Shattered & Disgusted

May you live in interesting times is a Chinese proverb.  No more appropriate for the week here has been, One TD sadly has passed away after a long illness long before her time, another resigned suddenly as a result of personal failings.  And ticking away in the background was the time bomb of scandal in the Garda Siochana.  First the issue was about penalty points being quashed, next it moved to GSOC and whether it was bugged and if so by who, next it became personalised when the Garda Commissioner used the term “disgusting” in relation to the garda whistleblowers to the PAC in Leinster House and now this, it seems calls to and out of some garda stations have been recorded and an inquiry set up to determine the facts of this revelation.

There has been no crisis like this one. Because on the face of it there is a failing in management or as we like to call it a “systems failure” but at the back of it all since Leo Varadkar’s intervention calling for the Commisioner to withdraw his comment there seems to me that all is not well elsewhere in government.  I sense the ground moving on this one and as to where it will go politically its anyone’s guess.

It has certainly strengthened Varadkar’s hand in Fine Gael. He will at least avoid being sent to the Department of Health in the next reshuffle. Before he entered government with Labour I will admit I was suspicious of him expecting him to create trouble as he had little experience in working with Labour. I was wrong about him, the more experienced FG ministers seem to have been at the source of problems for Labour, James Reilly, Phil Hogan and now Alan Shatter.

An inquiry needs to indentify who permitted the recording of calls, why it was introduced, who was bugged and whether they have been advised.  Arising from that, what will be the implication of this? Will trials already in progress be halted and will people be denied justice and accountability? That is the real and only issue at stake here.  

All Irish political drama’s centre around the politics and not accountability. This cannot be allowed to continue for the sake of confidence in the Garda Siochana and the people it serves.  

Eventually public interest will be assuaged by a resignation, perhaps the Taoiseach moving to Europe and regime change. I find the cycle of scandal reminiscent of the era that ended the first Mayo born Taoiseach’s reign. Is history about to repeat itself?

Actum non verba

Just when you think Irish politics can’t get more bizarre this happens! The decision of the former Labour Chairperson ColmKeaveney to join the party he’s attacked vehemently in the recent past, Fianna Fail, is one of the most extraordinarily summersaults in Irish politics in many’s a long year.  But I’d rather play the ball than the man on this one! So let’s look at some of the balls that Colm has hopped recently.  Firstly however, I felt let down by Colm by the manner of his resignation from Labour in Spring, I can understand someone having a row with party colleagues and indeed resigning the whip. I can live with a political difference within the party and a robust debate on values, but for most members I think resigning and attacking our party which he chaired was an act of betrayal of the votes of conference in Galway.  A Rubicon was passed. I’m old enough to remember Michael D as Party Chairperson in the 80’s and while he had differences over strategy he never undermined the Labour Party by voting against it.

 And it was a difficult conference last year. Unlike the recent conference in Kerry where there was no protests outside, last year in Galway saw thousands of protesters many of them Sinn Fein members (who next month will be cutting the Northern budget by €6M per month) and a lock down as they attacked gardaí in duty outside the conference hall.   But look that’s my problem and I’ll have to gt over it.  Colm has himself criticised Fianna Fail much more strongly and much more loudly than I ever did.  I note on his resignation June he highlighted the decision by Ruairi Quinn to reduce resource teachers (subsequently reversed as the likes of me lobbied against it) and can’t avoid the irony that tonight the government approved an increase in the number of SNA’s and that Colm has the job as Fianna Fail spokesperson on Special Needs to carefully craft Fianna Fail’s response to the reality that in circumstances where FF thrashed the economy the present government can go beyond the best FF could offer in 2011.

It will be indeed strange to find out from Fianna Fail how, according to Colm, it has changed.  It’s not too long ago that FF senators opposed the FF leader’s line on abortion, Colm himself as USI President had no difficulty with supporting  the right to choose (a direction that would concern me) but recently he had a change of mind when the limited protection of life bill was introduced, a bill that was part of the Labour manifesto in 2011 which he sought votes on!   Will his capture by FF revitalise the party? Nobody can answer that yet but there may be other forces stronger than Colm at play already in FF.  It seems many of the people that played a key role in the old Fianna Fail don’t share Colm’s view and they are just itching to run again to pick up where they left off in 2011!

