The current coalition government of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and motley crew of right-wing independent TDs has found itself embroiled in a bitter row with the opposition over speaking rights in the Dáil for those independents who support the government.
At the same time as the Dáil was in “turmoil” over speaking rights the Government pushed ahead with its strategy to abandon the Triple Lock on Irish military personal deployment overseas without UN mandate.
Led by An Taoiseach Micheál Martin, leader of Fianna Fáil and Tánaiste Simon Harris, the leader of Fine Gael, this coalition government is turning out to be one of the most pro-imperialist governments in the history of this state.
The Irish ruling class and its political parties have not wasted the crisis in Ukraine to advance a long-held policy position of abandoning neutrality and pursuing greater military collaboration and military political integration with imperialist forces.
The Coalition bought the last general election with a whole series of financial promises to sections of the population. Economic promises were predicated on a continuation of existing economic policies: low taxation, prioritisation of private sector interests (private property interests) in health, housing, job creation, etc, and continuing to use the Irish state as a base for transnational corporations to declare their globally acquired profits, while the parasitic ruling elites cream off imperial rent in return.
The Irish ruling class has since the 1950s placed all economic development prospects in the basket of encouraging transnational corporations to establish bases in this state. They have built and strengthened their parasitic relationship with the major imperial blocs: the US and the EU. One of the key reasons they presented to the people for joining the EEC was that we would become a central platform for US transnational corporations who could then freely access the EEC market.
Sinn Féin also peddles and sells a similar development and tax strategy in relation to US corporations investing in the 6 Counties. A strategy doomed to failure, and even more so as US monopoly capitalism re-organises its strategic priorities, including its objective to push back China both economically and militarily.
With the election of the Trump regime in the US he has followed through his strategy of reconfiguring and disrupting the existing global capitalist economic order, in order to halt the slide of US power and reassert itself economically. The Irish media attempt to present him as a maverick and a wild card.
He and his administration are clearly not such. They have a strategic worldview in which the role of the US is central to the global order. It suits the Irish and European establishments to present matters in these terms as it masks the role and nature of “democracy” both in Europe and the US. The state and governments are there to manage and protect the interests of capital and private property. The rest is window dressing.
Currently, it is estimated that US companies directly employ 211,000 people across Ireland and indirectly support a further 168,000 jobs. Companies like Intel have put on hold expansion plans and while desperately trying to sublet sections of its plant in Leixlip. During the shambolic gathering in Washington surrounding St Patrick Day, Trump stated that a major “chip” company (Intel) had asked for more time to shift production back to the US.
This has cause panic across global capitalist economies as fear of tariff wars looms large. The Irish establishment is signalling the strong possibility of major job losses in the coming period if significant tariffs are imposed by Trump on goods from the EU. The European car industry, in particular the German car industry, is already on its knees even before US tariffs. One of the factors influencing German rearmament was to reopen closed Volkswagen car plants to build weapons.
The Irish establishment have few if any economic levers at their disposal as this economy moves into very unstable waters. They have sacrificed very significant economic leverage through their slavish support for deeper EU integration. Each new EU treaty which all establishment political parties supported further stripped this state of any independent economic policy options other than taxation: one of the key elements that the Trump regime has focused in on. Namely, blaming Irish tax policy for pulling US manufacturing out of the US and decrying it as a tax scam. The MAGA strategy is to pull manufacturing back to the US and strengthen the material base of the US economy itself.
For decades the Communist Party of Ireland has criticised the strategy of the Irish ruling class. We argued that it left our people wide open to the profit whims of global corporations, and that it would undermine the capacity of the country to take independence and sovereign actions required by the people. It also prevents any serious intervention by the state itself to create secure jobs.
If the Trump Regime imposes tariffs on the EU, this state will have no room to manoeuvre. The EU will make decisions that are in the interests of the bigger states and European monopolies. The interests and needs of Irish workers will not feature on the EU agenda.
Micheál Martin’s showboating and strutting his stuff on the red carpet as part of the “Coalition of the Willing” falsely implies that what he says or does matters one iota in the corridors of power in the EU. The imperial powers recognise a puppet when they see it performing: they have centuries of experiencing in using such vassal individuals and states.
The working class needs to be mobilised if we are to resist the coming storm and attacks on our living standards. Over the past number of issues of Socialist Voice we have sketched out an alternative economic strategy for the working class in Ireland: the “Investigating an Economic Alternative” series.
Parts 1 – 4 of the “Investigating an Economic Alternative” series can be found on the Socialist Voice website here:
Part 1: https://socialistvoice.ie/2025/01/public-versus-private-monopolies-investigating-an-alternative/
Part 3: https://socialistvoice.ie/2025/03/public-ownership-as-a-democratic-imperative/
Part 4: https://socialistvoice.ie/2025/04/the-case-for-planning-a-rational-economy-for-the-working-class/
