The axiom that the cover-up is often worse than the crime in politics is generally associated with the 1970s Watergate scandal, which saw the resignation of Richard Nixon as US president. Applying it to the brouhaha over the question of who trashed An Post at Cabinet this week is open to the accusation of being unsporting and using too much gun.
But at the same time we have a Cabinet Minister accusing one of his colleagues of leaking details of a briefing he gave on An Post in a deliberately damaging way.
The report in the Irish Daily Mail suggested Communications Minister Patrick O’Donovan told Cabinet that the company was on the brink of collapse, with cash reserves of less than €1 million. The paper said that, without the revenue generated by election-related mailing, the company would have made a loss last year.
The report so annoyed An Post chief executive, David McRedmond, that he interrupted his holiday in Italy to go on Morning Ireland and paint a different picture: one of a company in rude good health. He said the accounts presented to Cabinet showed revenues of €1 billion for the first time and net profits of €10 million.
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O’Donovan promptly followed him on to the Claire Byrne show on RTÉ radio and somehow managed to agree with McRedmond that the company was in good shape, without saying that the Irish Daily Mail story was wrong.
Instead, he turned his ire on his Cabinet colleagues, accusing one of them of leaking a distorted version of his briefing.
“But how a nameless minister or alleged nameless minister or source or whatever, would conflate that [his briefing] into saying this, the situation is dire. I don’t know how they will come up with that.”
If we take O’Donovan at face value – and we have no reason not to – he has made a very serious allegation that one of his colleagues deliberately broke the law in order to damage a State-owned business that employs 10,000 people, and which is one of Ireland’s most trusted brands. And the potential damage is significant, according to McRedmond, who warned it might cause big global customers to lose confidence in the business.
As ever the question is: why would someone do this? It is no secret that there are different views on An Post in Government. The briefing document for the incoming Minister in the Department of Public Expenditure, which was released earlier this year, makes the following observation: “An Post’s financial position remains extremely challenging. Mail volumes continue to decline and new services such as parcels are more competitive and hence lower margin. Significant existing State support means there is some ability to address sustainability, but this is limited.”
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There is no suggestion that the new minister, Jack Chambers, leaked the details of O’Donovan’s briefing. His department’s position is pretty much word for word the most recent assessment of An Post carried out by New Era, which provides financial and commercial advice to minsters and their department on semi-state company holdings.
It is a somewhat different picture from the upbeat one painted by McRedmond, but it is not hard to reconcile them. McRedmond was brought in from the private sector to run An Post in 2016, having previously worked in TV3 (now Virgin Media) and Eir.
The focus in the private sector is essentially short term. The future cannot be controlled, and the most important thing is this year’s figures. If you were not optimistic you would not be in business.
McRedmond said as much on Morning Ireland in connection with the once-off revenue associated with election mailings that flattered last year’s figures. “Yes, we got a big boost from the elections last year, but if it wasn’t the elections, it would be something else,” he said.
The public sector takes a longer-term and more conservative approach, as epitomised by New Era’s assessment of An Post’s prospects. McRedmond’s sangfroid on its own is not going to cut it for New Era, when it comes to recommending that the Government accede to his request for more capital and higher borrowing limits. McRedmond wants this to further An Post’s transformation into a delivery business competing with giants such as DHL and UPS.
It is still somewhat baffling why leaking details of a Cabinet meeting would enhance anyone’s position in this debate. It’s possible, of course, that it’s more cock-up than conspiracy.
The story was really a nothing burger and only took off after McRedmond’s performance on Morning Ireland, which was followed up by O’Donovan’s accusations on Claire Byrne. It would not be the first time that the leaking of a titbit to a newspaper had spiralled out of control.
But the situation remains that a Government Minister has publicly and emphatically accused an unidentified Cabinet colleague of breaching confidentiality and leaking confidential information in a nefarious manner. That is something that has to be taken seriously.
