It's not all bad in Ireland

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As far as I'm concerned, it takes being away from home to realise the freedom that we have in Ireland.

After spending four months in Budapest I have some fantastic memories, but it also gave me an opportunity to assess norms which citizens of other countries experience. It gave me something to compare to Ireland to. It is something which a lot of people lack. Every so often you can hear somebody saying 'only in Ireland' in a sarcastic manner regarding an injustice on this island of ours. I would hazard a guess that most of the people who exclaim that phrase have never left these shores.

The phrase is often used in relation to our political system. The wasteful spending, cronyism and implementation of new taxes has led to an anger against politics which has never pervaded the Irish psyche to such a strong extent.

Trust in politicians is at a low which has likely never been seen before. People feel as though they are being forgotten about. People feel as though their needs do not matter to our public representatives. There is no doubt that there are injustices in Irish society right now, and particular demographics are losing out.

But are public representatives deliberately targeting particular groups in these harsh austerity times? I do not believe so. I certainly think there are people out there who are in need of help from Government, but are not being accommodated. Mistakes have been made in regard to Government policy, and no doubt are continuing to be made. That is not a slight against the political system. It is just the reality of humankind. What's a mistake to one person, may be a brave call according to somebody else.

We should be striving for a Utopian nation, but that is an ultra idealistic way of looking at the world. There will always be divides between classes, and criticism of governments for allowing this to happen. But these problems occur in every nation, so we should not pretend that Ireland is a special case.

The way in which we can approach our elected representatives without much prior preparation is something which always astounds me. There are a lot of problems in this country, but there is no point in complaining if you are not willing to act on it. In this country, people have the unique opportunity to act on these problems by meeting their local TD. Activism can get a lot of things done. Before recent changes to the system, there was a remarkable reversal forced by pensioners in this country when their medical cards were at risk. The family of young Jake Brennan in Kilkenny, who lost his life when knocked down by a car near his home last summer, have shown remarkable strength in turning their grief into a national campaign for reduced speed limits in residential areas.

Not every piece of activism works, but you will not change anything from your cosy armchair.

This week, I visited Leinster House on two occasions. I had the opportunity to meet a number of public representatives, and see our parliament deliberate on national policy from the visitors gallery above the Dáil. It was fantastic to see the place for the first time, after witnessing the famous building from television cameras on so many occasions.

Sometimes you need a reminder that the people you see on the television, responding to questions and making crucial decisions about our country, are regular human beings like the rest of us. Uniquely however, in an international context, the Irish people are in a far better situation to dictate policy because of the close proximity we can find ourselves to our public representatives.

This is not an apology for the actions of the Irish government over the last 7-8 years. It is just important to take a step back at times, and judge people by our own standards rather than always looking for the conspiracy theories.