Popularity Surge
Five years ago, Sinn Fein took 15 percent of the vote in local elections in the Tallaght district, best known as the childhood home of Ireland’s soccer captain, Robbie Keane. This year, it won 40 percent as the party became the biggest in Dublin.
“People looked at Fine Gael and Labour and they were offering an alternative,” said Brendan Ferron, a Sinn Fein lawmaker in the district who was elected in May. “It turned out within a couple of months that they actually hadn’t been offered anything different at all.”
The government under Kenny largely followed the template laid down by the bailout deal, introducing a property tax, water charges and more spending cuts. It says the strategy is working. Ireland exited its bailout in December, the economy is growing again and unemployment is falling.
Deficit Narrows
The budget deficit in the first 11 months of 2014 narrowed to 5.8 billion euros from 8.6 billion euros during the same period a year ago, the government said today.
Eamonn Maloney, a Labour Party lawmaker in Tallaght who has seen support ebb away to Sinn Fein, said his party should have challenged the bailout conditions from the EU, IMF and ECB, known as the troika, earlier.
“There was disconnect between the government, the cabinet, and the troika on the amount of pain that citizens could take,” said Maloney. “If you lose sight of the hardship that people are enduring, you’re finished.”
In Tallaght, that’s the outcome Byrne wants in 2016 or earlier: Sinn Fein in power.
“They are making promises that they’re seeing through,” she said. “That’s the difference.”