Renewing the Republic:Ministers take too many decisions under pressure of events or the media spotlight rather than on objective criteria
‘VALUES HAVE shrunken to the levels of fantasy, taxes have risen, our ability to pay has fallen; government, in all its facets, is faced with a serious curtailment of income, the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade, the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side, farmers find no markets for their produce, the savings of many years, in thousands of families, are gone.”
These words describe perfectly the current economic and political environment in which we find ourselves; but they were spoken in 1933 by FDR – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, US president from 1933 to 1945. They form one of the opening paragraphs of his inaugural speech, a speech which delivered hope and confidence to a people in despair.
I have often wished that Taoiseach Brian Cowen would deliver a similar speech, and not just to a business group but to the entire nation; he would have a willing audience as that nation craves leadership.
In 1933, as at present, a lot of people were of the opinion that politics wasn’t working and needed to be replaced by something else. I disagree; I believe our system to be fundamentally sound, though in much need of a new vision, some new blood and fundamental reform.
We don’t need a “new republic” – we do need to fix the one we have. We need to make the system way more effective in order that our people may reconnect with our politics, and that governance may be restored to its natural position of primacy over politics.
There is a great deal of anger among the public, much of it justified. Our country is facing into what is possibly the most challenging economic environment in the history of the State. The global credit-crunch and economic downturn, and the implosion of the local financial and property sectors, have all combined to create misery for the public and major challenges for the political system.
I agree with the ESRI – half of our problems are the result of international factors, the rest are down to our own poor management.
The Celtic Tiger rendered us arrogant and complacent; we spent money we didn’t have on quangos and consultants, on vanity projects and on fuelling the naked greed of developers.
As a consequence, ordinary people who managed to maintain their composure during the boom are now paying the price, and doing so through the nose.
There is no escaping the simple reality that poor political decisions were a major factor in the creation of the mess, and politicians must shoulder their share of the blame.
There is also something else going on, about which I haven’t noticed any comment, but which I believe is an important contributor to the current public mood.
We are a nation of 30-somethings yet our leaders, whether in politics, business or in the media, are of a different generation. This new generation wants results now, and is growing restless listening to politicians they believe to be out of touch and media commentators who seem stuck in the 1980s (if not in the 1960s).
This is why Simon Coveney discomfits Fianna Fáil more than Enda Kenny; whoever connects with these 30-somethings will have a major role to play for a long time to come.
I had the huge honour of spending seven years in the Houses of the Oireachtas as a senator and TD, and I’m delighted to have done so; I’m equally delighted with my decision to retire before the 2007 general election.
I left politics because I was totally burned out and because I wanted a life; time with my family and the odd few hours of personal quality-time without coming back to 30 phone calls on everything from lost passports to poor council services. And that’s to say nothing of constantly keep an eye out for the rival who was trying to take me out, the reporters who were bored with my policies but fascinated by my expenses, or some Ministers who only remembered me for rugby tickets!
I know most of the people in Leinster House as friends, both rivals and colleagues, and I hold the vast majority of them in the highest regard. In general, they are far more intelligent, thoughtful and patriotic than they are given credit for.
Theirs is a deeply frustrating job – cub reporters probably have more impact on party policy than they do. Their committee work is all but ignored. Half a TD’s time is consumed on constituency business that should be done by a more consumer-friendly public service.
Most voters are, somewhat naively, of the view that government policy is developed through a process of careful analysis, comprehensive consultation, and the selection and prioritisation of initiatives based on impact and thorough cost-benefit analysis.
In reality, most government policy-making is based on an ad-hoc reaction to events/media-pressure, and driven by the responsible Minister’s particular requirement to be seen to announce something which seems at least semi-sensible.
Regrettably, policy-making which is focused solely on addressing tactical issues inevitably leads to strategic mistakes. Many of the problems now being faced by the Government are the result of ad-hoc fixes of problems during the boom – got a problem, create an agency, buy-off the unions, get it off the front page.
That particular short-termism is all very well until reality catches up, usually on unfortunate successors of the original fixers, who wake up some morning to find that the essential lubricant, money, is no longer there, but the issues remain and are greatly exacerbated.