Fianna Fail is still significantly below the vote they secured in 2009 and may not get the bounce they expect when voters go to the polls in May.  It’s at that stage Colm’s famous tweet of “Actum non verbum” may come back to haunt him. What happens if FF hit the double dip and drop in votes?  Actions not words. Whose actions and whose words? Time will tell!

Roisin Shortall walks tall

It’s a day on from the bombshell resignation of Roisin Shortall from government.  I was shocked by the move but to be fair, knowing Roisin as I do, She is an honourable woman. What you see with her is what you get. She has always been someone of values who believes in principle. today I was reminded of how over 10 years ago as Education spokesperson she raised the teachers dispute despite it being very unpopular.  About 20 years ago she was one of a number of Labour TD’s to resign the whip in protest at the Cahill Plan for Aer Lingus.

 The debacle will stand out for the remainder of the time that this government is in power as a watermark. But it shouldn’t. The loss of Willie Penrose shouldn’t have happened either.  When Willie resigned it was put to Labour that a local decision cannot be made as the wider interest demanded a strategic organisation of the defence forces.  So Mullingar lost its barracks while Athlone retained its military presence.  Here we have the direct opposite, local decisions are now being made when it suits Fine Gael. Strategic organisational decisions to plan the delivery of a service can now be made based on local criteria. The logic for the decision that led to Willie Penrose’s resignation is now binned.  If anyone should reflect on the last 24 hours and ask what if, it’s Willie.

So let’s park the personality issue because I have no insight into how relations work within a department and instead let’s look at the policy and in particular the criteria around the decision.   If you look at the list of primary care centres Ballymote in South Sligo is 25km from the Ballaghderreen centre that was added by Dr Reilly. Balbriggan also added by Dr Reilly is 14 km from Laytown which in turn is 11 km from the Drogheda primary care centres.  Minister Reilly points to population in the case of Swords demanding a primary care centre so let’s grant him that. Nearly 50,000 do have health need.  So are there 50,000 people living in both North Roscommon and South Sligo to justify each getting a primary care centre? Do these bordering areas have such high levels of deprivation? Or is there a big enough population between Drogheda, Laytown and Balbriggan to justify 3 of the 35 centres to be built nationally? 4 if you add Swords a motorway junction or 2 south of Balbriggan?

A lot of Labour voters and members have contacted me in the last 24 hours to make it clear that they resent the behaviour of Minister Reilly towards Roisin Shortall. That makes this matter different to the resignation of the whip of other Labour TD’s.  This will have implications for day to day government into the future and make framing a budget harder.  I’m not saying there won’t be a budget, the reality is that there will be as the need to drag the country out of the FF & green slump is all consuming and essential.

However it will make all the work like the children’s referendum, the public service, local government  re-organisation which is upcoming fast, all harder. This was needless.     

Political pantomime leaves us with 7 dwarfs!

I wish the surviving 7 cabinet ministers good health. That may strike you as being out of character for someone who opposes the policy of the Fianna Fail government and as of a few hours ago it is a Fianna Fail single party government that runs this country for the first time since 1989. However if any more ministers resign and the Dail does not replace them then there will be no functioning government in this country. You need a minimum of 7 cabinet ministers for a cabinet meeting. This possibility would be farcical. My main concern is that the international standing of Ireland and the political standards that should apply in this country have been trashed by the government that is now leaving power.

