Ministers' Report Cards
Recovery, in a word. Kenny made clear that, as Taoiseach, he would seek to fix the broken public finances and turn around the economy, and do so while protecting the vulnerable. He adopted a mantra: to make Ireland by 2016 “the best small country in the world in which to do business, raise a family and grow old with dignity”.
Just a few days after winning the election, Kenny signalled that, despite Fine Gael’s campaign rhetoric, burning senior bondholders was off the table. It was an early and crashing disappointment to those who had voted Fine Gael in the belief that the party would take a very different economic path to its predecessors in government. In some ways, it was a sign of what was to come, as Fine Gael abandoned a series of election promises. Kenny’s own pledge, for example, to protect A&E services at Roscommon Hospital was one of those abandoned, and he lost one of his team as a result — Denis Naughten. But the fact that only one Fine Gael TD has been lost overboard is proof of what Kenny did deliver — stability.
It helped that he came into office with a record majority, but the chaos and confusion that marked the end of Brian Cowen’s government is nowhere to be seen.
Kenny’s government is sticking with the EU/ECB/IMF bailout plan but the coalition has tinkered around the edges of the agreement. So, for example, the minimum wage cut announced by the previous government has been reversed. The Coalition also secured a reduction in the interest rates being charged by the troika on the bailout loans. But the biggest battles are yet to come.
The signs are promising that the Government will secure a cheaper deal on the promissory note system funding the €47bn Anglo bailout. But even then, Ireland’s debt dynamics remain perilous. It’s hard at this stage to avoid the conclusion that the country will require, firstly, a second bailout and, secondly, further reductions on its debt burden in the long term. In the meantime, Kenny simply has to get the country back to work, and the underwhelming Jobs Initiative announced in the Government’s first 100 days has barely made a dent on the unemployment rate. The more recent Jobs Action Plan, published last month, is more substantial, but will take time for its effects to be felt. Kenny has succeeded in giving the impression that he and his Government are competent enough to tackle the problems — but they’re going to need time and lots more goodwill from Europe.
His initial response was weak when the Moriarty Tribunal found Kenny’s former Cabinet colleague, Michael Lowry, had helped businessman Denis O’Brien to secure the state’s second mobile phone licence. By stark contrast, Kenny’s response to the Cloyne report on clerical child sex abuse could not have been stronger — he issued a withering denunciation of the Vatican.
Among the other controversies were his ill-judged comments in Davos in January, in which he appeared to blame ordinary citizens for the economic crash. And as for that pledge to protect the vulnerable, the budget contained no shortage of unpleasant surprises, including cutbacks to disadvantaged schools.
Most acknowledge that Kenny has taken to the role of Taoiseach well. But some also point to the large amounts of luck he has enjoyed — Queen Elizabeth and Barack Obama afforded him glowing publicity, for example, while only a failed heave resulted in the circumstances by which the wily Michael Noonan became finance minister. A year in, he has proved many begrudgers wrong, but he will certainly need luck to continue to push through the referendum on the European fiscal treaty in the short term and, longer term, to pull this country out of the mire.
— Paul O’Brien
Score: 7/10
WHAT HE PROMISED
He inherited the bailout agreement with the troika which he had described as “a bad deal for Ireland” and promised to renegotiate once in power. The agreement committed Ireland to an adjustment of €3.6bn for 2012 with €2.1bn in cuts and €1.5bn of tax increases.
However, Mr Noonan said Fine Gael would focus on budget cuts “rather than job-destroying tax increases”, appealing to voters with a pledge not to touch income taxes. Another one of his promises was to force losses on bondholders of Anglo Irish Bank.
He wasn’t even a month in office when he pumped a further €24bn into crisis-ridden banks following stress tests. In June, on a visit to New York, he announced he would impose losses on senior bondholders in Anglo. Some discussions continued but by mid-September he accepted defeat and announced he would instead seek a reduction on the promissory note system by which the State was propping up Anglo. In December, Mr Noonan delivered his first budget and managed to get it through without any major public backlash.
Mr Noonan has a special talent at staving off negative publicity. The ECB’s knocking of his announcement that he would burn bondholders should have looked like an embarrassing inability to look after the interests of his own country. Instead, it gave out the impression that he was doing everything in his power to reduce the debt burden on taxpayers. He should also have been left red-faced by the Government’s botched attempt to move the secretary general in the Department of Finance, Kevin Cardiff, to Brussels. An EU parliament committee rejected his appointment to the Court of Auditors in the same week as it emerged that the Department had miscalculated the national debt by €3.6bn. However, MEPs subsequently reversed their decision.
