Madam, - The recent Irish Times/TNS mrbi opinion poll confirms the view I expressed after last year's general election that a united front of the Labour Party, Greens, Sinn Féin, and non-Fianna Fáil Independents "could give the alliance a strong majority in an alternative government."
I wrote: "The alliance is capable of growing quickly to become a major contender for government".
The poll confirms this, giving such an alliance a majority, even at this stage, over the Government parties (FF-PD 36 per cent, proposed Alliance 40 per cent approximately). The reduction of support for the right-wing parties (FF + FG + PD = 56 per cent) to just over half the electorate represents an historic shift in Irish politics.
I will now be writing to party leaders and Independents with a view to forming a united front of these parties and individuals on an agreed political basis.
The cuts in public services and the rightist nature of the present Fianna Fáil-PD Government presents a major challenge to the labour movement and to ordinary people generally. On the other hand, the outcome of the last general election presents an unprecedented opportunity to meet that challenge at the political level.
Fine Gael is now in a minority on the Opposition benches. The Labour Party has 21 seats, the Greens six, Sinn Féin five and there are several non-Fianna Fáil Independents. The total, approximately 40 seats, is greater than the number of Labour Party deputies elected in the "Spring Tide". The new poll strengthens the case for a popular alliance.
Such an alliance is necessary to provide a vigorous opposition inside and outside the Dáil. Above all, it could show a new political way forward to the poor, the disadvantaged and to ordinary people generally. We could begin now with a popular campaign against cuts in health, education and policing.
The records of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael-Labour governments over the past decade shows that such governments offer no solution to the problems facing the Irish people.
Indeed, it was the participation of the Labour Party in such governments which created the political conditions enabling the Fianna Fáil alliance to gain and retain power. We must not go down this road again.
There is now an opportunity to create a genuine political alternative. Can the leaders of the left rise to the challenge? - Yours, etc.,
SEAMUS HEALY, TD, Queen Street, Clonmel, Co Tipperary.