INSIDE POLITICS: Ifour political system is incapable of solving the crisis, the ECB or IMF may make tough decisions for us, writes STEPHEN COLLINS
THE EVER courteous Richard Bruton drew smiles from all sides of the Dáil when he compared the junior ministerial changes to the shuffling of third mates on the Titanic. In a week when the IMF painted a frightening picture about the implications of Ireland’s exposure to the banking crisis, the ministerial shuffle was indeed a minor matter, of real interest only to those directly involved.
The point of the reshuffle was to show the public that the Government was capable of giving a lead and making sacrifices in these difficult times by cutting the number of junior ministers. Even that message was undermined by an apparent row back on the Budget commitment to end the practice of paying ministerial pensions to sitting TDs as well as abolishing long-service increments paid to TDs.
In his Budget speech last month, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan gave the impression that both measures would apply immediately and that is what the two Green Party Ministers who sit at the Cabinet table also believed.
During the week, however, the Taoiseach clarified the matter and it now appears that the pension provision will only apply after the next election, while the 66 TDs who already have the long-service increment will keep it.
Mind you, it is not just the Government that has suffered embarrassment on the issue. TDs in the Opposition parties with extra entitlements are as reluctant to relinquish them as those in Fianna Fáil and there is a seething cross-party resentment at the media for its focus on the perks of politics.
To be fair, politicians have taken a range of hits. Ministers, senior and junior, have taken a pay cut of 10 per cent, while the public service pension levy and the tax hikes in the Budget will apply to them as well. The problem is that so many perks were added on during the profligacy of the Bertie era that dismantling them piecemeal doesn’t make an impact with the public.
While politicians have been the target of some cheap and shallow criticism, their failure to accept the changes affecting them and make substantially bigger sacrifices than everybody else has only fuelled public hostility to all politicians.
That in turn will make the task of sorting out the country’s woes even more difficult because further massive cuts affecting every one are inevitable. The outrage expressed in the Dáil about the Government’s decision not to pay the traditional Christmas welfare bonus, due to the obvious financial constraints, was undermined by the fact that TDs of all parties have been so assiduous in guarding their own perks and privileges.
The striking thing about the debate on the Labour motion to restore the Christmas bonus was that, as Lenihan pointed out, not one TD suggested where the €223 million required to pay it would come from. The money can only be found either by taking it from somewhere else in the social welfare budget, increasing tax or borrowing more but these basic facts were conveniently ignored.
There has been a lot of attention, and rightly so, at the Government’s own responsibility for the scale of the economic crisis afflicting us and at its often ham-fisted efforts to get to grips with it. What is truly depressing, though, is that so few people in Leinster House appear to have any grasp of how serious the position is, never mind having coherent solutions to deal with it.
If our political system proves incapable of sorting out the mess and the European Central Bank and/or the IMF ultimately have to come in to deal with the problem, then our politicians, public servants and social partners will find out what genuinely tough reforming measures amount to. It brings to mind the observation of historian Joe Lee about Irish neutrality during the second World War that “the full rigours of a Nazi occupation [providentially brief of course] would have provided a valuable comparative perspective on occupation policies for those obsessed with the British record in Ireland.” The air of unreality that still pervades Leinster House in the face of the biggest crisis to face the country since the second World War is a commentary on our much vaunted multi-seat PR system.
It is a system that has given us one-party domination for the past quarter of a century with the inevitable development of crony capitalism and its disastrous consequences in the housing bubble and banking crisis.
The parallel development of the cosy social partnership arrangement that bought off the major interest groups in society at enormous financial cost to the exchequer and in the process lifted responsibility for decision making from politicians, has also contributed to the near bankruptcy of the economy.
The need for radical reform of the political system is just one of the conclusions that should be drawn from our sorry plight. In that context the junior ministerial reshuffle was a diverting distraction, except, of course, for those who lost their posts. In the reshuffle, the usual attention was paid to geographical pride and electoral prospects next time around.
The real surprise was the Taoiseach’s decision to drop John McGuinness, who was only appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise and Employment after the last election. After a career as an outspoken backbencher, McGuinness was not completely muzzled by being in office and made some statements critical of the public service. That did not go down well with the powers that be in the era of social partnership.
It also seems McGuinness did not get on well with his senior Minister and Tánaiste, Mary Coughlan, and that was probably what tilted the balance against him.
By dropping him, Cowen has almost inevitably stored up trouble for himself because the Kilkenny TD has made it clear that he will continue to speak his mind one way or another.
McGuinness will inevitably be a thorn in the Taoiseach’s side over the coming months, but the fact of the matter is that, with national survival at stake, a bit of internal dissention in Fianna Fáil should be the least of Cowen’s worries.