He is at least giving the impression that he is steering the economy in the right direction. Politically, the idea of sharing the finance brief with Labour has worked to his advantage. It appeared that he was delivering the good news and Brendan Howlin delivering the bad news in last December’s budget. A failure to burn the Anglo bondholders was seen as one of the most spectacular breaches of pre-election promises. The ultimate success of his term as minister, and indeed of his long political career, will probably be how soon — and how successfully — he can restore economic sovereignty.
Mary Regan
Score: 7/10
WHAT HE PROMISED
An ambitious reform programme that would diversify the patronage of primary schools and do away with the rote learning system in secondary schools, replacing it with a system that awarded critical and creative thinking. He also made a big play on improving literacy skills. But his most public and loudest promise of all was signing an election pledge not to increase third-level charges.
College registration fee increased by €250 to €2,250, eventually rising to €3,000.
Changed the staffing schedule of small schools, meaning an increase in the number of pupils required to retain a teacher. This is likely to lead to 100 schools losing a teacher, with those of minority faiths and in rural areas worst affected.
Announced second-level schools must include guidance counsellors within their overall teaching allocation in a move that will see 500 posts lost from September. Also announced plans to cut 428 teaching posts for schools in disadvantaged areas included in the Deis initiative. later partially reversed, saying 235 of these posts would be retained.
Enraged many by suggesting Frances Fitzgerald was best suited to the role of children’s minister because she was a woman. Cabinet and party colleague, Pat Rabbitte, led the delegation successfully urging him to reverse the cuts to Deis schools. Claimed €1,452 expenses for travel of 5,100km in July, despite trips on his official diary accounting for just 884km.
Reform plans welcomed by the opposition and admired for his ambition. However, some believe any reform will be undone by cuts elsewhere. Many believe he acted honourably when he said “sorry” for cutting DEIS teachers. Promise not to increase college fees was seen as “buying votes” ahead of the election and expense revelations awkward.
— Mary Regan
Score: 5/10
WHAT HE PROMISED
To transform health care in this country forever. The opposition scourge of Mary Harney vowed to rip apart the hated HSE and cut the numbers of patients languishing on trolleys en-route to introducing a universal health system from 2016.
He abolished the board of the HSE in a major step to dismantling the whole edifice, but opposition TDs complained it smacked of tokenism and left the organisation even less effective.
Set an ambitious, guaranteed limit for the number of patients on trolleys which has been met — though a mild winter might be as much to credit as the special delivery unit.
Also dramatically cut the number of patients waiting more than 12 months for an operation, but those waiting more than six months have risen.
Crises land in the health in-tray like hand grenades on a battlefield and Mr Reilly has been bloodied in the role as hospitals lose 4,000 staff retiring under the Government’s cack-handed fast-track scheme which has left frontline services even more depleted.
The chaos surrounding the proposed new children’s hospital was the product of Ms Harney but is now his problem, and though his decision to shut down Roscommon’s emergency department was a clear break of an election pledge, he took the right decision in the circumstances.
To his (many) enemies he is a bombastic bluffer, but his supporters see him as a bulldozer determined to clear away the debris left by a decade and a half of neglect to his supporters.
Reilly has set ambitious targets and knows his future depends on meeting them, which is politically brave. However, his handling of the pre-budget turf war showed up his political inexperience as he annoyed just about everyone with fake threats to withdraw medical cards and increase prescription charges in order to try and win concessions in other areas.
Critics are waiting in the long grass convinced he has over-reached himself and over-promised his resources in a rash of pledges that will haunt the rest of his term. Friends and foe alike welcomed a more measured Dáil performance from a man who turned on enough tears to furnish a bed-bath while in opposition.
“The mandarins in the department have sat on him — and that’s definitely a good thing,” one TD observed.
— Shaun Connolly
Score: 4/10
WHAT HE PROMISED
The Programme for Government pledged to build private support for the arts, with a view to increasing philanthropic funding.
It also pledged to expand cultural events and develop a plan to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising in 2016. Deenihan also promised to deliver the 20-year strategy to overhaul Gaeltacht areas.