As far as I’m aware there are no ministers junior or senior in the Department of Transport and the ongoing dispute at Aer Lingus threatens to escalate. What started out as an internal Fianna Fail matter brought on by Golfgate developed into a crisis after a good old fashioned Fianna Fail stroke backfired. The likelihood is that the next Fianna Fail leader will never be Taoiseach and that what we are witnessing is the relegation of Fianna Fail to the role of just another political party. They’re not a movement as Mary Hanafin claims but an embarrassment. Eamon Ó Cuiv’s hope’s of re-establishing the party on a parish by parish basis fundamentally misses the point that people’s focus under this government has gone from the community that they live in and the party stands no chance of re-invigorating a sense of societal participation as Fianna Fail spent the last 14 years in power cosying up to the wealthy at the Galway Tent. Many people live detached from their communities because they couldn’t afford homes in the communities that they were born in.

Brian Lenihan and Mary Hanafin seem to have shot themselves politically in the foot and that leaves the main battle between O Cuiv and Martin unless Connor Lenihan makes good his threat to run. Running is good for the profile and may be the difference between re-election and the P45. I hope Micheal Martin wins. Of all the candidates he spent the last 14 years in cabinet stoking up the bubble and he cannot distance himself from the impact of his policies. Fianna Fail under Martin will fit into the 2 and a half party system very well in the half party slot.

I expect a General election to be called for Friday February 25th. I wouldn’t be surprised if Fianna Fail appointed 3 new junior ministers as the vacancies exist and the appointments are by the government and not by the Dail. Here’s hoping that the people of Wexford put the boot in to the Fianna Fail ticket. It seems likely that the older FF TD’s with a reputation for clientelism will survive. That’d be a bonus as the image that a new Fianna Fail leader would like to create in the opposition benches will conflict with the reality.

Or maybe just maybe there may yet be a sting in the tail for us all? A reverse Tallaght strategy where Fianna Fail support Fine Gael so long as Enda Kenny follows the 4 year economic plan? Or Fine Gael falls short of a majority and is supported by the new right wing economist grouping? By the way isn’t it peculiar that these right wing economists will only stand for election in constituencies with good social infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, LUAS, DART etc? If some of these guys felt that their policies were beneficial for the entire population why won’t they run for election in socially disadvantaged parts of the country?
Strange country with peculiar politics.

Going Going Gone!

By all accounts it’s all over for Brian Cowen. The party that has been led by the most unpopular leader in the country’s history is now going to remain in power until after the General Election while Fianna Fail will have a new leader that will spend the next 2 months distancing himself and the party from what they’ve done for 14 years.
So let’s tease out the possibilities. Micheal Martin may well be the new party leader who will not be Taoiseach. He will take decisions on the basis of what is good for Fianna Fail. He won’t be Taoiseach and he won’t have the responsibility of the job of Taoiseach, which is different to that of cabinet minister. Presumably with a caretaker Taoiseach subservient to the party leader as a party member, whatever Micheal looks for from Brian will be no problem! My fear is that Ireland is now on the verge of cronyism version 2.0. We’ll be unique in the world in having 2 discredited leaders, one in office but having no power, the other in power without an office. Fianna Fail will now do an Enda with Brian Cowen for the next 2 months hiding him from scrutiny hoping that their profile will plateau out. There exists a possibility that the General Election campaign will be effectively a 2 way debate between Labour and fine Gael with the economist candidates shouting from the sidelines.
The promised General Election is still at least 2 months off while the Greens seem happy to stay on for the sake of the planet and the Climate Change bill. It may be that there is a growing reluctance for a ballot and if a way out can be found to defer it then Brian Cowen will be happy for the sake of the party to comply, the Greens facing extinction will look the other way. The arrival on the political scene of the economist party is interesting as it will provide Fine Gael with additional options other than Labour should they be within striking distance of a majority. These candidates are not going to run so as to have a 5 minutes speaking time every 6 months from the backbenches. To be fair to Shane Ross who is very good at what he does in the Oireachtas, he wants to be in office and make decisions without the distraction of potholes and the minor inconvenience of the electorate with the blocked drains. That’s why he won’t run in his home constituency.
I hope that the Labour no confidence motion goes ahead and is successful. The prospect of a lame duck Taoiseach with a lame duck government with ministers who are at war getting a vote of confidence at carrying on regardless is toxic to our nation. It’s time to wave good bye to the past and let the people have their say.

