Surrealing in the Year 2025: Let's hope 2026 is absolutely nothing like that, then |
TONY SOPRANO FAMOUSLY said that ‘”Remember when?” is the lowest form of conversation.’ This observation seems especially apt when one is trying to remember anything positive that the Irish government has done in the year which now draws to a close.
If you cast your mind back to the beginning of 2025, you might experience flashbacks of a brief moment in Irish history defined by the phrase ‘Regional Independent Technical Group’ and the image of Michael Lowry giving two fingers while he stares down the barrel of a camera.
This was before a government was formed, a time when we cast our eyes nervously about and thought: ‘Oh no, but without a government, who will advance a legislative agenda to improve the lives of the Irish people?’ Then they formed a government and, 11 months later, most of us are still asking the same question.
This was a record-breaking year in Irish politics, at least going by the metric of just how little the government actually did. Only 21 bills have been passed by the end of this year, compared to 44 last year. A more forensic assessment of the bills that have been passed will not make you feel as though your quality of life is a central priority of this government. One of those few bills, for example, simply increased the number of minister of state positions available to government TDs.
This is thematically consistent with Micheál Martin’s second stint as Taoiseach which, as the year wore on, has more or less deteriorated into him going around scowling at anyone who dares to ask him a question about why his government never does anything about anything.
Martin’s year was defined by his unforgettable contribution to the presidential election, in which he backed a candidate with no political experience, whom he had only met once, who eventually crashed out amid a deficient vetting process, which failed to pick up on Jim Gavin’s unreturned overpayment of rent when he was a landlord. But in fairness to the Taoiseach, he was presumably distracted by making sure that no progress was being made in Dáil Éireann either.
The stagnation that Ireland has experienced this year is perhaps especially........