This is what we have become: A dictatorship

This government spent €1.1 million of taxpayers’ money in promoting a ‘Yes’ vote in the Children’s referendum.

So what part of the following statement, issued in 1995, by Supreme Court judge Liam Hamilton did state officials/politicians not understand?

The use by the government of public funds to fund a campaign designed to influence the voters in favour of a Yes vote is an interference with the democratic process and the constitutional process.

In my opinion state officials and politicians were fully aware of judge Hamilton’s judgement, they knew very well that what they were doing was unconstitutional but went ahead and did it anyway.

Just like officials in the Department of Health continued (and are still continuing) to break the law even after they were challenged by the Ombudsman.

In a similar vein we have government after government arrogantly ignoring the will of the people by dismissing their votes in referendums and forcing them to vote again until the result tallies with the state’s agenda.

There are literally thousands of examples over the last number of decades where Irish governments/politicians/officials deliberately ignored or broke laws to suit their own political or personal interests.

Solicitor Malachy Steenson (a ‘No’ vote campaigner) is correct in his assertion that we have moved from being a democracy to being a dictatorship.

Most dictatorships, in an effort to look respectable, create a fig leaf of laws, constitution and democratic principles.

The ruling elite then proceeds, under this thin blanket of ‘respectability’, to act in their own interests at the expense of ordinary citizens.

This what we have become.