IT APPEARS THAT there is something quite miraculous about the prospect of an election.

Problems that once seemed intractable can be addressed with a benedictive wave. Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, for example, announced this week that by the end of the year the numbers of children waiting four months or longer on corrective surgery for scoliosis will have fallen from 87 to 20, with the remaining children offered surgery abroad. 

It’s a problem that has plagued Ireland for years – amplified by recent revelations that €19m specifically committed for scoliosis treatment was not spent as intended under this government – but that’s the spirit of a general election. It’s sort of like a “day of my daughter’s wedding” but for infrastructural problems that should and often could have been solved years ago.

Politicians find themselves more bullish about popular stances. Darragh O’Brien is all of sudden standing in the way of proposed M50 toll hikes, for example. And a Luas all the way to Finglas by 2031? 2.6km kilometres in only seven years? Wow. Now that’s what I call an ambitious election promise. 

The divine intercession that is the looming election cannot solve anything, though. For example, we still can’t pass the Occupied Territories Bill. 

That’s quite something. For six years the government has sought to avoid making a call on the Occupied Territories Bill on the grounds of Attorney General advice. That advice changed this summer in light of the ICJ’s July ruling on Israel’s settlements in Palestine, which adjudicated that “Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful”. 

The movement to get the bill – which was first tabled in 2018 by Senator Frances Black – has grown in momentum over the last few months, with a video campaign featuring many high-profile Irish actors, artists and musicians endorsing a petition for the bill to be signed into law. 

While government accepted that the ICJ’s ruling “changes the context” around the legal advice they’ve received on the bill, the government has quite quickly found a brand new reason why the bill cannot be voted on. You couldn’t possibly expect us to spend time taking a legislative stand against a rogue state when we’ve got an election to get ourselves cleaned up for. 

It seems there is always a very good reason why Ireland cannot take the next step in terms of putting pressure on Israel. 

Tánaiste: "That's outrageous. I'm going to have to push back now."

On The Group Chat this week, Micheál Martin discusses not using the word genocide in relation to the Gaza crisis.

Tune in at 11 PM on Virgin Media One! @ZaraKing | @gavreilly | @newschambers pic.twitter.com/c8Bqy8czL6

— Virgin Media News (@VirginMediaNews) October 23, 2024

This week we saw Tánaiste Micheál Martin bristle significantly at a line of questioning by Richard Chambers on Virgin Media’s Group Chat podcast. Chambers pointed out that the Irish government has refused steadfastly to use the word ‘genocide’ when describing Israel’s actions in Palestine, and asked Martin whether Ireland’s response to the war – which has been largely rhetorical in nature – casts Ireland simply as “the least worst” among nations. It was a characterisation Martin described as “outrageous,” which it really isn’t.

The suggestion that those of us watching this endless atrocity from the safety of our homes over 4,000km away couldn’t stand to be more introspective is not outrageous. The suggestion that the international community, and Ireland along with it, is not doing enough to end this war is not outrageous. The suggestion that Ireland could be a better, stronger friend in the corner of Palestinian civilians is not at all outrageous. It was a perfectly reasonable question, put to the Minister for Foreign Affairs in a perfectly reasonable tone, and the outraged reaction it received was so strange that the clip has been shared widely on social media since it was first uploaded. 

Martin especially should not feel entitled to such back-patting on the matter of Ireland’s approach to Gaza, seeing as it was his party who invited the Israeli ambassador Dana Ehrlich to an event last November before seemingly realising who they had tacitly aligned themselves with and explicitly not inviting Ehrlich to their Ard Fheis in April, citing the ongoing war in Gaza.

Ehrlich herself issued a statement on Thursday blasting the bill and arguing that “Israel has been the subject of many baseless accusations that are regrettably and too often automatically accepted in Ireland without proper scrutiny”. Based on the evidence of our own eyes and ears over the past year, bearing witness day after day to video after video of the most unthinkable violence waged against children, journalists, healthcare workers, and civilians of all stripes in Palestine, it is a claim that is beneath answering.

All of this is by way of saying that the government could choose to prioritise the amending and the passing of the Occupied Territories Bill, but that the political will is not there. And the official stance appears be, as per Martin, that Ireland is doing enough. That its response to the ongoing crisis in Palestine has been sufficient, if not commendable. The same may go for the Mental Health Bill, designed to strengthen regulation around people consenting to the type of treatment they receive and better regulate child and adolescent mental health services. Getting the election done in a timely fashion takes precedence.

It is a bit of a weird excuse, though, is it not? After all, it’s not like the election actually has to happen by the end of next month. Or even by the end of the year. As noted in last week’s column, Simon Harris has repeatedly told the public that the government would see out the full five years of its term. Indeed, he was telling us that as recently as last month. 

Whether or not Harris knew it wasn’t true at the time is something that will only be known to the Taoiseach himself, but one wonders what has changed so dramatically in the last six or so weeks that has brought about such urgency where previously there had been none. For some reason, this is perceived as one of those situations where you’re a fool for believing them in the first place. And you are a fool, but that doesn’t really make it any less galling.

At the time of writing, we still don’t have an election date, though Simon Harris has confirmed that it will be on a Friday and he has sagely observed that “there aren’t many Fridays left to choose from” this year. Of course, he would have more Fridays to choose from if he was sticking to his word (six times since June, he said it! More fool us!)

Oh well! With a maximum of 41 days to go until the election, it’s officially time to get your wishes in. Simon Harris is obviously quite confident that he’ll be returning to the Taoiseach’s office after Christmas, but you will still never be more listened-to by your public representatives than you will be over the next five-and-half-weeks. 

Make it count. Maybe it’ll only take six years for the Luas to get to Finglas.