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The Progressive Democrats (in Irish An Páirtí Daonlathach, literal back-translation: The Democratic Party) is a free market liberal party in the Republic of Ireland founded in 1985. It adopts liberal positions on both economic issues and social or moral matters. It is a member of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR), which is a constituent part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). It polled 4% at the last two general elections. Nevertheless the PDs have had a significant influence on Irish public policy in recent years. By entering into coalition governments, the PDs have had a rather disproportionate impact on government policy to their own size.

Policies

The party is said to be the closest thing to a libertarian party in Ireland. While this may be true in the sense that they strongly support civil liberties and free market economics, they do have several left-wing policies (see below).

The Progressive Democrats' economic policies are based on liberal economics. They support a free enterprise, low tax and pro-competition policy base. The party leader, Mary Harney, has been quoted as saying she felt "closer to Boston than Berlin", which meant she favoured the free market economic model of the US ahead of the stronger European public realm.

The Progressive Democrats consider privatisation on a case by case basis. They pushed for the privatisation of Aer Lingus because they believed that the company had no future if it didn’t have access to private capital. On the other hand, they strongly opposed their coalition partner’s plans to privatise Aer Rianta, arguing that the only thing worse than a public monopoly is a private monopoly. They succeeded in preventing the company from being privatised, and broke it up into competing companies instead. They currently plan to privatise Ireland’s prison system because they claim that it isn’t delivering value for money at present. Despite having the highest ratio of prison wardens to prisoners in the world (at almost one to one), the overtime budget is huge. This is a legacy of the political conflict in the north-east of Ireland, when prison warders were granted generous work conditions to counteract intimidation from republican paramilitaries. On the other hand, their critics point out the dangers of handing over responsibility for administering prisons to business whose shareholders' interests come before the general public's.

Regarding social welfare provision, they believe in selective rather than universal benefits, working under the ideal "help only the people who cannot help themselves". They do not agree that people who are well off should receive state benefits, arguing that they are being paid for by the taxes of people who are poorer than them. Many are of the opinion that their policy of cutting social welfare benefits as a policy encourages inequality in Irish society and favours higher income groups. Likewise, the party has been a strong supporter of low taxation. As the ESRI stated in 2002: 'On balance, budgets over the past 10 to 20 years have been more favourable to high income groups than low income groups, but particularly so during periods of high growth.''The distributive impact of budgetary policy: A medium term view' Tim Callan, Mary Keeney, John Walsh, ESRI Dublin, 2002.

The current Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Michael McDowell was quoted as saying in 2004: "A dynamic liberal economy like ours demands flexibility and inequality in some respects to function." They support low corporation tax because they believe it encourages business growth and allows for enterprise to be rewarded. The party has often claimed these policies are in part responsible for the "Celtic Tiger" economy, although they deny any responsibility for the alleged resultant rise in inequality and attendant social problems. Critics of their income-tax policies point out that the Irish economy was already growing at 9% before they came to power in 1997 and implemented a tax-cutting agenda. Economists warned that reducing income tax substantially at such a time was inflationary and damaged competitiveness in the long-run.

Dermot McAleese, emeritus professor of economics at Trinity College, Dublin, says that the emergence of the Progressive Democrats in 1985 may have had a more positive influence on the economy than some recognise. He argues the low-tax, pro-business economy we know today is based in large part on Progressive Democrat policies. "They proved that there was a constituency for this, and they gave the intellectual power to it." (The Irish Times, 31 December 2004).

Although commonly portrayed as one of Ireland's more ideological parties, PD leaders have often rejected the idea that they are ruled by ideology alone. As a party widely perceived to represent the high-income groups of Irish society, it has been remarked that the Progressive Democrats' attitude to state subsidising is informed by an analysis of how it serves the interests of business and wealthy elites, often at the expense of social programmes.

The party is often described as right wing by supporters and critics alike, but they have several policies which are liberal, or even left wing:

  • They have been strong supporters of overseas development aid. Liz O’Donnell of the Progressive Democrats, then Minister of State in the Department of Foreign Affairs, threathened to resign if aid wasn’t increased. As a result, it was doubled. The advancements made by the PD's towards the UN goal of 0.7% of GNP going towards aid were halted by their coaltion parteners Finna Fail who controlled this Ministerial brief following a reshuffle.
  • The PD leader, Mary Harney, introduced Ireland's first minimum wage in 2000 while she was Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. At the time, it was the highest minimum wage in the EU.
  • They support the social partnership agreements on taxation, wages and conditions negotiated between unions, government and employers.
  • Their election programmes have included the intention to significantly increase welfare spending in key areas, including children's allowance, unemployment benefit and old age pensions*.
  • They support free university education.

