Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has probably done himself political damage because of indecisive comments about the Government's controversial decentralisation programme. The lack of clarity and political courage displayed on an issue of such fundamental importance to the good governance of the State is likely to have dismayed his closest supporters and caused vacillating voters to reconsider their options.
In an interview with Mark Hennessy in this newspaper last Wednesday, Mr Kenny was extremely critical of the "appallingly planned" decentralisation programme that, he said, threatened "chaos in the Civil Service". But, rather than call for the suspension or abandonment of the scheme, which envisages moving 10,000 civil and public servants out of Dublin along with eight Government Departments, the Fine Gael leader supported its implementation where possible, particularly in relation to the transfer of a department to Knock, Co Mayo, in his own constituency.
This is the kind of "gombeen politics" the Progressive Democrats were so critical of before Minister of State Tom Parlon taught them the error of their vote-getting ways. It represented the thinking behind an uncosted and unplanned decentralisation programme that Charlie McCreevy unveiled on behalf of Fianna Fáil during an otherwise boring budget speech in 2004. Buying rural votes was - and still is - the name of this particular game. And if the decentralisation scheme disrupted proper planning and administration procedures and ran counter to the Government's own spatial strategy, so what?
Fine Gael and the other opposition parties regularly criticised this dangerously dysfunctional approach in the Dáil. A lack of preparation and public service resistance caused the Government to review its plans. Last year, it scaled back the initial programme to involve 15 locations and the transfer of 2,000 public servants by the year 2009. But even that looks like a madcap idea as the great bulk of middle and senior management refuse to move from Dublin, while half of those applying for transfers are already based in the provinces.
Two months ago, Fine Gael extracted figures from the Government that showed only one-in-nine civil servants is prepared to move with their departments. It warned of the fragmentation of policymaking and the cost of employing replacement staff. But, earlier this week, when it came to challenging the expectations of voters in the 53 towns and villages earmarked to gain civil and public servants from the process, Mr Kenny kicked for touch. Constituency considerations are never far from the mind of a politician. That is as it should be. But there are times when a broader approach is required. And this is one of them. An economy-threatening gamble was undertaken by the Government as part of its vote-getting scheme on decentralisation. As a potential taoiseach-in-waiting, Mr Kenny should have considered the national interest and moved beyond the constraints of parish pump politics.