Read My Lips:When politicians seek power, it's a case of lies, damn lies . . . and election promises. Fintan O'Tooleadministers a reality check to some of the parties' claims
Asked about the key issues in the campaign, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny cited public transport and, in particular, the inadequacies of the bus service in Dublin. "You've got to put more competition", he told RTÉ radio, "into the Dublin Bus market." He neglected to mention, however, that chief among those who disagree with him about this is his putative tánaiste, Pat Rabbitte.
One of the most obvious, and most puzzling, failures of the outgoing Government has been the provision of buses for Dublin. The National Development Plan that ended in 2006, promised 180 new buses for Dublin Bus. Just 20 were delivered, leaving the company in no position to keep up with the rapid expansion of the city and making it impossible to free up the gridlock in the city's traffic.
The reason for this failure was entirely political. Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats could not agree a basic strategy. The PDs insisted that the provision of new buses should be conditional on the opening up of the bus market to competition from private operators.
Fianna Fáil wavered, but was ultimately unwilling to face down opposition to such a policy from the trade unions.
Fine Gael and Labour are highly critical of the Government's record in this area. Both see the provision of more buses as a key part of the solution to the traffic problem.
What they're not saying, however, is that a FG/Labour government would be just as divided on the issue, if not more so.
The parties' policies are fundamentally opposed to each other, and the fact that they have so far failed to agree on a joint strategy suggests that the governmental gridlock would continue.
In the course of the campaign so far, Fine Gael has been reiterating its support for a competitive market in bus transport in Dublin.
It wants to appoint a bus regulator who would invite tenders for all routes from both public and private companies, with the winner getting exclusive rights to operate on the route and the share of public subsidy that comes with it.
Labour, on the other hand believes that Fine Gael's policy would lead to "poorer services, lack of integration and high regulatory costs."
It proposes instead to "vastly expand" the Dublin Bus fleet, with an extra 500 buses. It also implies an increase in public subsidy to fund a standard ¤1 fare on all services within 25 miles of the city centre. It does concede something to the private sector, suggesting that Dublin Bus could "supplement their services by the contracting in of private operators"
These are not minor details that can be easily ironed out in post-election negotiations. They reflect core philosophical differences.
Unless one party climbs down in the next fortnight, voters will have to conclude that the alternative government's bus policies are like buses themselves - you wait ages for one and then two very different ones arrive at the same time.
Asked last week on RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland about the "D" case in which a young woman was challenging the refusal of the HSE to allow her to travel to England to abort a foetus that has no prospect of living outside the womb, the Progressive Democrats leader Michael McDowell was uncharacteristically reticent. Whatever his views as party leader, he said, he had to be sensitive to his role as Minister for Justice and the separation of powers between the Government and the independent judiciary.
"I am the Minister for Justice and I don't want to be seen to be
guiding the courts one way or another."
This sensitivity to constitutional niceties is so much
greater than the last Minister for Justice, co-incidentally also
called Michael McDowell and spookily also leader of the PDs, to
contemplate the separation of powers.
Last December, reviewing the first recruits to the Garda Reserve to graduate from Templemore, that Michael McDowell laid into the judiciary for being "soft" on bail and for allegedly not applying the law as laid down by the Oireachtas.
He claimed that their "current application of the law is at
variance with the clear intention of the legislature and the will
of the people". Judges, he insisted, would have to change their
"attitude".
Legal experts like Prof Dermot Walsh who express fears that
these remarks might "have a disproportionate influence on judges",
and judges themselves who boycotted Michael McDowell's Christmas
party in protest, were obviously misjudging aMinister who would
never wish to be seen to be guiding the courts.
'Dermot Ahern Pledges Support to Ballapousta National School" reads the FF press release. It announces that the Minister for Foreign Affairs had visited the grossly overcrowded national school in his own constituency and "saw for himself the difficulties which the staff and students face in the school on a daily basis."
He and his constituency colleague Séamus Kirk have hailed the wonderful news that, having been left off the Department of Education's list of schools to be extended or refurbished, Ballapousta miraculously appeared on the list after all. It has been something of a long haul.
The Dáil record shows that Dermot Ahern asked his colleague
and then minister for education Séamus Brennan "when he will
give the go-ahead to the proposed extension for the Ballapousta
national school".
The reply was "I have approved the provision of an extension
to Ballapousta national school, Drakestown, Co Louth.
"The preparation of working drawings for the extension and for the conversion works to the existing building are under way and will be completed as soon as possible."
The date of this exchange?
October 7th, 1992.