Ahern leaves an unfinished symphony

A lot done, but much more to do, is the final verdict on the Taoiseach, says Political Correspondent Paul O’Brien.

A POLITICIAN’S legacy is, by nature, always subjective. Unlike, say, athletes, whose success can be measured by the trophies they’ve won, politicians have no ready yardstick.

Obviously some might say general elections — but an election victory only wins a politician entry to the game of taking power and using it effectively. The Taoiseach has a massively impressive general election record, but while the Fianna Fáil faithful may measure him on that, the public won’t.

It is what the Taoiseach did in office that really matters. And for every supporter who says he achieved a lot, there will be critics who say he squandered opportunities to do more.

For example, did Bertie Ahern work wonders with the economy? Yes, no, maybe — depending on whom you listen to. Did he reform the health service? Definitely not. Perhaps. Firm progress made. What was his contribution to the final peace settlement in the north? Invaluable, positive, exaggerated. And so on.

It is often said that only future historians can truly assess a leader’s legacy, as time is needed to come to a more rounded picture. That is something of a weak argument, though. Surely the best people to judge a leader are those he served. Historians rank John F Kennedy as only a moderately successful president. Yet, judging by accounts from the time, Americans who lived through his tenure arguably felt much differently.

Similarly, the verdict on Bertie Ahern in 50 years’ time will matter little to his electors. It is legitimate, therefore, to ask right now what legacy he will leave — even if the answer is highly debatable.

The Taoiseach had a stab at writing his own legacy yesterday. In the speech announcing his imminent departure, he listed five achievements he was proud of:

Bringing the peace process to fruition.

Seeing a stable administration based on the power-sharing model take root in the north.

Delivering successive social partnership agreements to underpin the country’s social and economic progress.

Overseeing a modern economy with sustainable growth in employment, which brought an end to the days of forced emigration.

Improving and securing Ireland’s position as a modern, dynamic and integral part of the European Union.

Three broad areas, then — the peace process, the economy and the EU. But can the Taoiseach truly claim credit for all the achievements in these areas?

On the north, many will correctly argue that the peace settlement was a process that was not started by Bertie Ahern. On the Fianna Fáil side alone, Albert Reynolds can rightly claim a huge role, having been instrumental in convincing Britain to agree the Downing Street Declaration in 1993 — the document that affirmed the right of the people of Northern Ireland to self-determination and laid the foundations for what followed.

But it was Bertie Ahern who, along with Tony Blair, Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams, finished the project. And, according to Mr Blair’s former chief of staff, it was Mr Ahern, more than anyone, who was the key.

“There would have been no agreement if it had not been for his unadorned common sense,” Jonathan Powell writes of Mr Ahern in his recent memoir.

So while there is credit due to others, the north can rightly be counted as an undisputed achievement for the Taoiseach, the benefits of which will be felt by the entire island.

The issue of the economy is less clear-cut. Fine Gael and Labour tell you it was they who paved the way for the Celtic Tiger when in coalition between 1994 and 1997. Some economists, meanwhile, point to legendary civil servant TK Whitaker and the trade liberalisation reforms he inspired in the late 1950s and 1960s as the true starting point for the boom.

That argument will run and run. What can be said is that Mr Ahern, as labour affairs minister in the late 1980s, played a key part in building social partnership, and that was a progressive step.

By the time he became taoiseach in 1997, the outlook was very good indeed. He inherited a favourable economic situation and then kept the engine running. Ireland enjoyed record prosperity during his tenure in office, and an awful lot of people saw their financial situation improve — new houses, second cars and more holidays becoming routine for a large slice of the electorate.

There is no doubt that the public perceived Mr Ahern’s stewardship of the country’s finances to be rock-solid, and it was the big factor in being re-elected twice. Even when the economic outlook was deteriorating, the public, judging by the election results, didn’t blame Mr Ahern and Fianna Fáil. Rather, they trusted them more than they trusted the opposition to turn the situation around.

But the economic success is also cause for a question mark over the Taoiseach’s record.

Put simply, he and the Government have been accused of squandering the boom. All that money, and a health service still in chaos. All that money, and commuter hell because of the lack of decent infrastructure. All that money, and an education system still squeezing children into overcrowded classrooms. Worse still is the spectre of the state fighting parents of children with special needs in the courts, when all these parents want is a proper education for their son or daughter.

Resources alone, of course, were not the solution to all these problems, or to other issues such as the wave of gangland crime washing over the country in recent years.

But the Government never did come up with adequate solutions to these problems. Unquestionably, there are a lot of areas in which Fianna Fáil has failed over the past decade and as head of government, the Taoiseach must bear responsibility for that.

Despite what some Fianna Fáil members will say, it is also Mr Ahern who must bear responsibility for his downfall. Yes, there was opposition pressure and media pressure, but only because the Taoiseach failed to answer satisfactorily for mystery lodgments to his accounts — a situation unacceptable in any democracy.

Mr Ahern himself set the standard for Fianna Fáil politicians when obliquely criticising his mentor, Charles Haughey, at the party’s ard fheis in 1997. “Even if in the particular instance there were no favours sought or given, we could not condone the practice of senior politicians seeking or receiving, from a single donor, large sums of money or services in kind,” he stated.

A year later, in the Dáil, Mr Ahern said: “Financial contributions to politicians should be made for strictly political purposes, be clearly accounted for and given with no other motive than the good government of this country and support for the democratic system as a whole.”

The Taoiseach did not meet the standards which he himself laid down. He insisted yesterday that he had never received a corrupt payment. That may be the case. But the Mahon Tribunal will decide now.

The question is, then, will Mr Ahern’s tribunal entanglement detract from his legacy?

It will undoubtedly tarnish it — whatever the spin, the payments controversy forced Mr Ahern from office. He is leaving before he was ready to. He spoke following the last election of focusing on health, given that the north was, by and large, resolved. He would devote his considerable energies to trying to fix the problems in the health service, he said. He will not get the chance now.

In that respect, then, his is a job unfinished. Fianna Fáil’s motto for the 2002 general election was “A lot done, more to do”. The party’s motto for 2007 was “Now, the next steps”.

Mr Ahern’s legacy may read similarly. A lot done — an awful lot, given the north — and much more to do. But someone else will be taking the next steps.