The Thin Red Line

Legalized abortion, gay marriage, a secular school system and economic sanctions against Israel are all issues that can begin to be addressed, if Labour make it into government. So says the party’s Senator and prospective TD for Dún Laoghaire, Ivana Bacik.

Bacik, who is a Professor of Law at Trinity College, has a distinguished record on liberal issues like these, since she was elected President of Trinity College Students’ Union in the late 1980s. A Senator since 2007, she is running in the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown constituency, alongside the Labour leader Eamon Gilmore, and there is a real chance that she will take a second seat for the party there.
If she succeeds it is likely to be in the context of a dramatic increase in the overall number of Labour TDs. But while the Gilmore For Taoiseach posters are up, and Labour is, in theory at least, aiming high, there are long odds against them leading the next government. Polls and pundits alike can get these things wrong, of course, but there is an awful lot of evidence to suggest that the electorate are beginning to favour Fine Gael and their low tax, high cuts manifesto.
Ivana Bacik recognises that. But as she does so, she takes the opportunity to paint the picture of a “very dangerous” axis of the right if Fine Gael manages to enter government buildings without Labour’s support.
“Nobody’s going to have an overall majority of 80-something seats,” she says. “But on the basis of the latest polls, it looks like Fine Gael is probably going to emerge as the largest party. The danger for us on the left and in the Labour Party is that we would see the spectre of Fine Gael in power, propped up by a few right-wing Independents. That, to me, would be a very dangerous sort of government to have. But it is a possibility if Fine Gael rises further in the polls – that’s certainly a possibility, that they won’t need Labour.”
However, a more realistic likely end-scenario is that when the numbers are crunched post polling-day, Fine Gael will be forced to turn to Labour for support, in a coalition of what have traditionally been Ireland’s second and third biggest political parties. So what policies will Labour implement, if it has enough seats to make it a dominant, equal, or at least an influential partner in the (probable) forthcoming coalition?
“Well, our first job would be to renegotiate the IMF/EU deal,” says Bacik. “As Eamon Gilmore said, that deal is crushing our economy. The way it’s framed, we simply cannot recover because there isn’t the scope to.”
This has consistently been the Labour party analysis. Renegotiating the terms of the bailout deal, which will also include extending the term over which the loan is to be repaid, forms the touchstone of the party’s economic policy.
UCD economist Colm McCarthy has pointed out that if the interest rate on the EU/IMF loan was renegotiated down to 5%, that would mean a saving of €450 million per annum – which really isn’t a whole lot to shout about, in the context of a €19 billion deficit each year. Which statement serves only to underline the crazy situation we have been plunged into, when a saving of €450 million is thought not to matter!
“Well it still would pay for our jobs plan – we have a €500 million jobs plan and we would fund that through renegotiation of the deal. So it’s not to be sniffed at,” Bacik replies.
On the renegotiation of the bailout deal, Labour and Fine Gael are in broad agreement; the big difference between the two parties’ economic policies, according to Bacik, is on the question of cuts.
Labour say 18,000 public servants can be eliminated from the payroll through “natural wastage.” Fine Gael, by contrast, want to lose over 30,000: Ivana is sceptical.
“I don’t think you can do that,” she says. “Don’t forget there’s already been a recruitment freeze in the public service and there’s already been an embargo on recruitment.
“One of the big differences between the parties is that we believe in the need to protect public services. One practical aspect of that is that we have not argued for slashing public jobs in the way Fine Gael have.”
Labour has also committed to fighting any effort to wield the axe in third-level education. That’s likely to be a major sticking point with Fine Gael, who want students to pay their own way.
Bacik insists that Labour will oppose the reintroduction of college fees, although she does accept that middle-income PAYE families have benefited from the policy more than people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“No, it didn’t increase access to the most disadvantaged hugely because you need to put in place other measures from pre-school up to improve the aspirations of children. Abolition of fees alone isn’t enough,” she points out.

Constitutional reform
Labour believes the Constitution, enacted under De Valera in the 1930s, could do with a major spring clean. The party has committed to establishing a convention on the matter, which will report back within 12 months with a package of potential reforms. Bacik has been one of the main agitators for reform.
“Personally I’ve written extensively on the need to reform the Constitution to make it more reflective of a secular, pluralist state; take out some of the more archaic references to Catholic teaching, for example, women’s place in the home, the duties of mothers, all of that,” she says.
“We still have less than 70 multi-denominational schools nationally out of 3,200 national schools. That’s not reflective of the wishes of parents and what we need to see in the constitution is a recognition of that.”
She adds that the Labour Party is, categorically, in favour of gay marriage.
“Our position on the Civil Partnership Bill was qualified support. We said we supported it but it didn’t go far enough.”
And then there’s the always tricky question of abortion. Bacik, a prominent pro-choice campaigner, pledges that the Labour Party will legislate “to allow life-saving abortions to be carried out” when a woman’s life is endangered by her pregnancy. In Bacik’s opinion, that is “absolutely not” enough progress in the pro-choice direction but to go further might require a constitutional referendum.
Bacik is also a patron of the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Asked about the Labour Party’s position on that question, she points out that the party’s spokesman on foreign affairs, Michael D. Higgins, has “stood up consistently for the rights of Palestinian people.” Would the party support economic sanctions against Israel?
“I would hope so. These are all issues that would have to be negotiated between Labour and Fine Gael.”
Ooops, Fine Gael. Nearly forgot about them. Does Bacik foresee any opposition from within Enda Kenny’s party when it comes to implementing all these progressively left-leaning, secularising proposals for reform of the Irish State and its policies?
“Oh absolutely, yes. Yeah, there’d be a strong conservative streak within Fine Gael that I’m very worried about.”
If Fine Gael secure a significantly greater number of seats, even as partners in a coalition, will many of Labour’s most cherished policies be likely to come to naught? That remains to be seen.
In the meantime, it is, as they say, all to play for.