The unity of the left bloc that delivered Catherine Connolly’s spectacular victory in the presidential election will face its challenges, if Monday night’s meeting of Dublin City Council – and the fallout since – is anything to go by.
There were angry exchanges between the left-wing parties that supported the budget (Labour and the Green Party) and those who didn’t (Sinn Féin, People Before Profit and the Social Democrats).
Labour and the Greens are, with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, part of the ruling group on the council, and supported the proposed budget for the coming year, which will see tenants of the council pay increased rents.
The move was fiercely opposed by the other parties of the left and by Independents, despite the budget being substantially drawn up – with the assistance of council officials – by the finance committee, which is chaired by a Sinn Féin councillor.
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Opponents of the budget said that the rent hikes would hit the most vulnerable tenants, many of whom they said lived in substandard accommodation.
Proponents of the rent increases, including Green councillor Michael Pidgeon, said it was precisely because the rents collected were too low to meet the cost of maintenance that they should be increased.
Opponents said that some tenants would see increases of up to 50 per cent, while supporters pointed out that many of these rents were extremely low at present. It’s a complicated system, linked to income, and although the changes are intended to see higher earners pay more, tenants of all incomes can expect increases.
The move follows an analysis of tenant incomes, which found more than a fifth of council households have an after-tax income of greater than €1,000 a week. These households are paying heavily subsidised rents, with the average charge across the scheme €83 per week.
The exchanges between the left-wing parties in favour of the budget and those against it were sharp and bitter.
Green Party group leader Janet Horner said the campaign against the changes was “outrageous ... insulting and it’s a cheap, manipulative play on people’s lives in order to gain a few likes on your Instagram”.
“You are selling lies and snake oil,” she said.
Independent Cieran Perry said it was “difficult to take accusations from Greens and Labour seriously given their history of screwing the working class”.
It would be foolish to read too much into a scrap between councillors on the budget – everyone present knew that it would be passed, not least because failure to pass it means the council could be dissolved. Opposing the budget is a game played every year.
But it also points to the inevitable difficulties that any combined left-wing alternative – much touted after the recent presidential election – will have in agreeing a position on difficult decisions around tax and spending in advance of the next general election.
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It’s one thing left-wing parties agreeing that Ireland should be “a voice for peace”. It’s quite another agreeing where to tax and where not to, where to spend, how much, and who should pay for it.
The other instructive thing is how ready and willing the parties of the left were to accuse each other of lies and betrayal. The fact is, of course, that they will be in electoral competition with each other.
None of this means that a left-wing alliance that is a viable alternative for government cannot come together. It just means that it’s going to be difficult, and to require compromises that some of the parties may be unwilling to consider.