WHAT HE DELIVERED AND FAILED TO DELIVER
No definitive plan has been laid out for the 1916 anniversary.
The arts await significantly enhanced philanthropic funding.
The recently launched Gaeltacht Bill could overhaul the landscape of Irish-speaking communities.
Tourist numbers were up last year, but some observers say this was partially because the preceding year’s numbers were affected by the volcanic ash cloud.
In terms of jobs, his department has identified Ireland’s audiovisual sector as a key pillar of creative industries, which could create 5,000 jobs and increase turnover to €1bn.
The arts is a sector still under serious threat due to cutbacks.
The ongoing turf-cutting row has now led to the minister having to bump compensation amounts for rural families up to €1,500 a year.
Deenihan lost his senior adviser after failed attempts to hike up his salary beyond the agreed pay cap.
Opposition parties say Deenihan is an energetic, enthusiastic and receptive minister.
One political source, however, said he had little to show for his year in office: “He’s more about optics than substance.” But another said: “He’s very passionate about his work with a great love for the arts but I wouldn’t agree with him seeking a pay hike for his adviser. You must practice what you preach.”
Opposition TDs acknowledge there were only a small number of cuts to funding in the budget, but that capital spending took the worst hit.
— Juno McEnroe
Score: 6/10
WHAT SHE PROMISED
Was disappointed to have been overlooked for Labour’s share of the finance portfolio which went to Brendan Howlin. Took over biggest spending department. Had to find ways to cut that spending in the face of growing unemployment. Set about cracking down on benefit fraud and getting long term unemployed back to work, while protecting primary welfare payments.
Launched an anti-fraud initiative and reported 645m of fraud had been identified but much of this came from simply correcting mistakes made by her own staff. Her department bore the brunt of the €2.2bn cuts in Budget 2012. She had originally been asked to find €822m but managed to convince cabinet colleagues this was not feasible and got it down to €475m.
Having committed to not cutting primary social welfare rates, she was forced to reduce a range of other payments, such as the fuel allowance. The most contentious related to the disability allowance, which was reduced from €188 per week to €100 for people aged 18-21. Forced into a U-turn. To satisfy the conditions of the troika’s bailout programme, introduced the Pathways to Work initiative with “activation” measure to get long-term unemployed off the Live Register, including a reduction in dole if a person fails to avail of an interview or job opportunity.
Boxed into a corner by Finance Minister Michael Noonan, who suggested the disability cuts in the budget had been her idea and could be looked at again. Within days, she was forced to apologise for the cuts and promise to put them on hold.
Those who saw her as a champion of the working class in opposition felt let down by what they saw as an attack on the poorest — in the shape of the cutbacks and activation measures. Others see this as a breath of fresh air that the department has needed for a long time.
— Mary Regan
Score: 6.5/10
To save what transport infrastructure he could from a budget slashed harder than the seats on an inner city bus heading to a knife convention.
Abandoned big projects like Metro North and the DART underground, stressing that they were beyond our means, while holding out the prospect that the Luas interconnector could be revived. Faced down pressure to impose new tolls on roads such as the Jack Lynch Tunnel. Stood up to Ryanair by refusing to reduce the air tax when the airline failed to deliver on the routes.
With a mouth bigger than the Port Tunnel, trouble followed Varadkar like seagulls trail a trawler captained by Eric Cantona, with the minister’s musings ranging across the spectrum. The claim that Ireland would need a second bailout came across as obvious to most, but earned him a slapping from the finance minister.
Varadkar then veered to nonsense when he declared that referendums were “undemocratic” — a bizarre verdict which will haunt him. Throw in the odd ill-thought-out comment — such as urging everyone to splash out on a holiday during the biggest economic collapse in the nation’s history — and you have a minister with a lust for the limelight. Fought, but sadly lost, a cabinet battle to stop ministers hogging the bus lanes.
Academically brilliant, but lacks basic emotional intelligence. Has mastered his brief with ease and — when not dismissing one of the purest forms of democracy as “undemocratic” — has a straight-talking knack that chimes with the public. Developed a neat way of delivering bad news by shrugging and saying: “Hey, I’d love to give you X, Y and Z, but we’re broke so you’re getting a big fat zero, deal with it.” Defied his Thatcherite Tory Boy tag by coming out against the sell-off of Dublin airport. Seen as the one to watch in the Cabinet — if only he could develop people skills.
— Shaun Connolly
Score: 5/10
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