Bertie Back With Childcare

Meath Cronicle reports that Bertie was in town for Mary Wallace and Thomas Byrne’s Meath East campaign launch. Unsurprisingly there was talk of childcare, the topic which every single poll done in the region suggested was the major swing issue. So Bertie talked up the Government’s credentials with their new budget provisions for childcare etc.

He said he was particularly proud of the Government’s comprehensive package now tackling the issue of childcare. This package would help to build upon almost €13 million of investment in Meath childcare facilities since 2000.

There was probably little mention of the fact that as a government in power for around 8 years at the time of last years by-election, they seemed to have drastically failed to provide facilities for the commuter families moving into Meath to work in Dublin. At a time when the economy was booming and arguments from all sides of the political spectrum would favour an increase in spending in theses ares.
Not to worry, the next theme wasnt long coming from Bertie, he was back on the Putnam horse to bemoan the diminution of community values in the region, saying that Fianna Fail are ‘concerned’ that large population growth has affected community.

Mr. Ahern was concerned that in areas such as Meath East where large population growth had occurred, the dilution of the sense of community and community values had increasingly been a cause of anxiety.

So we begin to discern the pattern. Perhaps the increased focus on quality of life will reward FF or the electorate will wonder why it took eight years to turn the talk, thus far it is but talk, toward them. I think that the electorate is going to be increasingly sceptical of soundings from Fianna Fail on the issues of quality of life. That doesnt mean they dont want to hear it, Labour and Fine Gael (particularly FG) could benefit from not having government baggage on this issue. The resulting argument would feed into a broader idea of where we want Ireland to be at the time of 2012 General Election and how we wish to look after all of us here.