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Updated 11am, 21 August
ON THE DAY he was elected Taoiseach – 14 June 2017 – Leo Varadkar promised to create “a republic of opportunity“.
He told the Dáil: “The government I will lead will be one of the new European centre, as we seek to build a Republic of Opportunity that is a republic in which every citizen gets a fair go and has the opportunity to succeed, and in which every part of the country has a chance to share in our prosperity.”
The government has grown fond of the phrase since then, with it popping up in various press releases and speeches.
During the week, for example, Education Minister Richard Bruton used it when congratulating students who received their Leaving Cert results.
“The government is committed to building a Republic of Opportunity and that means making sure everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their potential,” Bruton stated.
Fine Gael is likely hoping the phrase will go down better than the party’s 2016 general election slogan, Keep the Recovery Going. That was labelled tone deaf, given how many people were yet to reap any benefits from the country’s overall economic improvements.
Eoghan McDermott, a director at the Communications Clinic, thinks Fine Gael has learned its lesson from the “disastrous” election slogan.
Keep the Recovery Going could only mean something for some people. If you were not experiencing the recovery, you weren’t able to keep it going. Republic of Opportunity can mean multiple things to multiple people.
“It’s a far more positive, future-tense, aspirational slogan.
“Keep the Recovery Going was for a very specific demographic who were feeling a recovery, a huge consort of people weren’t feeling that at all.”
McDermott tells TheJournal.ie Fine Gael’s latest slogan is also ”more aggressive” than former Taoiseach Enda Kenny referring to Ireland as ‘the best small country in the world in which to do business’.
In order for a political slogan to work, McDermott says it has to be “as inclusive as possible and positive and visionary”.
“I’m not sure I want to compare it to [US President Donald] Trump’s Make America Great Again, but that was visionary and positive for a certain consort of people. I’m not saying there’s a direct parallel but that was successful,” he notes.
‘Very Leo’
McDermott describes Republic of Opportunity as: “A Taoiseach Varadkar approach, a very Leo kind of phrase.”
So, where does the slogan come from?
Back in 2009, Eoghan Murphy – now the Housing Minister and a close ally of Varadkar in this year’s Fine Gael leadership race – used the wording in a general election leaflet.
Ireland was in the midst of a recession at the time and Murphy discussed the impact of the economic crisis.
“At the first signs of economic trouble, the first people to suffer were the elderly, the young and the disadvantaged. That is not the kind of society that I want to live in.”
Murphy continued by saying “tough times” were ahead, but so too were opportunities.
That’s what this is about. It’s about a generation getting involved and creating new opportunities. It’s about a regeneration of politics in this country – both in terms of people and in terms of ideas.
However, there’s evidence of the phrase being used well before that.
On 30 January 1970, an article in the Nationalist and Leinster Times noted that the Labour Party’s 1969 annual report stated voters had a choice “between the old Republic of bitterness, stagnation and failure represented by the two Civil War parties, and the ‘New Republic of Opportunity’, change and hope represented by the Labour Party”.
Lacking substance?
Opposition TDs have criticised the phrase as more style than substance.
However, McDermott says the phrase’s vagueness could be viewed as a strength, stating: “That actually may be part of what makes it good, it can mean anything to anyone.”
Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Paschal Donohoe spoke about the meaning of the slogan in the Dáil last month.
When the Taoiseach speaks about the republic of opportunity and the Dáil asks what progress has been made in it to date, I point, for example, to the decision to make available 970 more special needs assistants in our schools. Is that not an example of a government meeting the needs of those who need support the most?
Donohoe then pointed to the government’s plan to “put in place a budget that builds on progress made and to make careful choices about how we can achieve more with taxpayers’ money”.
When asked why the party has started to use the phrase and the message it’s trying to convey with it, a Fine Gael spokesperson said: “The Republic of Opportunity that Fine Gael is working to create will ensure that everyone gets a fair chance to reach their full potential.
It’s about rewarding work and encouraging enterprise and ensuring that all parts of Ireland share prosperity and economic growth. It’s also about the government offering a helping hand to those who need it most.
The spokesperson said an “illustrative example” of this is “Fine Gael delivering on its commitment to make childcare more affordable for working families”.
They added that a universal subsidy and other financial supports worth up to €7,500 per year for some families “ensure that childcare is not a barrier to those who wish to return to work or education”.
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That campus will always be an absolute kip. It’s like something the soviet Union shat out after breakfast of a cigarette and a coffee.
@Ann-Marie Roche: Would you like to go on a date?
@Ann-Marie Roche: €48,000,000 for the Giants Causeway inspired structure. Like what the f#@k is that price tag about? Let me be a negative person for a minute. This cost would build 48 x 1m houses that would no doubt stretch 1 km roadside. It would also build 480 x €100,000 homes estate wise. Are there people taking the piss out of people or what?
@Patrick J. Keating: (cough) Children’s Hospital (cough) €3billion (cough) green field site (cough) inner city congestion (cough, cough) …. Joke
@Ann-Marie Roche: not sure when you were there last Ann Marie. They have really nice green areas, 3 lakes, a woodland walk, a walled rose garden…its very nice a great amenity for locals. However, they are buying many houses just outside the campus, taking away from the community and probably with a view to knocking them all down when they buy them all. That’s sad for the local community.
