U-turn on allowances - Have they the stomach for the fight?

It must be assumed, unfortunately, that Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin is in the debilitating grip of an advanced case of political Stockholm Syndrome.

This psychological condition arises when hostages express empathy with their kidnappers and, in extreme cases, defend them.

How else could anyone explain how a minister, who otherwise seems articulate, decent and genuinely committed to social progress, turns a promise to save a moderate €75m from the €1.5bn — just 5% — paid as allowances to public employees into a more or less irrelevant saving of just €3.5m?

This represents a strike rate of around 5% and, as any middle manager worth even the cheapest suit will tell you, this kind of performance would presage a career change — or, more likely, a grim trip to the dole office followed by a visit to the bank to try to renegotiate the terms of their mortgage.

In any environment where words actually mean what they are supposed to mean, where figures add up, Mr Howlin’s position would be in jeopardy. He has, and this is very important in the context of today’s difficulties, forfeited the right to criticise other ministers for not finding savings in their respective departments. And, if he knew of this situation before he criticised Health Minister Dr James Reilly over consultants’ pay his credibility is damaged further.

This failure is a thoroughly dispiriting blow to anyone who voted for this Government to support the kind of reforms this country so badly needs. The gap between that which was promised and that which was delivered is so very great — they bear no relationship to each other at all — that it calls into question the Government’s stomach for the battle, their determination to confronting the issues that must unfortunately be confronted.

Because we are talking about money we don’t have, managing expenditure and leading reform are urgent but terribly difficult imperatives requiring great courage and backbone. Sadly, both were absent this week. If this moderate project could not be delivered what hope is there that the kind of deep reform needed to rebuild this society and economy can ever be achieved?

It must be acknowledged that a good number of allowances paid to public employees should be more correctly described as basic pay but it would be dishonest to argue that a saving of €3.5m from a budget of €1.5bn is anything other than a slap in the face to all who care for this country’s future, many of whom have lost jobs or endured cuts far, far beyond anything imposed by Government.

There was a dangerous degree of cynicism too in the timing of the announcement. How very convenient that, after nearly two decades of prevarication, the wording of the amendment on children’s rights could be announced within 24 hours of Mr Howlin’s admission. That welcome announcement pushed the allowances debacle and the debate it might provoke deep into silent shadows.

This was a bad day for this country, another day when politics was demeaned and politicians discredited but worst of all, it was grist to the mill for those who argue that it’s every man for himself and that the idea of society is obsolete.