We are where we are, BROKE

Its like watching a car crash. Government bluster was unspun when the Governor of the Central Bank outed the extxent of the bail out needed on Morning Irekand. Since then Fianna Fail and the greens have grasped at straws. Eamon Gilmore, Pat Rabbitte and Michael Noonan have battered the government over their denial at the extent of the fiscal mess.
Basically the problem I the banks. They spoofed the government and Fine Gael and Sinn Fein on the bank guarantee. That pushed back 2 years the day of reckoning as FF & the greens hoped that NAMA would revive their builder buddies and their paymaster banks. NAMA had morphed into a good bad bank while Anglo wanted to be a good bank and a bad bank while nobody told the department exactly how bad the mess was.
Just as Greece misled the EU on their own economic data the Irish big lie was the failure of the banks to level with the government on their precise position and the governments failure to have a regulatory regime. I’ve never rated Brian Lenihan as a Minister for Finance and the media who fawned over him in the last 2 years must be cringing today after his radio interview that failed to explain how the government decision to agree to the EU/IMF programme (not a bail out)) was despite the fact that we had enough money to keep the state (but not the banks) going until June next year was in the best interest of the euro.
It made Brian Cowen’s infamous Galway interview sound positively Churchillian by comparison. John Gormley thinks that the IMF arrival is good and may hasten changes he wanted to see for a long time! Lets see how that one pans out given the reality that TEEU has warned at civil disobedience and already there have been skirmishes between Gardaí and the SWM/PBP micro group at a student demo while an Eirigi councillor has thrown paint at Mary Harney.. The fear is that the next week building up to the demonstration in Dublin next week will be more of the economic reality of the IMF medicine for the country. The fear is that the low hanging fruit is gone and cuts will damage our country beyond the basics of what is needed for a cohesive society.
I hope I’m wrong but this could get very dirty as the Greens and Fianna Fail may well decide to tough it out with the people. Knowing many garda are as fed up with the government as the rest of us, can the government rely on every garda to do their bidding? A government that has just support from 20% of the people in the opinion rivals the support of that wonderful outfit the East German Communist Party at the end. I don’t believe they have any credibility nor right to govern. The Taoiseachs approval rating is now just in double figures and slightly ahead of the yield on Irish 10 year bonds.
We as a society are turning a corner but not the corner visualised when Brian Lenihan called us all to patriotic duty. The time has come for Cowen and Lenihan to do their patriotic duty and go and let the rest of us decide who will run our country. And while I think of it his predecessors son in law who warbles with a boy band has called for economic positivity from us.

Dan’s tweet loses Trevor’s seat.

Trevor Sargent is someone that I’ve always had time for. I was surprised to hear that he’s resigned. I’m taken back by the letter he sent to the member of the Garda in relation to the case. It really puts the garda on notice that the Minister expects. The party was once told during coalition talks in 2007 by the late Seamus Brennan that they were playing senior hurling. If they didn’t know it before they certainly know it now.
Trevor is a decent politician. Compare how he behaved in comparison to his ministerial predecessor in North Dublin, Ray Burke. Burke is a former Minister for justice but it’s his successor Dermot Ahern to whom most fingers are now pointing. Trevor’s indiscretion occurred over 2 years ago. Fast forward 2 years and one O’Dea less and what is shaken out of the woodwork only a letter from Trevor to a garda which is unlawful according to a law that few people have ever heard of. The net effect is the end of his ministerial career. I can understand the need of a politician to make a representation for a constituent. I do it myself although admittedly never to a garda.

Senior Hurling is a wonderful sport when played well. Minister Ahern comes from Louth, not a stronghold of hurling. Today the green party seem to be squeezing in on his patch with the appointment of Mark Deary to the senate. Louth will be a 4 seater at the next GE with 4 outgoing TD’s, 2 Senators and Labour’s poll topping Ged Nash and maybe an MEP running too.

