There’s a lot of talk about political reform but reform of the rules governing election coverage is needed too
AND THAT’S what all the fuss was about? It was surreal. It wasn’t just that Vincent Browne was so tightly bound by the format that you wondered why he bothered showing up – never mind Enda Kenny – but the entirely false premise of the debate in the first place. Supposedly, these events are opportunities for candidates for taoiseach to be examined on their policies. But Micheál Martin is not a candidate for taoiseach.
He doesn’t want to be taoiseach and I can’t believe I’m about to say this – but Fianna Fáil doesn’t want to be in power. Micheál Martin’s job is to save Fianna Fáil, not the country. There is nothing remotely real about his real plan. The only plan is to save as many seats as possible and then settle down safely in opposition. Martin has already accepted he will be in opposition on several occasions. Even if he did want the job the only realistic circumstance under which he could have it would be in a coalition with Labour. Despite the several bitter disappointments I’ve endured watching U-turns on this matter, I can’t believe the Labour party would inflict that upon us or themselves this time. They couldn’t. Could they?
So why are we all pretending Micheál Martin might be taoiseach? Why doesn’t anyone ask him the question? “If Fianna Fail got 40 to 45 seats in this election, and Labour got 40 to 45 seats, would it consider a coalition government?” Then ask Gilmore. If the answer is “no”, and the answer, surely to God in the name of all that’s holy must be “no”, why are the broadcasters indulging this farce? When Gilmore pointed out Fianna Fáil’s poor record, Martin would declare “Let’s talk about the future”.
Whatever our future holds, Fianna Fáil isn’t in it. Their ideas about political reform or the health service are not relevant at all, in any way, shape or form to anything that is going to happen to this country in the next five years. Can the media please stop indulging this charade? What is the point? Seriously.
There’s a lot of talk about political reform but reform of the rules governing election coverage is clearly needed too. We could wait for statutory change or the broadcasters could employ brute force.
What would actually happen if RTÉ said Martin wasn’t wanted for the next debate? What if he was there, but the chairperson ignored him completely? It would break all sorts of rules, but you know what they say; “it’s easier to seek forgiveness than ask permission”. Would PJ Mara shout at some television executive? Would there be a fine? A slap on the wrist? Miriam O’Callaghan flung in irons for a few days? Miriam, please. It’d be worth it.
Neither should Brian Lenihan be invited onto any more programmes, since his opinions are also completely irrelevant. Every single aspect of his banking policy has been incontrovertibly proven a failure and a lie. This week’s merging of Anglo Irish Bank with Irish Nationwide and the auctioning of their deposits is exactly what he said could never be done. Depositors will be protected and bondholders are owed money by a shell company. Yet he pops up with comical regularity on the circuit. This polite observance of broadcasting rules and campaign traditions deprives us of a genuine opportunity to know what our policy options really are.
Quite frankly I’m far more interested in what Sinn Féin has to say about banking than Brian Lenihan. My fans in Fine Gael should look away now, because I’m wondering if a few ex-terrorists on our negotiating team might be an attractive proposition after all. Sinn Féin might be economically illiterate on most issues, but as Gerry Adams pointed out on a canvass last week, if there’s one thing we know he can do, it’s negotiate.
Just last week we paid a €750 million unguaranteed bond on Anglo Irish Bank. Why? When Pearse Doherty told Pat Kenny on Frontlineon Monday that Sinn Féin opposed paying the remaining €20 billion of unguaranteed debt, Kenny dismissed him out of hand saying it was only €20 billion of many billions we owe. It's €20 billion! You can't dismiss that with a wave of a hand.
Every day that goes by we are dangerously and irrevocably being hitched to debt we never incurred and all the media pack can do is squeal in orgasmic relief if they catch an angry member of the public shouting at one of the leaders.
Whatever debates are left will not serve us unless the rules are changed. Here’s my suggestion. Have a three-way debate, but between Enda Kenny, Eamon Gilmore and Gerry Adams, the only party leaders realistically involved in the next government. By leaving out Fianna Fáil and the Greens we can spare ourselves the airtime that would inevitably be wasted raking over their appalling record.
I want to know if Gerry Adams knows anything about budgets other than “burn the bondholders”. I want to know if Labour in coalition would repeat the awful experience of the 1980s when it persistently prevented Fine Gael from taking the steps required to sort out the budgets. I want to know if these men can work together or if we’re as well off letting Fine Gael at it alone so we’re not destroyed by compromise.
A television debate must tell me these things or it’s not worth having.