Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Many thought that real change was in prospect when the Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition was formed. Many are now sadly disillusioned.

We pointed out before the general election that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party already constituted a coalition for cuts because they agreed on the essentials of their economic policy. Crucially as far as this debate is concerned, they also agreed on the essentials of policy with regard to the EU. There is not a hair's breadth between them.

This should surprise no-one. These were the parties that united in support of the first referendum on the Nice treaty. When the people rejected that treaty, the three parties united again to brow-beat the people into accepting the second referendum in 2002. There was no opposition from Fine Gael and the Labour Party to the Fianna Fáil-led Government's blatant defiance of the people's will in the first referendum.

The same scenario was played out on the Lisbon treaty in 2009. The people rejected it but the so-called main Opposition parties marched obediently behind the "Yes" banner, more concerned as always to pander to the larger and more powerful member states of the EU than to implement the democratic mandate of the Irish electorate.

Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party are the three brass monkeys of Irish politics, see no evil, hear no evil - how could they because they are never here - and speak no evil as far as the EU is concerned. They cannot be trusted to represent the national interest at EU level because they have no clear conception of what is that national interest. They cannot stand up for Ireland because they are in a permanently crouched position from decades of bowing to the Brussels bureaucrats.

The people gave Fine Gael and the Labour Party an unprecedented electoral mandate. It was a mandate to undo the disastrous legacy of the outgoing regime, including the outrageous impositions of the troika, the unlimited bank guarantee and the totally unjustified pledges to unguaranteed Anglo Irish Bank bondholders. What has the coalition done with that mandate? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The ballot papers may as well have remained in the boxes.

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