With all that competition a weakened Green Party is in the interest of Minister Ahern. This evening Minister Ahern when asked about leaking the documents said “I didn’t leak them, and to the best of my knowledge neither did any of my colleagues”. Lately he described the Greens as having been accommodated in government and read between the lines and it seems that Dermot Ahern, the man who regards Willie O’Dea as a friend and shouted touché during the O’Dea no confidence vote while taunting the opposition, should be, to use another fencing term, on guard for what’s left of this term in office.

What’s done is done and what’s lost is lost forever. The greens may well reflect that Dan Boyle’s famous tweet about being bounced has had a very damaging outcome bring the vengeance of Fianna Fail about their heads. In
the meantime the likely elevation of Mary White and the rumoured retirement of Martin Cullen means the Green deputy leader will be the most senior gobernment politican in the south east.

Shot at Dusk for the defending the indefensible

Not even the greens could tolerate the arrogance at the end. The suggestion that Willie O’Dea who had paid a significant sum to settle claims of slander was somehow a victim was one that not even John Gormley could swallow. In the end it was the appalling inability on O’Dea’s part to understand his position that did for him. When I heard on Matt Cooper that an unscheduled meeting of the FF Parliamentary Party was being held at teatime and that FF speakers were unavailable for media interviews the writing was on the wall for Willie.

My initial response is that his demeanour reflects a government out of touch. They thought they’d get away with a truncated vote of confidence, that sneering at the opposition sufficed for debate and high handed references to blue shirts, George Lee and the Northern Bank or low handed ones to Gardaí, brothels and ladies of the night would throw enough dirt in the air to see Willie safe just one more time. Did he actually think for one minute that the general public would feel sympathy for a cabinet minister in the most unpopular government ever who settled a claim against him because he claims he is a victim?


There is a view however that being attacked in a personalised way by your political opponents is a plus at an election. I’ve been called a few things in my time, some in public others in private most of them slanderous. I look at them as a badge of honour. Where does public life go if politicians resort to law to financially compensate themselves against the realities of public life? It's likely that a politician other than Willie O'Dea may well have got away with the slander but would many other politicians have had the neck to suggest what Willie did?

The O’Dea affair has actually camouflaged the reality that the government was almost beaten in a vote on the Finance Act today. Had that happened there would have been a General Election and I’d have spent today canvassing. As usual there is a Wexford connection, Enniscorthy’s FF TD John Browne was AWOL for the vote. If George Lee had still been around then the opposition would have won.


Last month Brendan Howlin told the Labour branch that he thought that an election could happen anytime citing “events”! The Williegate affair arose over 24 hours, the fact that he’s gone will introduce a friction between Greens and FF. As with Brian Lenihan Snr and the famous mature recollection affair of 1990, the shafting hurt and we know what happened to Haughey and subsequently that government. When trust goes in a government it hits the rocks. Cllr Quinlivan’s colleagues at Stormont know this only too well. In time tonight’s dramatic events will be seen to be a turning point between Greens and FF.

Deirdre’s “Dear John” letter spells out how hopeless green politics has become

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, a man with Wexford connections; to lose one candidate is a misfortune, but to lose 2 sounds like downright carelessness. First the 2004 Dublin Green Euro candidate Patricia McKenna walked and now her successor has bolted, launching a scud at her party leader for not standing up to Fianna Fail. To be fair to Gormley she’s no George Lee. Senator De Burca had abandoned the Wicklow constituency for Dublin. She was looking for a post in the cabinet of Euro Commissioner Máire Geoghegan Quinn which she didn’t get. In reality she had no political future so she walked.

While Fine Gael is big enough to cope with a resignation a smaller party like the greens will be more damaged by a walk out. In fairness the Greens will keep the seat as it is a government appointee and I imagine Mark Deary or maybe Wexford’s Danny Forde will now come into the reckoning for this as they try to focus on constituencies where they have a possibility of success in the next GE.


