Saturday, June 27, 2009
The Lemass style of leadership was to encourage his ministers to be proactive. Unlike de Valera, he never managed to lead Fianna Fáil to an overall majority but, unlike some of his successors, he refused to bargain with any independents to support his nomination for Taoiseach
FIFTY years ago this week, on June 23, 1959, Seán Lemass succeeded Eamon de Valera as Taoiseach. He became an inspiration and is regarded as one of our greatest – if not our greatest – leader since independence.
He spent most of his career in one ministry, building up protectionism, and he became famous as Taoiseach for tearing the whole thing down.
It was as Taoiseach that most historians would consider Lemass a great success, but one would be hard-pressed to list any lasting legislative accomplishments.
He was largely responsible for the establishment of Irish Shipping and Aer Lingus. Irish Shipping is gone, and God only knows where Aer Lingus is going.
People were singing the praises of Lemass for giving TK Whitaker his head in introducing his programme for economic expansion in November 1958. For the record, however, it was Eamon de Valera who initially gave Dr Whitaker the licence to introduce economic reform.
For years Fine Gael opposed anything that de Valera did or suggested. Blueshirt elements seemed to believe de Valera and the devil were the same. The Long Fellow knew they would oppose Dr Whitaker’s plan if it were introduced in the usual way – as a government-sponsored initiative. The Government therefore took the unprecedented step of crediting the civil servant who authored the plan, which became known as the Whitaker Report.
It foresaw the need for increased competition with free trade and the end of protectionism, along with a shift from agriculture to industry and services in order to generate needed employment. In the following years the plan revolutionised the Irish economy.
The report also emphasised the need for educational change, especially in the field of vocational education. "The vocational organisation is more flexible than the primary and secondary systems and those concerned with it are imbued with an enthusiasm which, in large areas of rural Ireland where the system is still a novelty, gives something of a missionary character to the work involved," Whitaker wrote.
The proposed change was a direct challenge to the stranglehold that the Catholic Church had over education, so the move was fraught with political danger. Archbishop John Charles McQuaid was anxious to reserve a dictatorial role for the church in Irish education.
Establishing a whole new form of education outside the control of the church could have been viewed as a major challenge, but Minister for Education Jack Lynch handled the situation deftly. Lemass recognised this and appointed Lynch to succeed him as Minister for Industry and Commerce in 1959. The Lemass style of leadership was to encourage his ministers to be proactive. Unlike de Valera, he never managed to lead Fianna Fáil to an overall majority but, unlike some of his successors, he refused to bargain with any independents to support his nomination for Taoiseach. "I have not asked any deputy in this House, outside my own party, to support the motion, either by their vote or by their abstention," he said. "If I should be elected Taoiseach, it would be my intention to implement the programme of my party in all respects."
During the 1950s this country was economically depressed while the rest of Europe was booming. There was great unemployment and massive emigration, while unemployment in the rest of Europe was at a minuscule 1.5%.
De Valera hung on to office for too long, as did virtually most of the great political figures of the period – Roosevelt in the USA, Churchill in Britain, de Gaulle in France, Adenauer in West Germany, Mackenzie King in Canada and Menzies in Australia. Lemass was not about to make the same mistake.
He was not a talker, but a man of action who wanted to get things done. He had little time for intellectuals and once bragged that there was not a lawyer in the government.
"If you don’t make up your mind," he told Jack Lynch, "nothing will happen. You may make a mistake, but you can do some good too. Go off and make up you own mind."
He encouraged younger ministers to be bold. Neil Blaney spent a fortune on roads around the country, while Donogh O’Malley announced the free secondary education scheme without even consulting the cabinet or the Department of Finance.
Throughout his years, it seemed Lemass had to fight conservative forces in finance, but he was not a good negotiator. He was too impatient. In his desire to get things done, he was inclined to give away too much and give in too early.
George Colley was uneasy about some self-serving members within Fianna Fáil. Of course, everyone knew that Colleyconsidered Charlie Haughey the main self-seeker.
"The self-seeker will soon see that Fianna Fáil is an organisation of service and not a ladder for his ambition and he will soon steal away," Haughey assured Lemass, who was his father-in-law. Yea, Charlie just stole away to his heart content.
Lemass was scrupulous when it came to personal or family gain while in office. There were never any suggestion of dig-outs. After he retired he took up a number of directorships, but this was because he had not saved much money.
He never took personal advantage of his position while in politics.
Once, while attending a conference in Killarney, he got a call from the British that his son Noel had been arrested for a social indiscretion in England. "Haven’t you got procedures?" he replied. He was not going to abuse his office by asking for favouritism for his son.
Lemass was anxious to lead Ireland into the Common Market and he made it clear he would not allow the neutrality issue to stand in the way. "There is no neutrality, and we are not neutral," he declared in 1960. As one of the last of the revolutionary generation, he paved the way for the country’s entry into what is now the EU.
AS early as 1962, Lemass "predicted great changes in Ireland before the end of the century – contraception and divorce legalised and materialism becoming widespread because of growing prosperity." He sought to reverse a whole range of policies. Although he had earlier championed protectionism, he promoted free trade as Taoiseach. He also moderated his own views on the partition question by seeking to persuade unionists that a united Ireland was in their own best interests. He recognised that Northern nationalists were part of the problem in that they were anxious to get control in order to put the boot into the Orangemen.
He was not afraid to change right up to the end. He quit with the same decisiveness that characterised his term of office, catching everyone by surprise. The country could certainly do with his decisiveness now. Members of the government have dithered for more than a year in the midst of the current economic crisis.
Instead of being decisive and leading by example, they keep waiting for others to take the decisions, such as judges or overpaid officials to give up some of their salaries. There is also the seemingly interminable wait for the recommendations of An Bord Snip Nua and the Commission on Taxation. This is not government.
"Make up your own mind," Lemass told Jack Lynch. Remembering Lemass highlights our need for real government, for change.
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