Cowen misses chance to put actions behind words on reform

IF BRIAN COWEN was a sports coach and the junior ministerial line-up his team, yesterday’s changes would probably rank as fairly substantial. Three players were kicked off the panel and five faces brought in.

But Mr Cowen’s proper team is his cabinet — the senior ministers who run government departments. The junior ministers are, in effect, the reserves, and the question yesterday was whether Mr Cowen would acknowledge that he did not need quite so many of them.

When Bertie Ahern was re-elected taoiseach last year, he pulled a political stroke by increasing the number of junior ministers from 17 to 20.

Everyone knew it was unnecessary. Mr Ahern had more viable candidates for positions than he had jobs. And so, to get around the problem, he created more jobs, meaning more salaries and greater expense to the taxpayer.

There are just 15 government departments, meaning 15 senior ministries. Quite why the Government would need more junior ministers than there are departments has never been fully explained.

Mr Cowen had an early chance yesterday to show he is intent on reforming the public service.

He could have culled the number of juniors back to 17 or, to show real intent, back to 15.

But Mr Cowen failed entirely on that score. He left the number at 20 and took the opportunity to promote some of his allies, just as he had done when naming his cabinet last week.

His Laois-Offaly running mate, John Moloney, got the nod, as did another ally, Dublin Mid-West TD John Curran, and a third, Roscommon-South Leitrim TD Michael Finneran.

There were also promotions for Limerick East TD Peter Power and Tipperary South TD Martin Mansergh.

Mr Mansergh has served just a year in the Dáil, and rarely has a new TD been promoted so quickly.

But few in Fianna Fáil, or indeed, among the opposition benches, will quibble about this appointment. The long-term adviser to a succession of Fianna Fáil leaders has proven his abilities without ever being a TD.

To create room for those five, Mr Cowen culled three veteran junior ministers — Cork East TD Michael Ahern, Donegal South-West TD Pat “the Cope” Gallagher and Wexford TD John Browne. That was decisiveness.

But radical or daring it wasn’t. And despite his exhortations to the public service about the need for reform, Mr Cowen is spurning opportunities to lead by example. The first chance came when he was quizzed on the topic of the ministerial pay increases. These had been deferred by the cabinet last year amid public outcry, but only until the end of this year.

Mr Cowen has signalled they won’t be deferred again, and that the cabinet will this time accept the pay increases. That was one opportunity scorned. Yesterday, he scorned another. He was faced with striking an early blow for his agenda or keeping Fianna Fáil happy — and he chose the latter.