Hard to see southern voters agreeing to pay €1,500 to €5,000 each for unity

详细摘要

The potential costs, he says, range from €3 billion to €25 billion in year one. I think we can agree that southern voters are unlikely to vote for unity if it is the second…

There was fierce excitement altogether among the Fine Gael faithful last weekend when party leader, Minister for Finance and Tánaiste Simon Harris used his ardfheis speech at UCC’s Mardyke Arena to nail his colours firmly to the centre-right mast.

The report of the party’s Commission on Renewal (summary: “what are we even for?”) and a scrap at the national executive over whether the ardfheis should even debate the question of whether the party was centre-right had primed the activists for a clear statement of where Fine Gael stood.

Harris’s televised address delivered in spades, hitting a succession of reliable centre-right applause lines from the start: support the people who get up early in the morning, a crackdown on dole lifers, party of law and order, tough rules on illegal immigration, restraint on public spending, etc, etc.

Never mind that much of this stuff is under the purview of Fianna Fáil ministers, or that he already has a programme for government. If he sticks with this approach, it will be a departure for Harris, who has previously been adaptable and pragmatic, able to shift his essentially centrist political compass depending on the issue and the circumstances. Scoff away if you like at the opportunism of this, but it is not out of tune with voters who want the comforts of a centre-left big state, financed by the taxes of a centre-right small state. Because of the corporation tax boom, that has proved sustainable for successive governments.

I would be lying if I said there weren’t doubts among at least some delegates. The mood in the Mardyke was less “I can’t wait for him to do this” and more “let’s see if he does this”.

[ Minister and TD Eoin Hayes in sharp exchange over Simon Harris’s ‘dog-whistling’ social welfare commentsOpens in new window ]

But one thing is for sure: if the weekend’s other great theme for Fine Gael (and also recent Harris enthusiasm) – a future united Ireland – is to become a reality, the more stringent approach to increasing public…

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