Government unable to spin Universal Health Insurance scheme to a positive light
In a series of confrontations with the opposition during leaders’ questions, Taoiseach Enda Kenny was told the move was a “cover up” and that the Coalition’s five-point plan has become little more than a “five-point sham”.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin set the tone by telling his political rival “the truth simply does not matter to you”, and that “you will say anything to get elected, you will deny reality and the truth when it stares you in the face”.
He said “you break promise after promise believing media management will take of anything”, and it didn’t get much better for Mr Kenny when Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams took aim.
Claiming that the Government’s “notorious” five-point plan has become little more than a “five-point sham”, Mr Adams said the document was by now meant to have brought free GP for everyone, the removal of drug prescription charges, and the abolition of the HSE.
“None of this happened, and none of this will happen. Taoiseach, will you resign?” he asked.
While the rather hopeful resignation call from an opposition which smells blood and a political opportunity was easily slapped away by Mr Kenny, who noted “you ask me to resign every couple of months”, the other claims have more than a hint of reality to them.
The Taoiseach has insisted he is “far from ignoring the truth” by describing the de-facto scrapping of UHI as just a re-examination of the “vision”.
But such a claim has far less credibility when you consider the scale of U-turns, climbdowns, and spin dressed up as something — anything — else in recent months, making the explanation surrounding the demise of the version of UHI pushed for five years one PR move too many to see as anything but what it is.
Rent certainty linked to the consumer price index — a move championed by Environment Minister Alan Kelly for a year — became rent uncertainty linked to nothing when Mr Kelly and his cabinet colleague Finance Minister Michael Noonan agreed and revealed (after widely leaking) their plans last month.
While they said it provided clarity to renters by blocking landlords from increasing prices other than once every two years, critics noted it is in effect a halfway house measure that is not the promised rent certainty, will not stop market rate rises of 10% every two years, and will not do anything to help people struggling now to afford private rents.
The answer to the last point, according to the Government, is to build more homes, Fine Gael’s alternative to rent certainty during the stand-off with Mr Kelly, whose officials insist won the war.
The theme of U-turns being re-framed by spin is further apparent with the Fennelly and IBRC reports, which the Coalition insisted would be completed before the election before admitting they will not — with September 2016 and potentially 2023 new target deadlines.
The moved targets are at the discretion of the judges examining the issues, the Government rightly notes, but they also mean key controversies will not be discussed this side of the vote — with detailed Dáil debate on the matters shut down lest they interfere with ongoing investigations.
The part of Fennelly that is published relating to Mr Kenny’s involvement in the resignation’ of ex-Garda commissioner Martin Callinan was also framed as clearing the Taoiseach of any wrongdoing in an RTÉ News interview, just as the lengthy report was published on a Government website which suffered IT problems at the same time.
It only emerged later that evening the report also said the visit of a senior official to Mr Callinan’s home at Mr Kenny’s request was the “catalyst” for his departure.
And in health, the Coalition continues to insist a new version of UHI will still be implemented — only after the government which follows this Government, at best, a period that could stretch a decade and may not be their responsibility — despite claims to the contrary.
But given what has come before it, it is difficult not to disagree with the opposition conclusions that U-turns and climb-downs repackaged as anything but what they are is now part and parcel of the Coalition’s pre-election strategy.
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