Many will question the timing of the resignation and ask why Senator De Burca had no problem supporting the programme for government, NAMA or blasphemy and why now? Her resignation will destabilise the party as it is now apparent even to senior greens that the Custom House bunker that John Gormley shelters in while the country goes belly up cannot ignore the reality that FF is running rings around the inexperienced greens.

Where does this leave the greens? Closer to exiting from government or cosying up closer in full knowledge of the inevitable electoral consequences? For a small organisation any resignation is damaging and takes longer to recover from. Bizarrely Labour is the only party now organisationally stable but I remember resignations during the 1980’s and I know the effect they can have on morale among ordinary members. To be fair to Labour has a philosophy. It gave something for members to debate and boy did we debate it. At some stages it was deeply fractious and divisive. So I know where the greens are going on this one. They'll hang in their riding roughshod on the FF horse and facilitate bankers, builders and cutbacks. Someday they’ll look back on Paul Gogarty’s expletives with amusement indeed it may be the only thing that may well unite them.

Time was Green politics was provclaimed as clean politics, now Green Politics is mean politics. We’re closer to an election one way or another, there’s no way this government will last till 2012

Lee’ leeward move to have his cake and eat it!

I’ll resist the urge to kick both FG & George Lee when they’re down but George Lee’s decision to walk away from politics does damage to FG, Enda Kenny but most of all himself. The person who comes best out of the debacle is Alex White who is above the internal scrap within Fine Gael and I think he will win the by-election on his record of hard work as well as his solid performance in the Seanad. Ifeel sorry for Alex White having ran a good campaign based on policy and not celebrity and profile. Lee will probably be compensated with the role of RTE’s Washington correspondent swapping places with Charlie Bird.


While White and Lee share a common background in RTE White’s record as a political activism goes back 30 years when he served as Vice President of TCD Students Union to one Joe Duffy. If Lee’s volte face says something about the body politic it also says something more substantial about the Irish media.
Broadcast media have in recent years abandoned the need to question in favour of talking heads. As a result a small coterie of hand picked individuals are frequently wheeled out to tell us as fact what they believe to be true. Many of these individuals will have connections to Fianna Fail and are more effective at spinning government views than ministers themselves as these people are not deemed as being biased. It seems to be the small number of same talking heads spinning opinion as fact everytime.
The recent budget was analysed by the Finance Minister’s cousin along with another whose father was a close side kick of CJ Haughey. Lee was part of this set who were perceived to have an inner wisdom that the rest of us could only imagine. Ironically immediately after Lee’s resignation RTE’s first impulse was to wheel out a “Political Correspondent” whose wife also happens to be a ministerial adviser! Needles to say no one asked Alex White how he felt after spending 3 weeks as well as plenty of party money running against the Lee juggernaut that spent mornings waving to commuters from roundabouts.

So what does this tell us about the new generation of opinion forming journalists? The perception is get your degree and get into RTE. The old days of building up a perspective and an analysis from dealing with issues like local authorities, schools, pot holes etc. the sort of thing that concerns ordinary people seems to be missing from the sort of panel that Mary Wilson wheels out every Friday. I often wonder do these journalists and columnists ever meet ordinary people other than their own set? To be fair to Lee he did the state some service on the NIB scandal. But how many other journalists from the Doheny & Nesbiths School of economics have actually done anything other than give us an opinion?
In fact Lee’s failure to make an impact will be used as a stick to beat politics with. In that case we all lose, regardless of party. The triumph of celebrity and instant opinion over politics will be the end point of the present trend towards opinion journalism. My point however is that in a political system should a party not run someone with a political record rather than the next best thing since sliced bread? Tell me what you’ve done about what you think rather than what merely what you think should be the maxim.
While I hope that politics and political parties learn something from the George Lee debacle would it be expecting too much to think that journalism would draw a few conclusions too?

