There is much to regret about the reformism and electoralism that led to the car crash of the "new left party”. However we should take hope from the difficulties and contradictions that will face Irish capitalism and its new government.
 
The strategy employed in the run-up to the  election was a familiar one. The pain of austerity is covered over with claims of recovery, a rag-bag of promises and an uptick in spending. A special deal with the European bank allows a tenfold increase in the election budget and even that is maxed out until financial regulators set off alarm bells.
 
It didn't work. Nothing will save the Labour Party and the old system of Fianna Fail alternating with a Fine Gael-Labour coalition. The new lash-up will be more unstable. What will quickly become clear is that, although there are endless permutations of parties and groups of independents, there is only one government programme - and that is written by the Troika.
 
The total decay of our capitalist leadership was illustrated by endless scandal. Enquiries are useless because we must respect the confidentiality of the bank robbers. Investigations of Garda corruption become spying on journalists. Desperate attempts by Labour to resolve a housing crisis become carte blanch for speculators to build shoe-boxes.
 
The latest scandal is the cronyism of Joan Burton appointing David Begg to the pensions board.
 
In the aftermath of the election it is the other side of that coin we must examine. How is it that Begg, former leader of the trade union movement, turns up as a government appointee, able to dismiss a €20 000 payment  as chickenfeed? How is he still unable to tell us about his role in the bank bailout? How convincing is his "better, fairer, way" policy that has allowed the trade union leadership to collaborate in  austerity?
 
Government strategy is on the slide. The austerity has concentrated wealth in the hands of capital but does not allow a sustainable recovery. Dependence on transnational capital means that the coming slump will empty the wind from government sails.
 
More sustained attacks are on the way.
 
The task for working people will be to shake off the dead hand of Begg and his ilk and build their own fighting structures.