Covid-19 emergency is no time for playing politics

Politicians are political. It stands to reason, then, that they act in politically-motivated ways. Often, they purport to be acting in the public interest, but really they’re acting in self-interest or in the interest of their political party. Some of them play politics. It’s just what they do.

Ordinarily, we put up with it. Sometimes we even encourage it – sure politics is a blood sport, no harm in throwing a few elbows at your opponent. But not now. This is different. Now is not the time to play politics.

If any politician, local or national, uses this Covid-19 pandemic and national emergency, to score political points or to tear shreds off their political opponents, for the sake of themselves and furthering their own agenda, then the public won’t forget and won’t forgive them.

By all means criticise and scrutinise – nobody gets a free pass just because we’re in a very real crisis, and herd mentality is not what we need – but don’t act for political gain rather than on principle or in the national interest.

That applies to those in Fine Gael and the Government as much as it does to the others. Just because you’re in charge doesn’t mean you can exploit this unfolding mess for party political gain. Yes, it applies to you, councillor. And you, senator. And you, deputy. And you, minister. All of you need to cop on.

So far, for the most part, politicians of all persuasions have, in fairness, acted responsibly since we were plunged into this virus madness. They better keep it up. Don’t even try playing games. We’ll see through it.

And when we do, a bit like that pub in Temple Bar that stayed open, even after the Government had advised closures, you’ll go down in history as a traitor of the coronavirus crisis. This is a preview only. To read the rest of this article, see this week's Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week's paper here.