Time for Enda Kenny to ditch the old ways and think about reform
You may, perhaps, be wondering how you are still here after that election result, last February, but there we are. It is time to jot a few ideas on the pad. The voters certainly have added to your headache and we’re not just talking about Irish voters.
You preside over one of the world’s most open, trade- dependent economies yet a global trade war now seems a real possibility. America has just elected a blustering new President who is tweeting tough policy declarations.
Donald Trump is not yet in the White House and already the Chinese and his incoming team are leaping at each others’ throats. His newly-appointed Trade Representative, Peter Navarro, has signalled it is time to take on the Chinese before they amass so much economic power through trade they start to really threaten the US militarily.
Will Mr. Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, the Texan oilman, assuming he is confirmed, be able and willing to restrain Mr. Navarro and the other hawks? Slapping large tariffs on China could stoke even further the fires of nationalism in a very proud country, the old Middle Kingdom which views us Westerners as rather barbarian.
A trade war could lead to a disruption in supply chains that could spark price rises and even shortages of certain items in the shops. You are long enough in the tooth to remember those queues outside 1970s petrol stations.
Peter Barry was hardly a wet week in the Department of Transport in his first Cabinet job when the country started running out of juice. Do we really want to go there again?
Are the diplomats in Washington DC on the case? Most of the eggs will have been in the Clinton basket, but surely a few lines are out to the Trump team. Vice President designate, Mike Pence, says he is proud to be Irish. Time for a game of golf with Mike. Those matches sure helped to warm old Joe Biden.
What about our nearest neighbour? We were getting on so well up until June 23. Nobody speaks well of Tony Blair these days, but you have to hand it to him. He did warm the pot when it came to Anglo-Irish relations and David Cameron kept the flame going. But could things be about to go pear-shaped? Theresa May — do you have a handle on her? Very hard to get to know.
Time to get onto Foreign Affairs. What the hell is happening in London? Is the British Government getting real over Brexit? They seem to think they have won the war - again.
A bit smug, if you ask me. Well we’re not, what with the hordes driving up to Newry and the mushroom people shutting up shop. British Government members have been making soothing noises about trade across the border, but do they really know what is coming down the tracks once Article 50 is triggered. Do any of us?
You’ve been over in Brussels and you will know just how the mood has grown sour. It is election time in France, in Holland, in Germany and who knows, perhaps Italy too. Will they ever reach a final deal with the UK? At least people know you have been around the block a few times. You’ve been at more summits than some have hot dinners. You will need to play the peacemaker.
No doubt about it, the Brits are in the doghouse out there — they won’t even have Theresa to the dinners. And now some of the EU Commissioners, the Dane Margrethe Vestager, who fancies herself, and the Frenchman, Moscovici, are leaning on Ireland over Apple.
They’re pretending to offer us €13bn in back taxes if we play ball. Don’t you touch that with a barge pole, but all the same, are we getting just a little too hugger-mugger with the Apple lads? We are a sovereign nation, after all.
Ireland would want to be careful. We’re making enemies in Europe just when we don’t need them, but what we do need is the foreign investment. Time to tweak the strategy. It has hardly changed in years. You could call in Martin Shanahan from the IDA and Julie Sinnamon from Enterprise Ireland.
Put together a deal on housing and childcare aimed at the young techies who are threatening like the Web Summit man, Paddy Cosgrave to up sticks and move elsewhere.
Time to come up with a tax package for start-ups, a generous one that will coax people to get out there and take a punt. It could be like the artist’s tax exemption - something that puts Ireland on the map.
Line up the venture capitalists, put a rocket under the banks. They’re getting all that cheap money from Mario Draghi and what are they doing with it?
We’re always blathering on about culture, but what are the politicians and bureaucrats, who run the place, actually doing for the industries that help to put Ireland on the map. Officials need to acquaint themselves with the creative economy and think about what some of the people could do for job creation.
You could give Simon Coveney a tinkle by the way, see how he’s getting on with the housing strategy. If he doesn’t get motoring, they’ll have every empty Nama building under occupation around the capital.
Mr. Coveney is a good man, but something a bit more radical may be in order. A tax on properties that are vacant for no good reason? Try to get Fianna Fáil onside on this? Ease charges on housebuilders for a couple of years - the FFers will certainly go along with that!
You will well know that the public servants are looking for their pound of flesh. Full pay restoration now - no more talk about waiting until 2018. Fine, but can it be afforded? Of course not.
The good boys who stuck with Lansdowne Road will have to get a pay deal now that the Gardai have broken through, but it is time to deliver a few home truths. Danny McCoy is right - you have to throw the public pensions bill into the equation.
Public servants are living longer and longer, on average, like the rest of us. The difference is their pensions will be costing more and more unless something is done.
We have to think about real restructuring, reducing the ranks of managers across the system. And talking about the Gardai - is it not time to introduce proper professional development and a few more outsiders to shake up the organisation?
You seem confident you will get to meet the Pope as Taoiseach in 2018, but why not stir things up before then, be a real reformer, with some help from Fianna Fáil? Given what is coming down the tracks towards us all, you may have little choice in the matter for it looks like the old ways of doing things will not work anymore.
