NO GOVERNMENT secured a bigger parliamentary majority than the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition last February. No Government faces a greater challenge: namely, to overcome the most serious economic crisis since the State’s foundation. In that context, the decision by Fine Gael backbencher Denis Naughten to vote against the downgrading of services at Roscommon hospital, located in his constituency, represents an early setback to Coalition solidarity. For Mr Naughten, his revolt betrays poor political judgment.
Yes, he has kept faith with his constituents on the hospital issue but he has broken faith with his party and Government. His dissenting vote weakens the Government’s authority at a critical stage.
It sets a precedent that other backbenchers, faced with difficult voting decisions in future, may be tempted to emulate. One hopes not. However, such a serious breach of solidarity so soon in the life of the new Government is not an encouraging omen.
Don’t make promises you cannot keep, or the country cannot afford, should be the watchword of politicians contesting elections, particularly those hoping to hold high office. No parties ever prepared for government with a greater awareness of the scale of economic problems facing the country – so clearly outlined in the EU–IMF bailout programme – than Fine Gael and Labour. In that regard, some of Fine Gael’s pre-election promises, including the undertaking given by deputy leader Dr James Reilly, now Minister for Health, on the future of the hospital, have been rash and unwise.
Fine Gael, rightly, has prided itself on its willingness to put the country first, to place the national interest ahead of local party or personal concerns, perhaps best exemplified in the 1987 Tallaght strategy. Mr Naughten has severely dented that image. Since 1968 and the publication of the FitzGerald report, which recommended a rationalisation of the State’s hospital network, local debates about where hospitals should be located, and which hospitals should be closed, amalgamated, downgraded, or upgraded into “centres of excellence” have always generated huge political controversy.
Roscommon has proved no exception. In 1989, the county elected its first hospital action candidate, Tom Foxe. And in 2009, two Fianna Fáil TDs resigned the party whip over cuts to services in nearby Sligo hospital. Political competition for votes on hospital issues invariably raises quite unreal public expectations of what can be achieved, as candidates ignore what can be afforded – given the dire state of the public finances.
At Roscommon hospital it has been obvious for some years that, without major extra spending to raise overall standards to an acceptable level, some services would be in jeopardy. That, regrettably but not surprisingly, has come to pass. Certainly, the HSE was quite aware of this, and can be faulted for not better preparing the public for the closure of the emergency department.
For the Coalition Government, faced with many far tougher decisions to be taken in the months ahead, voting dissent is an indulgence it cannot afford.