Paschal Donohue (centre) with, from left: Frances Fitzgerald, Michael Noonan, Simon Coveney and Leo Varadkar at the launch of Fine Gael’s General Election 2016 campaign.

The hard right cannot hold.

To wit:

‘Everything changes and nothing remains still . . . you cannot step twice into the same stream.”

So wrote philosopher Heraclitus nearly 2,500 years ago when he argued that ever-present change is the very essence and nature of the universe…

…it is more important than ever that the centre of Irish politics holds, a “holding centre” that offers voters choices without creating the anxiety and uncertainty that have been experienced elsewhere in recent months.

The recent activity in the Dáil on water may not have been pretty, but it showed that the centre can hold and compromise can work. How often that feat can be repeated is open to question, however.

This approach may have worked for water, which is a relatively small amount of exchequer funding. It is unlikely to work for bigger challenges such as public pay policy or investing in new infrastructure.

Historically, Ireland has been good at demonstrating that while governments changed and policies changed with them, the fluctuations in those policies were within a certain range.

Ironically, the UK was good at this too. As Britain goes its own way, we must be ready for the challenges we face and be a point of certainty with volatility enveloping others.

Heraclitus died, it is said, when he was devoured by dogs. It does not have to be that way. As we face the future, we can stand ready by remaining steady.

Paschal Donohue, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

Who writes this crap?

Oh yeah.

Certainty and order matter more than ever (Paschal Donohue, Irish Times)