We urgently need to change the way government policy is formulated and implemented. For a start, we need a single-seat constituency system; this would facilitate politicians’ career advancement through focusing on policy rather than on fending-off party or constituency challenges.
We should also reduce the number of TDs by half at least – in this era of modern communication there is no justification whatever for the requirement of one TD for every 20,000 voters.
We also need to implement a partial list system so that space can be created for non-typical politicians with deep subject-matter expertise.
We need to completely reconstruct the largely patronage-based committee system by getting rid of the meaningless ones (and there are many) and abolishing all additional payments involved, whether of salary supplements or expenses. The new committees should have real teeth, independence, a capacity to summon witnesses and to hold to real account Ministers, public servants and quangos alike.
Most of all, we must get back to a shared vision for Ireland.
Alexis de Tocqueville once said there are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle. He might well have said the same of Ireland; we just don’t do ideology, do we?
One thing our political parties have in common is a marked tendency to cluster in the centre. Ireland is not the homogenous nation of shared values and beliefs it once was. The major pillars of late 20th-century Irish society – business, the Roman Catholic Church, politics, and various institutions of State – are all in tatters.
We need a politics that reflects not only the demands from those 30-somethings for replacement pillars but one which will also mirror society’s new diversity in a manner which unites, rather than divides, our people.
Make no mistake about it, there is real talent in the Dáil. Dara Calleary in Fianna Fáil, Denis Naughten in Fine Gael and Seán Sherlock in Labour, to name but one in each major party, have the makings of great ministers. It’s time to give them, and their 30-something generation, the reins of power.
Our political system is prone to manipulation and capture by special interests. Too often the media reflect the views of these vested interests rather than the concerns of ordinary people. All too often the only champion of the common man and woman is the local TD. If all parties were more attentive to their backbenchers a fortune could be saved on focus groups, and Ministers would make fewer bad decisions.
The media has a vital role in the movement for reform by giving politicians the chance to talk about something other than the game of politics and its personalities. Space must be afforded to policies, and not just to polls.
Finally, politics matters. To paraphrase Plato, people who consider themselves too smart or good for politics end up being ruled by people who are neither smart nor good.
Politics matters and it’s not a spectator sport; it’s your country and your call.
Jim Glennon is chairman of Edelman public relations. He was elected to the Seanad on the Industrial and Commercial panel in 2000, and to the Dáil in 2002 as Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin North. He also played rugby for Ireland and was capped six times.
The Renewal Debate: Readers' Reactions
HERE IS an edited selection of some of the comments in response to John Bruton's article published on Tuesday
Robert Browne:What about this for an idea? We take the money from Nama and put half of it into a national recovery bank for businesses and innovations that creates jobs instead of flushing it down the toilets of insolvent banks.
We cut public sector pay, pensions and jobs to a level commensurate with State revenues currently being raised by taxes. A rule is made: no borrowing from abroad to fund current consumption – ie wages, salaries and pensions. Old age pensions are exempt. Any homeowner who has purchased during the property scam years, the Bertie years, can sell their properties back to Nama and walk away from the property debt-free without bankruptcy. These houses can then be allocated as social houses. If families want to stay in the property they pay a rent to the State.
Philip Doyle:John Bruton's time in office ably demonstrated his lack of vision, leadership or interest in change. Thanks to Enda Kenny we are still lumbered with a Government who has just agreed to pay what's left of our taxes to the public sector unions. This union settlement and Nama will ensure 15 more years of recession.
Daithí M:John Bruton made some good points about how Ireland is an under-populated country and not making the best use of fertile land... When he was in power he had the opportunity to redistribute land ownership in Ireland and reduce the gap between the insiders and outsiders. The outsiders are emigrating again, but I am sure the strong farmers of Fine Gael will survive as usual. The rest can go and hang.
Erik Gannon:The primary objective of all recent governments has been to stay in power for as long as possible regardless of the consequences of following populist policies...This was a key factor in keeping excess credit flowing into the economy when objective economic analysis recognised it as the wrong thing to do and thus led us to the situation we are now in.
Siobhan:Allocate more time to science and languages at primary level? How about moving religious education to Sunday schools run by volunteer parent groups and members of the community.