Promises, Promises, Promises

With the announcement of a General Election expected soon, pre-election promises are thick in the air these days.

But what value do they have?

As to be expected, Enda Kenny is getting a free ride in the media in relation to his previous record on pre-election promises, and to the cynicism of his current ones.

Whatever An Taoiseach is promising now, he could have delivered any time in the past five years. But he didn’t.

An Taoiseach Enda Kenny

And he isn’t being taken to task by the media for his failure in this regard. Does nobody notice the contradiction in Mr Kenny’s position?

Right now he is promising, for example, that if re-elected as Taoiseach he will abolish the infamous Universal Social Charge.

He is Taoiseach now. He might not be after the election. So if he wants to abolish the USC, now is the time to do it. He may not get a chance again.

If Mr Kenny thinks that abolishing the Universal Social Charge is the right thing to do, then he should do so now.

Why doesn’t he do it? Why delay it until after the election?

And why don’t the honourable members of the media press him for an answer on this?

Is abolishing the USC the right thing to do? The IMF and the ECB don’t think so. Everyone can have an opinion.

But Enda Kenny apparently thinks it is the right thing to do. And for the past five years he has been in a position to do it, but he didn’t do it and won’t do it until after the election. How strange!

For all he knows, the last days of the present government may be the last chance for years to come to do what Enda thinks is the right thing. But he prefers to take that risk.

Why?

Could it be that right and wrong have no meaning in Irish politics? Is doing the right thing subservient to promising to do it in order to get elected?

The questions raised here about Enda Kenny and his promise to abolish the USC, apply equally to any other promises he might make. Or that anyone in the present coalition government might make.

Then there is the question of Enda Kenny’s past record on pre-election promises.

The one that most readily comes to mind is his pledge, before the last election, to not legalise abortion. 

The Labour Party made no such promise, so at least on that issue they are not guilty of making a false promise.

Was Enda’s pledge just another bit of meaningless blarney to pick up some extra votes? Was it just a cynical use of the lives of unborn children to get himself elected?

Or perhaps it was in the spirit of Pat Rabbitte’s televised admission of lying to the electorate:

“Isn’t that what you tend to do during an election?”

If Mr Kenny’s 2011 pre-election promises were worthless, why should we trust his current ones?