MCCRACKEN, MORIARTY, Flood and Mahon – four names synonymous with tribunals that exposed or confirmed the extent of gross failures of governance in this State over the past three decades. The anger surrounding the most recent verdict in Mahon, will soon subside. The Dáil debate last week on the issue was marked by strong cross-party acceptance of the need for change but there were many worthy, predictable standpoints, which suggest little appetite for the extensive reforms now required. The discourse frequently descended into traditional inter-party crossfire, something that encourages inaction.
The cost and time involved in the tribunal process will ensure that this mechanism of inquiry is never deployed again, despite the merit of a great many findings. Doubts persist about its ability to effect change. Cynicism about politics and how we do business and planning will continue to be strongly embedded in a large proportion of our population. Should we be surprised?
Endemic failures throughout the political system and planning process persisted because of a collective inability to put the finger on abuses. It was facilitated by inertia within the Garda Síochána. Difficulties in identifying those making decisions which were not in the public interest were compounded by a lack of transparency in government, local and national. The clientelist relationship between citizens and politicians that continues to dominate Irish political life certainly did not help.
The scale of failings in our way of doing democracy may not be as pronounced now because of improvements to planning and criminal legislation – notably addressing white collar crime – since the years when “brown envelopes” circulated outside council chambers. But a crisis of governance remains. Corruption is not endemic, but the reality that it can still prevail at many levels cries out for systemic reforms.
If the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition wants to leave more of a legacy than crisis management and the application of austerity in various guises while awaiting economic recovery, it must embark on a fundamental restructuring of our democratic processes. Its leaders’ statements after Mahon suggest a desire for that scale of change but the foot-dragging on the promised Constitutional Convention and the limited scope of its mandate suggest otherwise.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has rightly identified “the need for everyone in public life to not just talk about high standards but to be willing to act on them no matter what the personal inconvenience”. The Mahon report is an indictment of many who held public office at every level of public life, he noted. At the Fine Gael ardfheis, the Taoiseach pledged firm action to break the link between business and political funding but questions about the legal funding of politics remain. The reform agenda has to be ambitious and reinforced by a clear timeframe if public trust is ever to be rebuilt and we are to become a healthy modern republic underpinned by transparency at every level.