By PATSY McARDLE
A number of burning issues face all the candidates at the hustings in Cavan/Monaghan as they battle in the coming days to claim the four seats which are to be filled in the border constituency.
While it can be recalled how the General Election in 2011 saw the country’s finances in turmoil, with bankruptcy lurking at the door, it is now accepted by all parties that this General Election sees a vastly improved national situation.
The long and difficult road back is now politically referred to as “the recovery” – as in the case of an ill patient making a welcome return to health!
In Cavan/Monaghan – and elsewhere – this General Election revolves around “the recovery” and the improving capacity that now exists to ease the pain inflicted during that dreadful period when negativity surrounded us and our very ability to sustain a civilised life was challenged.
Every family in this constituency was either directly or indirectly affected to a point where the “recession” will be engraved for a considerable time in our psyche.
It is suggested the politicians have now earmarked billions of euro that is apparently available for spending. But the figures are widely disputed, with some politicians setting it in the tens of billions while economists, taking inflation and other matters into account, have more moderately predicted the true value to be much lower. However, as always, the truth probably lies somewhere between the various figures advanced.
While ownership of the recovery appears to have been claimed by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, with billboards and roadsigns now urging us “Let’s Keep the Recovery Going”, the Cavan/Monaghan electorate is wise enough to know that it is the patient – not the physician – who must recover! And it is…