The Programme's Vision
The Programme was published and approved by the First Dail on the same day as the declaration of the Irish Republic, and by chance the same day as the outbreak of the Irish War of Independence . The programme outlined a socialist policy which included: the public ownership of the means of production, natural resources and "wealth"; state provision of education for children and care for the elderly; ensuring that children receive food; promotion of industrial development as well as the exploitation of natural resources. The Labour Party inserted a clause that private property was to be subordinate "to the public right and welfare."
The First Dáil subsequently issued "decrees" on many matters, but none of these were based on the Programme. There was no money to put the plans into effect. The war launched by Sinn Féin led to "British sanctions in the form of withdrawal of grants... inhibiting financial autonomy. The Minister for Finance, Michael Collins, found it impossible to introduce a system of income tax and the Dáil itself never advocated that the Irish should stop paying tax or indeed land annuities to the British." Of amounts raised abroad, by far the greatest share went to "world propaganda", and not towards social issues, according to the May 1921 Dáil statement.
Read more about this topic: Democratic Programme
Famous quotes containing the words programme and/or vision:
“In the case of all other sciences, arts, skills, and crafts, everyone is convinced that a complex and laborious programme of learning and practice is necessary for competence. Yet when it comes to philosophy, there seems to be a currently prevailing prejudice to the effect that, although not everyone who has eyes and fingers, and is given leather and last, is at once in a position to make shoes, everyone nevertheless immediately understands how to philosophize.”
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“I wish I could take back some of the things I said and some of the things I did. But in the bigger picture, I don’t feel that it was violent and terrible. I feel like it was primarily—obviously not completely—moral, based on a vision that the government should be better, and that people could be better, and that democracy should be real.”
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