How do TDs think Irish voters feel when they learn that a US vulture fund has paid less than €2,000 on Irish profits of €77 million (The Irish Times, November 29th)?

It is an affront, particularly to young citizens for whom home ownership, adequate health cover and reasonable car insurance are luxuries.

The disconnect between Leinster House and Irish householders is worrying, not least because of political developments elsewhere. It is a disconnect reflected this week in further confusion over bin charges as politicians react to public anger at what many see as mismanagement by the State and price gouging by service providers.

The same disconnect was evident last month when the Oireachtas Committee on Finance published its report on motor insurance. That report concluded that the industry is evasive, and that motor insurance in Ireland is, therefore, wide open to rip-offs. Motorists currently face big increases in their premiums, far out of proportion to inflation or any increases in wages.

So what will the Government do in a hurry to help? Nothing. The chairman of that committee reportedly announced that he could not say when – or if – the 71 recommendations in its report would lead to a fall in premiums.

All he could do was hope that consumers would see change “sooner rather than later.”

Irish governments appear to have lost the will to intervene promptly and strongly in central areas of policy concerning the common good.

Vast sums have been allowed to multinationals and their advisers in unduly generous tax breaks (sure what can you do?), swathes of Irish property sold off at knock-down prices to vulture funds (God, we never realised that!) and lucrative consultancy contracts instead of reform spun in the public service (a recruitment ban applies to cost-effective staffing).

Recklessness

But it is also hard to imagine a government in mid-20th century Ireland that would have tried to tackle major problems as lamely as governments and deputies of various parties now do.

How might Sean Lemass or Charles Haughey (God forgive me) or Garret FitzGerald as taoiseach have responded to present crises?

Surely not by a helpless shrug of the shoulders, squabbling or by an initiative that was handled as weakly as water or bin charges have been.

Does Leinster House even register the scale of rises in rentals in Dublin and other Irish cities? One needs only to compare rentals in cities such as Berlin or Brussels to see what has gone wrong.

Young home-seekers could be forgiven for thinking that Irish governments would prefer them to rent from companies than to own their own properties. It is an explosive perception given Irish people’s historical relationship to land ownership.

By now the Government should at least be scrambling to fix health insurance. Donald Trump was elected partly because of his criticism of spiralling US health premiums, coupled with his identification of a continuing reduction in what increased premiums actually buy people by way of protection (just like here).

Ripped off

Bin charges are not a bad idea in principle. But voters in Ireland and elsewhere are not yet persuaded that actual environmental policies are fair or transparent, either nationally or internationally. Such insecurity contributes to political instability, not least when parties in the Dáil angle for the main chance.

Irish householders must pay for bin collections, with much of their refuse coming from manufacturers and stores that pump out over-packaged products without obvious restraint. If people are to pay more they need to be convinced that privatisation of bin services was reasonable and efficient in the first instance, and that we now have the best possible system for what we pay.

Perhaps no Irish government can bring about greater or quicker change than the present one. But a multi-headed Hydra of public anger has presenting itself in Brexit and the United States of Trump, and is now bearing down on other countries.

It may devour political parties here too.