FF TD’s resignation stunt officially opens the silly season

I don’t think anyone is fooled anymore by the antics of the 2 FF TD’s in Sligo. They’re wasting their breath spoofing the country. The local FF TD’s in Yeat’s own county have weaved their own spell in words, sounding concerned but doing precious little about it. Because of the centralistion of cancer care in Galway they’ve resigned the FF whip. The 2 TD’s studiously avoid the facts that the NW is the last regions to get breast check on their watch almost 10 years after it was rolled out elsewhere in the country. Where was the FF deputies concern then?


One who is known as a former Minster for State at the Department of Health and was recently sacked by the Taoiseach and the other not even a household name in his own household. The boys are obviously fed up with getting it on the neck from the local electorate about how the HSE is downgrading the local hospital and have opted for the politics of gesture not action. Lets get this straight, Deputy Devins, emphasises he’s still very much a member of Fianna Fail, he wants to only make an issue of local cancer care and doesn’t seem too put out by the other government cuts and to be fair to him he can’t as he voted for them all. So Special Needs Assistants, garda cutbacks, the cutbacks in REPS, social welfare cuts and waiting lists at the HSE everywhere else are something he’ll live with. Indeed even more, he’ll re-join FF in the future according to his interview with Philip Boucher Hayes. Are they going to bite the bullet and vote against FF in the Dail? Not now, not ever, unless a motion is put down to provide cancer services in Sligo.

So if both deputies are genuine in all that they hope to achieve and are confident that they have the people of Sligo behind them then should they not resign their seats and force by-elections, seeking a mandate in the area against the proposed cuts in cancer care and then go back to Brian Cowan with their hand strengthened? Anything less to my mind is self serving and cynical, as was the statement by one deputy that it wasn’t about his seat!

So what are the lessons for us in Wexford? Here we also have 2 FF deputies who’ve made known in the privacy of their parliamentary party meetings unfortunately in the absence of our Minister for Health, Mary Harney. So far their efforts have come to nought so I’ll let you conclude how effective any utterance is in FF. So when the special HSE group reconfiguring the south east hospital recommend the downgrading of A&E in Wexford General Hospital, what will Deputy John Browne (another Junior Minister sacked by Cowan) and Seán Connick do?

Both owe Cowen precious little. John Browne’s long cherished desire to serve in cabinet will go unfulfilled, Connick surely knows he’ll be around for an awful lot longer in political terms than Cowen and surely will note what FF TD’s did exactly 30 years ago when they felt that their seats were in danger during the last Jack Lynch government.
30 years ago FF backbenchers stuck it into the leadership, the question is now have they the bottle now to fight for their communities or not? I wonder did WB Yeats have Fianna Fail in mind when he wrote “I balanced all, brought all to mind, The years to come seemed a waste of breath, A waste of breath the years behind, In balance with this life”?

Aer Lingus Gatwick hub and Mannon's parachute proves opponents of privatisation right

Just 3 years ago the Irish taxpayer was sold a line on Aer Lingus that privatistion was in the interest of Irish consumers. We were told that as a small island having 2 airlines competing would be in our interests. A private airline could develop more routes out of Ireland. The slots at Heathrow were ring fenced for Ireland. We know that when Aer Lingus set up in Belfast that the argument was that it would have benefits for Donegal and the North West. I’m pleased that Aer Lingus have recognised the madness of the decision to end the Shannon Heathrow flights and that they have re-opened that route. The argument made at the time that the Irish public would benefit from privitisation is begingin now to be seen for the ruse that it was, it was all about the company being profitable regardless. As a result the board does what it sees fit to be profitable.
So maybe Minister Dempsey may be able to tell me how does the economy benefit by having aircraft based on Gatwick to serve Dublin and Knock among other routes to be served from the British hub. These aircraft it seems were bought with money raised by the company after privatisation and now crewed by workers based outside the country. One wonders whether the customary cuplá focal will be spoken to the passengers anymore on flights inward onto Ireland from Gatwick. I remember predicting on local radio at the time of privatisation that soon the only thing original about the company would be the shamrock on the tail and unfortunately it seems I’m proved right again. I believe that many tickets on these new routes out of Gatwick are being off loaded below cost so as to compete with Easy Jet.
Aer Lingus’s history of setting up routes based on UK to European traffic hasn’t been good. In the 90’s they exploited a relaxation in rules on third country carriers by opening routes from Birmingham and Bristol to the low countries and got badly burnt. Gatwick is a huge gamble that the Irish travelling public does not have to subsidise but may suffer the consequences should the company lose significantly while attempting to expand during a recession. While Aer Lingus sits on a significant cash reserve, one more significant than many other airlines, money is no defence against bad business decisions. It already has to fund a redundancy deal and has bought more long haul aircraft than it uses. The CEO who should have understood the Middle East better lost heavily on a route to Dubai. Why did they not link with another airline flying onward to Australia through here? how does investing in Gatwick benefit the Irish economy right now?
While the popular view is that privatisation allows management take decisions in line with the market, who takes the decisions in the interest of our economy? The government have already admitted that their 25% stake holding couldn’t protect the Shannon route, so how can they influence a whole board as it sets out into the wider market? This morning's decision by Dermot Mannion to resign and take wiht him a golden handshake at a time when workers are being shed is a smack in the face for those workers who took a hit. The golden parachute has opened. Who'll miss him? Turbulent times and tears may well be ahead.

