely to decline, appearing as the impertinence
it is, but for Labour to supfantit will entail much hard work from that Party
béth inside and outside the Olreachtas,