Why is Mary Coughlan getting it in the neck while the other Mary slithered away from a mess that was created wholly and entirely on her watch?
IT IS fair to say I wouldn’t be naturally disposed to sympathise with Mary Coughlan. I’d forgive her the slip about Einstein’s Theory Of Evolution – as a mistress of malapropisms, I’ve come out with a few clangers myself. The one about Germany having two European commissioners was a far graver error since she said it twice. That meant it wasn’t a slip of the tongue – she believed it to be the case. As a minister for agriculture and thus heavily immersed in EU affairs, it exposed a disastrous level of ignorance.
Her failure to exhibit command of her role as Tánaiste lends greater suspicion to the theory that her promotion had more to do with the makeover and an informal affirmative action policy rather than her capacity to do the job.
Despite all this, I think she’s getting a raw deal on this Molloy business. It’s obvious why the politicians and civil servants handling the Fás chief executive’s hurried departure were generous. Molloy had to resign because he spent too much money wining and dining government ministers, their spouses, their personal staff and their appointees. If Fás was the plaything of Fianna Fáil – littered from top to bottom with its friends and failed election candidates, then he was the official convener of play time.
He could quite rightly claim that whatever was done was done with the knowledge, approval and delight of his seniors and betters. Clink, clink! Cheers Rodders!
His mistake was not to waste taxpayers’ money, but to go on the Pat Kenny Show and set himself up as a target. A head was required and he stupidly put his over the parapet. “Tough luck, but here’s something to help you on your way. (There but for the grace of God go I)” might have been the attitude. His close personal and political connections to the Taoiseach would also have been of use. Poor Rody. One man down, but a bullet dodged by someone else.
It could have been any of them.
It could have been Mary Harney. In fact, why isn’t it Mary Harney? Why is Mary Coughlan getting it in the neck while the other Mary slithered away from a mess that was created wholly and entirely on her watch?
Harney was minister for enterprise from 1997 until 2004. This was the period in which Fás’s budget doubled to €1 billion per year even though we had full employment. Harney appointed Molloy, friend and occasional employee of Fianna Fáil, to be its chief executive in 2000. She also appointed Brian Geoghegan as chairman of Fás in November 2000 and married him in December 2001. He maintained that position until January 2006. That meant she was more familiar than other ministers with the goings-on and social outings of the Fás board.
Harney was the minister who led the outrageously expensive Fás trip to Florida in 2004, which included Mr Harney in his capacity as Fás chairman. It was Harney who requested use of the Government jet at a cost of €80,000. She was granted permission but business class seats were booked on Aer Lingus for the whole party in case the jet was needed at the last minute for urgent business – a jolly to Orlando not qualifying as either urgent or important.
Harney told RTÉ news on Friday, November 28th, 2008: “I don’t use taxpayers’ money for personal grooming” when it emerged just a few days later that Fás did pay for her daily blow dries during the trip. Later she relied on a jesuitical definition of “personal” reminiscent of Bill Clinton’s explanations of what he actually meant by the term “sexual relations”.
It was Harney who received an anonymous letter alerting her to problems with Fás spending in 2004 which she passed on to Rody Molloy.
In response he arranged for an “internal audit” which unsurprisingly found no evidence to back up the allegations made to the minister. If the problem was with internal audit why would you trust an internal audit to provide a clear bill of health? Her negligence ensured the most spectacular inappropriate spending of public money continued in the best little quango in town.
Every single part of the scandal which has engulfed Fás took place during Harney’s tenure.
Not only did she personally avail of the lavish hospitality of the State board, but she must have noticed that her own husband was being treated to expensive dinners in the best restaurants in town.
How has she managed to distance herself so well from the antics that went on under her nose for the seven years she was in charge of this agency and the five years during which her husband was its chairman? Harney has managed to acquire a reputation, though I could never see on what basis, for competence and professionalism. I see no evidence of those qualities in relation to her stewardship of Fás.
Mary Coughlan inherited this mess in May of last year when she was appointed Minister for Enterprise.
By September she had called in the Comptroller and Auditor General to investigate Fás – what Harney should have done in 2004.
Coughlan is guilty of lazily signing off on a deal that looked after a close friend of the Taoiseach. She’s guilty of being promoted beyond her abilities. But Harney is guilty of creating the monster that is Fás today. If a Mary has to go, I know which one I’d pick.