With every stroke, every corrupt and unjust decision, every abuse of power, and with every raid on the public purse to placate foreign creditors and pamper domestic aristocrats, the authority, legitimacy, and public respect for the government and the state has been eroded, brick by brick, to the point where I am not sure that there is enough respect left to base a state on anymore.

But I don’t agree with those calling for our “German” overlords to take over the country, nor with any remaining hanger’s on calling for a return to the UK, or wild eyed Atlanticans who dream of joining the US. Nor do I agree with those twin relics of the Cold War, the communists calling for the seizure of the means of production, and the capitalists croaking on about labour costs and the welfare state. Nor do I believe in impotent protests, “Occupy-tions”, trade union farces, or any other plastic banner movements.

I believe that the only way life is going to improve for Irish people is if they stop waiting for help from rotten, incompetent and useless organizations — like FG, Labour, state agencies, the EU, the banks, the “markets”, the media and the Occupy movement — and actually start doing something to help themselves. Irish people are going to have to start organizing themselves, by themselves; starting at local level, fighting incompetence and corruption in local government, voting out existing political parties, and working up from there to national level.

There are no silver bullets; the rot in our society is systemic. The rancid stink from the Dail is the symptom of a deeper decay that runs into every council, burough, and parish in the land. The roots of this rotten fungus lie in the petty outrages and corruption that takes place down the chain, which ultimately sprouts the poison caps of our national political life.

Any “revolution”, “rebellion” or “second republic” would only cut the mushrooms and leave the roots undisturbed. To really fix this country, people in Ireland will have to start small, stay principled, and work relentlessly up from the very bottom.

As I work in the HSE and therefore being a public servant, I’m doing relatively well in this age of austerity. As a parent of school-going children though I have come to the conclusion over the last number of years (and having started out as a fervent Nationalist) that as a country/race we are simply incapable of governing ourselves properly. I see now why Prof Tol left the country as he believed the Irish State would not be capable in the years ahead of educating his children. The sooner we are taken over by some sort of German-dominated technocratic government the better. We might not reverse emigration or reach our full economic potential but we surely have a better chance of having some type of accountability and the opportunity to live under the rule of law and not some place where you can get your penalty points quashed by knowing the right people.

“the [NAMA] Bill includes a specific provision to outlaw lobbying of NAMA in relation to any of its decisions. Only a borrower and his or her agents will be authorised to deal with NAMA. It will be an offence to influence the Agency in the course of its work”

But in truth the NAMA Act seems to be completely useless in its anti-lobbying section and indeed we now know that NAMA has provided a dedicated email address to TDs and senators to communicate with the agency – oir@nama.ie