Brennan finds his way round unfamiliar territory
SEAMUS BRENNAN is tired. It’s six o’clock in his office high above Bus Áras and a solid day of interviews has worn him out.
By his own admission the past 11 months, since last September’s tumultuous Cabinet reshuffle, have not been easy. For the moment, though, he doesn’t want to talk about that.
A question about whether he wants to be Social Affairs Minister after the next election draws a weary sigh and talk of some imminent thinking atop a mountain.
So we move on to less personal issues for a while.
His press man, seated on the couch beside us, had helpfully indicated by text the night before that the minister would like to expand on the themes of his speech to the MacGill summer school in Glenties.
A polished synopsis of the speech duly follows.
The central point is that the current political generation will not be judged on how many millionaires the economic powerhouse of the Celtic Tiger produces, but on how the lives of the disadvantaged were improved by such wealth.
To that end, Mr Brennan has done a fair degree of policy thinking and already made several bold gestures.
His pragmatic handling of lone parents is one example. “Why lock 60,000 lone parents into a position where they can’t work or have a fellow in the house?” he asks.
“Paying off welfare clients” rather than trying to solve the underlying problem is a “very dangerous thing to do,” he says in much the same matter-of-fact tone as a previous incarnation of the man might have said that airports need to compete with each other.
There is a crucial difference, though, between Mr Brennan in Transport and here amid the downtrodden of the nation.
As Transport Minister he knew exactly what he wanted. “In transport I had 20 things I wanted to do. I could only do about 10 of them,” he says almost wistfully.
Entering Social Affairs - and he admits this himself - he had absolutely no idea what he should do, other then survive as a politician.
So something unexpected happened. He spent 10 months figuring the place out. The result is a list of five policy items to be tackled which is based on the views of experts rather than his own to-do list.
And there atop his coffee table, scribbled on a scrap of paper they are: child poverty; lone parents; unemployment; pensions and restructuring, plus the modernisation of the department.
He believes he can make a decent stab at all five issues in the next two years.
“I think I can get a lot of it done. A lot will depend on what support I can get at Cabinet.”
Many of his goals, such as making lone parent policies sensible and practicable, have already been well aired. He can run through the rest with his eyes closed. On pension reform, the minister has not made a final decision yet, but pending the completion of a Pensions Board review, is inclined to lean towards the idea of mandatory pensions cover for all.
On unemployment, he has questions about many of those on the dole, given the fact that immigrants seem to find work easily.
But it is on child poverty that he is surprisingly firm. “I’d like to eradicate child poverty in two years. It’s from 60,000 to 120,000 now. I’d like those figures to read nought.”
To that end, child benefit payments to all parents regardless of income will level off once promised increases are met.
From then on only those living in poverty will receive increases.
On one thing he is crystal clear: “I don’t see myself doing it after two years.”
Questions about just where he wants to be invoke talk of mountaintops and reflection - and things economic and financial.
“I’m more comfortable, and I think the country knows this too, I’m much more comfortable with the economics. My background is in accountancy, commerce, economics... My whole background is in business and I like that kind of stuff. I’m much more comfortable with it. I talk numbers. This stuff I’ve been struggling with it for months, but I think I’m getting there.
“I’m much happier with balance sheets.”
There then follows a slight rowing back of those sentiments and some token gestures. “I find it revealing about myself personally that I am actually getting interested and feeling a kind of empathy in these subjects”
So could he soften up even more then and perhaps want to stay? Absolutely not.
“It’s a job. I’m doing a job. I’m not going on a mission. I do the job and I hope I do a good one. I try and make the reforms and make my contribution and then let someone else at it. I’m not going on a life long mission to reform Irish society.
“That’s not my scene. I like to play golf as well.”
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