@Ann-Marie Roche: Well, this is Ireland…… Roofs will leak.
@Martin Galvin: Nowhere near €3 billion, but don’t let facts get in the way of your nonsense!
@Paddy Kennedy: You’re right …. I was being too conservative….. It’ll be more than that ….
@Martin Galvin: with all that coughing I hope at least you are wearing a mask.
@Ciaran: No, I’m eating an ice-cream in a shopping centre surrounded by dozens of shop-shufflers, and going by the experts recommend guidelines, that is deemed as safe …..;)
Dear editor, given the nature of the topic, it would be useful to have another picture included. Maybe from a different angle. Yours etc
@HonDeDeise: before I even read the article my first thought was, “those hexagonal towers, are they ornamental?” but I’m a fan of Form Follows Function so the architect involved obviously isn’t.
@SPQH: completely agree. A ridiculous design that appears to offer very little in the way of functionality. A very good article.. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/mar/16/lacaton-vassal-unflashy-french-architectures-pritzker-prize
Designed by Minecraft Minds
They won’t invest in affordable housing to combat the housing crisis but they’ll approve a €48,000,000 abstract clump of cubes that looks like it was designed by a 4 year old.
@Robert: eh Ireland is budgeted to spend 3.1bn in the housing budget ….its grand to have a rant but some fking perspective would be nice
https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/96dba-minister-obrien-announces-31-billion-housing-budget/
@Robert: that’s two completely different theys but don’t let that stop you
Ghastly
Michelin Man meets existential dread.
@Damien McDaid: Absolutely!
Jaysus the auld brown envelopes are still alive and kicking in Ireland 2021 !
Looks like minecraft !
Ugly :O
And I don’t think Giants causeway is tilted?
@Anthony Clark: the tilt of 23.5 must be in relation to the Earth’s tilt.
Love it. Ireland needs more inventive and experimental buildings, and where better to push the boundaries than in a uni.
On a separate note, I’ve had an idea for a sculpture to accurately memorialise the comments section on the Journal.ie. We’ll just need an intact sheet of glass and a shovel. It’s called “Complete Pane, In Hole”. Oh, you’re welcome.
What materials would the exterior be made of? All for curious imposing 21st century buildings, but a brutalist reinforced concrete building won’t look as good as the conception photo. Needs a futuristic cladding that weathers well long term.
I’ve been to The Giant’s Causway dozens of times. Someone must be desperately grasping at straws to say that monstrosity is inspired by a beautiful area of nature conservation.
And the Giant’s Causeway isn’t even in Ireland?! May as well design it like the Rock of Gibraltar.
@Ciarán O’ Donoghue: you mean it’s not in the Republic. If you’re going to be a devisive arsehole at least be a factual one. Ireland is an island.
@SonOfSniglet: Cool your jets. It’s still in the UK. That’s a fact.
@Ciarán O’ Donoghue: That and the fact that the car park at the Giant’s Causeway site costs £12.50 per person, or €11 online. By contrast, I’d pay that not to have to look at this old monstrosity of a bunker.
@Ciarán O’ Donoghue: never said it wasn’t in the UK. But it’s on the island of ireland. Has ties back into gaelic culture and mythology which connects it as a place in Irish identity. That’s also a fact.
Big profits !! Someone being overcharged for studies. Should be invested in teaching and quality research.
Looks like summik out of a new Transformers movie,although,more like Ghostbusters.
€48m probably end up double or triple that by the end knowing the way these things happen in Ireland.
@John: How much would it cost without the ugly towers, I wonder? They look like cannons repelling invaders.
Waste of money for that yoke.
An absolute disgrace, shame on the architect as well as the planners. And 48,000,000? Gosh UCD is trying too hard. It looks awful. And looks nothing like the giant’s causeway.
Remember the proposed Cork Events Centre anyone.
Regional development sorry I mean dublin city development.
@john s: let’s be honest regional development is another word for getting country folk to vote for us ..
It will never happen
Ah lads…Have a day off..
Is the architecture beneficial to imparting knowledge ? If not, it is squandering precious resources.
Looks fantastic. Great addition to the campus. Colour back glass cladding would look fantastic on that building.
Yuck!
What is proposed seems to me a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend.
Think we need to increase the cost of objecting to development. Might put off NIMBY serial objectors who object to everything just to protect their property values. The claims above are so transparently self serving that they border on ridiculous.
Remember the name “Daniel Brennan”. It should be synonymous with “conceited rectum” given the amount of excrement he made the planning authorities Wade through on this
At first I thought “that looks terrible don’t build it” then I saw Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council objected to it and now I’m “build these wonderful tilting towers right now! I’ll help!”
I’m guessing the Architects name was Charlie, because if I’m not mistaken, that’s a Wonkas Everlasting Gobstopper.
You won Charlie, you Won!!
Anyone else see an ice cream cone with flakes?
Will students call it the Crackup on the Campus?
Lol! Ireland… no we cant.
have your say