Equality’s Mister Right goes

Reports suggest that Niall Crowley the head of the Equality has tendered his resignation in protest against budget cuts. The Equality Authority has a brief to ensure that fairness and transparency is applied int eh decision relating to gender, race, age, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, family status, membership of the Travelling Community. I understand where he’s coming from, if you are CEO of a new agency and have an agenda that may sometime see you in conflict with the government and then you see them tell you that you’re being decentralised to a building that isn’t wheelchair accessible in a town which has for years looked for a town council yet been refused and you’re the equality authority, well it’s time to ask yourself why bother who’s listening? Budget estimates plan to reduce Crowley’s budget by 43% in 2009.
The reality is that Crowley has been in conflict with government and in addition to being on the transfer list he has also been in the media as a result of decisions by his authority. Crowley has taken on golf clubs, bishops and publicans.
The move by Crowley also puts the spotlight back on the Green Party. Greens have always believed equality is one of their key issues. Despite this they don’t seem to have taken Crowley’s obvious recent discomfort seriously. Fine Gael are a party that are opposed to what they call quangos and would be happy to see less. Fianna Fail dislike bodies like the equality authority because they award cash to minorities so who will voice the opposition to this move? The reality is that private industry has no time for the dicisons relating to discrimination which the authority is responsible for,
Of course FF & The Greens use the recession as a cover to move against the Equality Authority and presumably the focus will move on to the Human Rights Commission, a body set up by the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. This however fools few. We often hear about a bonfire of the quangos but the reality of the populist call is that there had to obviously be an initial need for these bodies and their work in the first place. Calls for their abolition usually come from people who’ve little experience of their work, unless of course you’re the m
Minister for Justice!
I often wonder about quangos why it is that the powers that be are more happy to set them up before they finance them adequately. I think that often these bodies are reluctantly dragged out of the government. When they’re up they’re tolerated so long as they don’t want either employees or money. When they report, the CEO’s always sound embarrassed when asked on national radio about their initial brief and intial budget proposals. I stand to be corrected but I would have difficulty naming a semi state or state sponsored body that actually has been given the budget allocation it initially requested.
Under Fianna Fail such bodies have rocketed and that’s not because they’re packing boards with their buddies. Many of these boards are needed to do a job. I disagree with FG when they say they’d rationalise these. What’s important is the service they provide, in the case of welfare, the ability of the HSE to deliver services is limited, I’d rather in the area of welfare of children see a state body given the job. In reality without semi states to do these jobs how can you expect a department to police itself. So who exactly will step into Niall Crowley’s shoes and motivate the authority to pursue the interest of those who feel outside the pale? Given the iew of the authority itself that the budget would render the Equality Authority unable to fully or effectively carry out the full range of its core functions under the equality legislation and relevant EU Directives.