The manner in which Ireland EU commissioner-designate Phil Hogan sailed through his confirmation hearing at the European Parliament showed up the trivial and pointless nature of so much political debate in Ireland.

If his more bitter political opponents and sections of the Irish media were to be believed over the past few months Hogan was unfit to be a member of the EU Commission and his shortcomings would be on display when he appeared before the European Parliament.

If ever there was an illustration of Samuel Johnson’s dictum that “the Irish are a fair people, they never speak well of one another”, the run-up to Hogan’s appearance at the parliament was it.

In the event Hogan put in a performance akin to that of the Kilkenny hurling team in the All Ireland final, wiping the floor with his critics and, more importantly, demonstrating a total mastery of his brief. It was acknowledged in Brussels as probably the most impressive performance of any of the incoming commissioners. A number of others, including the British nominee, Lord Hill, were sent off by parliament to do more homework and come back again when they were ready.

Influential figure

The mystery is why anybody should have been surprised. Over the past decade or so Hogan has been one of the most influential figures in Irish politics and his contribution to making Fine Gael into the most formidable political force in the country cannot be overestimated.

In Government he demonstrated ability and courage as Minister for the Environment. It is hard to think of anybody else who would have managed to introduce the property tax, the water charges and the septic tank charges with relatively little fuss while promoting sweeping reform of local government as the same time.

Of course Hogan is a political bruiser who has made mistakes and given hostages to fortune over the years, but that should not have been allowed to obscure his strengths and his suitability for the job.

One of the depressing features of Irish politics is that people of ability and wit who speak their minds and refuse to pander to the gallery are regularly vilified for their trouble. Pat Rabbitte and Michael McDowell spring to mind, along with Hogan, as victims of this tendency.

The irony is that all three were among the most available and open of Ministers in their dealings with the media over the past decade yet were frequently portrayed as arrogant and out of touch because they were prepared to say things some people didn’t want to hear.

Michael Noonan is another politician who went through the flames of public vilification in his career, but has emerged in recent times as the grand old man of Irish politics whose assured performance as Minister for Finance has been vital to the Coalition’s success on the economy.

At the Fine Gael parliamentary party during the week Noonan was the star turn, as he rode to the rescue of Taoiseach Enda Kenny and effectively put the controversy over John McNulty’s Seanad byelection into perspective.

He effectively told Fine Gael TDs and Senators to get a grip and not allow the Coalition’s economic record be obscured by a routine political controversy.

Any talk of a challenge to Kenny’s leadership, which was never very serious in the first place, evaporated after Noonan’s pep talk. The TDs absorbed the message that their own political futures depend on focusing the political debate on the economy, where they have something to boast about.

Such was the change of mood induced by Noonan that many Fine Gael and Labour TDs and Senators decided to vote for John McNulty in the Seanad byelection after all and ignore his attempt to withdraw from the race. The result will be announced on Friday, with the count in the two Dáil byelections the following day. The budget will follow on Tuesday week.

Improving finances

Government TDs were heartened by the latest set of exchequer returns released on Thursday showing the public finances continuing to improve, with tax returns for the year far better than expected.

A worry was that there were also some spending overruns, particularly in Health. One of the issues facing Noonan and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin is whether it is time to face the fact that expected savings in Health in the past two years have not materialised and are unlikely to do so.

The budget issue attracting most public debate so far is the likely nature and scale of changes in the tax system. Going on the public statements of Kenny and Noonan it seems inevitable there will be some effort to raise the threshold at which income tax payers hit the higher marginal rate.

Tax burden

Employer and union advisers have been bandying around very different figures on the way the tax burden is shared. One thing is clear, though. Lower-paid workers in Ireland pay considerably less income tax than their counterparts in other developed countries, while middle- and higher-income earners pay more.

Noonan is unlikely to change the tax burden at the bottom or the top but will try and do something for those in the middle. Precisely what we will only know on budget day. He is also expected to do something to ease or even end the exchequer raid on private sector pension funds.

Both Coalition parties are hoping that the budget will finally jolt the political agenda away from the run of controversies that has bedevilled them since the beginning of the year and on to a subject with which they feel more comfortable. That itself is a tribute to how much progress they have made on the economy over the past 3½ years.