Leadership is needed to get us back on track

THIS time last year we were on the verge of the announcement of a general election and the prospect of the ousting of Fianna Fáil.

We were sure Fianna Fáil were going to take a beating but did not really contemplate the scale of the rout.

We were in deep mire and our economy was going south with no sight of an upturn anywhere on any horizon. Fianna Fáil was a major part of the reason for our dilemma. Their comeuppance was on its way.

We had been listening for months to the promises of Fine Gael and Labour and were on the verge of a whole raft of new promises and commitments should they be elected.

We were looking forward to the promised change of direction, greater accountability and transparency, and most of all, to a Government that would put the interests of the taxpayer before those of bankers and fellow gamblers. Unfortunately, we were gravely disappointed.

We will not see any improvement in our lot without an improvement in the performance of those at the top. What we need right now is leadership, but it is sadly lacking. Rather than be the expected force for change, Fine Gael and Labour have adopted the programme of the outgoing government.

Rather than give us hope, our Government has sent us into even greater despair. From listening to tales of “light at the end of the tunnel”, we are now conscious that the tunnel is virtually endless with no real hope in sight. Sure, we’re not going to roll over and disappear.

We will get on with it. We will try and make ends meet whatever it is we will have to do. And we will, in our thousands, continue to get on flights out of Ireland in the hope that there can be a better life somewhere else. Unfortunately, there are those who, despite our best efforts, will never be able to cope.

This is where poor and weak leadership has brought us. The headline on one column on Tuesday’s paper read: “We are all in this together, so public service bashing is a waste of time.”

We are most certainly not in this together. Those who can least afford it, and those who were already coping even as it was, are certainly in this together. We can count lower paid and lower grade public and civil servants amongst those. However, there are many in this economy who are only nominally affected. Higher civil servants, our politicians and ministers are certainly amongst those who are only minimally affected. Our bankers, despite the havoc they caused, our judiciary and those at the top of the various professions are also minimally affected.

On Monday, Proinsias De Rossa announced his upcoming retirement. He has spent 30 years in the Dáil and in the European Parliament. For this service he will receive an estimated €91,000 per annum, made up of ministerial pension of €10,000 for three years' work, €38,000 Dáil pension for 20 years work and €43,500 for some 10 years work. Not bad is it? Think just how much it costs to work up a pension of over €40,000 per annum for only 10 years work.

In recent months, we have seen ministers attempt to overcome upper pay limits they or their departments had set for their new advisors. A banking pay upper limit of €500,000 all in has been set, but we are told this is just not good enough to get the right people. It is all a load of horse manure. And if we buy it we only have ourselves to blame.

Real leadership is about ensuring that, in situations like this, the pain is being carried equitably. Most of all, it means treating all of the children of this nation equitably.

In recent days, an exceedingly conservative colleague of mine was heard saying it was time for revolution in Ireland. When such people feel it necessary to speak this way, we are really on the road to nowhere.

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