Currently PD ministers control both the Department of Health and the Department of Justice, and are pursuing the following initiatives:

  • Expanding healthcare coverage
  • Expanding private sector influence on the health service
  • Reform of the private security industry (regulating it for the first time)
  • Expanding police powers
  • Creation of a Police Ombudsman
  • Personal Injury Reform
Party leaders reject the idea that they are ruled by ideology alone. Party president Michael McDowell has said that he sees liberalism as not being on the left-right spectrum as it is a mix of the ideals of both. Mary Harney, on becoming health minister said "I don't get my politics from any ideology, I get it from my experience and common sense" Harney did, however, later begin plans for building private hospitals on the grouds of existing public hospital and momentarily contemplated abolishing risk equalisation; the process by which private health insurance have to pay compensation to public health insurance provider, VHI, for the disadvantages of providing community ratings.

History

The party was founded in 1985 by Desmond O'Malley, a former senior minister in Fianna Fáil governments under Jack Lynch and Charles J. Haughey.

O'Malley was a strong opponent of Haughey and was involved in a number of leadership heaves against Haughey, who was popular and controversial in equal measure. He was finally expelled from Fianna Fáil for conduct unbecoming a member when he refused to support Fianna Fáil's opposition to the introduction of contraception. He Dáil speech in favour of liberalising contraception law (I Stand By the Republic) is regarded as one of the finest given by a Dáil Deputy.

O'Malley joined with Fianna Fáil members Mary Harney, Bobby Molloy and Pearse Wyse, Fine Gael TD Michael Keating and former Fine Gael activist Michael McDowell, to set up the new party. The breakaways were dissatisfied with the policies of existing parties, which they viewed as being insufficiently liberal (both economically and on social issues such as divorce and contraception).

In the 1987 general election the new party won 14 seats and 11.9% of the vote, becoming the third largest party in the Dáil.

In 1989 they formed a coalition government with Fianna Fáil, with Charles Haughey as Taoiseach. Haughey was replaced in February 1992 by Albert Reynolds.

After the collapse of Reynolds' first administration later in 1992, O'Malley retired from the leadership of the party. Mary Harney became the new leader and the first woman to lead any of the major Irish political parties. Harney currently serves as Tánaiste (deputy prime minister).

In total the Progressive Democrats have participated in coalition governments three times, all with Fianna Fáil (1989-1992; 1997-2002; 2002 to date). Mary Harney has said it makes "no difference" if they are in government with Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael as long as they can get policy implemented, "* do not want to be in government for the sake of it".

In the 2002 general election, the party defied expectations by doubling its Dáil seats to eight, although its share of the vote declined slightly to 4%. It is believed that they attracted the votes of many Fine Gael voters who were afraid of a Fianna Fáil majority and believed that Fine Gael's economic policy in the election was reckless.

Both Progressive Democrats and other commentators have suggested that the party has had a greater influence on government policy since 1997 than might be expected from its size. This belief appears to have some basis – as of September 2004, the party controlled two of the most important cabinet positions (Justice and Health) despite having less than one-tenth of the seats of its coalition partner Fianna Fáil.

In a widely reported speech * in 2000, the current party leader, Mary Harney, was perceived to express the desire that Ireland become "closer to Boston than Berlin", adopting US free market models for economic development, health, education, and other services rather than European social democratic models because she believed that the social democratic countries, while having more equality had bad economies and high unemployment. She said that the economic growth did not come at the cost of society: '".....And did we have to pay some very high price for pursuing this policy option? Did we have to dismantle the welfare state? Did we have to abandon the concept of social inclusion? The answer is no: we didn't".' Elizabeth Cullen of NUI Maynooth, a committee member of the Irish Doctors' Environmental Association, has on the other hand countered this assertion by stating: "The evidence assembled suggests that Ireland in fact has paid, is paying and will continue to pay a very high price for adopting American ways and moving closer to Boston." *

Progressive Democrats TDs

Notes

See also

External link

Liberal parties | Republic of Ireland political parties | 1985 establishments | Progressive Democrats

Progressive Democrats | An Páirtí Daonlathach | Démocrates progressistes (Irlande)

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Progressive Democrats".

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