With or without McCreevy, FF are now setting about buying your vote

WHEN he proclaimed his dogma of decentralisation, it was not Charlie McCreevy’s intention that he should lead by example.

Very few politicians, if any, subscribe to that tenet, so, it’s ironic that he will be one of the first, possibly one of the few, to depart the capital when he decamps to Brussels.

In fact, he may well be on his way back from there before any of the 10,300 civil servants are scattered, like the tribes of Israel, to 53 locations around the country.

On the other hand, the idea may well have been forgotten about by the time Charlie McCreevy returns to the Curragh of Kildare, or to Punchestown, or wherever.

But then we can start looking forward to Christmas this year (sorry for mentioning it so soon) because the ghost of Christmas past will not be delivering the Budget next December. And the next General Election campaign starts then.

When he produced the political expedient of reducing the civil servant population of Dublin, it never dawned on Charlie that it would plant the seed of an idea in Bertie Ahern’s head which would germinate his own sojourn to Brussels.

On June 28, barely a month ago, when speculation was rife as to who would get the Commissioner’s job, Charlie McCreevy said: “I’m not making any arrangements for travel plans, either internally or externally, nor do I intend making them. I think my best role is in Irish politics, I’ve enjoyed being Minister for Finance.”

Quite obviously he did, although the rest of us didn’t. But at that juncture, he was quite justified in his job security because the Taoiseach said he was doing a very good job handling the economy, as shown by ESRI figures published that week.

That was July 1, and the Taoiseach’s endorsement was in the context of saying, in reference to the Cabinet re-shuffle, that Mr McCreevy would remain on as Minister for Finance.

Fortunately for the soon to be ex-Minister, the Taoiseach isn’t a brain surgeon who had told him that the scan hadn’t shown anything to be worried about.

Just a few days later, on July 4, the finance minister was moved to say he thought this Government had done a pretty decent job over the last seven years and, “I intend to keep doing it.”

Unfortunately for him - and luckily for the rest of us - Bertie Ahern has a seven-year itch and Charlie McCreevy is the first to be scratched.

When he made the announcement that he would be Ireland’s next EU Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy was described as “subdued,” which means he wasn’t quite as ebullient as he used to be when delivering the bad news on budget day, or will be again. The Finance Minister said that when asked to absent himself in Brussels, he had “oscillated” over the offer for a week.

It might be a more accurate guess to say he probably hyperventilated.

He borrowed a quote from the former British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan to explain his agreement to go to Brussels: “Events, dear boy, events.”

Bertie Ahern said he was delighted that he had accepted the nomination and I’m sure that’s the truth. If Charlie McCreevy had stubbornly maintained - as he did on June 28 - that he had no travel plans, then the Taoiseach would have been in the mire.

Bertie’s version was that by putting forward such a good minister as EU Commissioner he would get one of the best possible portfolios for Ireland.

I wouldn’t be too sure of that, because they’ve got a better memory in Brussels than Tánaiste Mary Harney believes the Irish electorate have.

Charlie McCreevy has ruffled a few feathers there and he once described some members of the EU Commission who took exception to his tax policy as “left-wing pinkos.” At the time the Wall Street Journal thought he was referring to the Commission as a bunch of communists.

Bertie Ahern was decent enough to take time out at Galway races to admit that decentralisation was running behind time, but maintained that it would be achieved very quickly. How can something be achieved very quickly if it’s already running behind time?

Given the rejection of the notion by quite a few of the targeted victims, it may very well end up like some of the hopefuls at Ballybrit, a back marker.

It will certainly be a non-runner as far as one trade union is concerned and it represents 1,600 of the “we-shall-not-be-moved” brigade. The national secretary of IMPACT, Peter Nolan, has said large elements of the Government’s decentralisation plan were not viable. Although he welcomed the Government’s emphasis on consensus - that may have been a sarcastic remark - the vast majority of his union’s members were not prepared to move under any circumstances.

THERE may not be “any circumstances” to worry about because, despite denials, not all members of the Government are enamoured with the idea.

“I never get too excited about things,” remarked the Taoiseach. It’s a bit like Christmas - it always comes. Just keep on going and do it as quick as we can and I think we will do it very quickly.”

As far as Minister for Transport Seamus Brennan is concerned, there is no deadline. So presumably it could be allowed drag on until it’s forgotten about.

Minister for Defence Michael Smith and Bertie’s own brother, Junior Minister Noel Ahern, have both expressed doubts about the timetable, describing it as ambitious.

The brother said the scale of decentralisation proposed would take longer than people thought to complete.

Despite Bertie Ahern’s opinion of his “best friend and closest colleague” as a financial wizard who kept the country on the economic straight and narrow, the aim now is to spend.

That’s Plan A with the next general election in mind, and the debacle of last month’s local elections behind them. Between now and 2008, the Government plans to spend €2.5 billion on new healthcare facilities, now that Charlie McCreevy has relinquished the purse strings. He’s hardly packed a bag for Brussels and the Department of Finance has reached a deal with the Department of Health to spend billions. And remember all those brand new hospital facilities that are idle because of lack of funds to open them? Don’t worry, they will all be opened over the next two years, just in time for the election.

The €400 million it will cost to open these 20 units for the benefit of 35,000 patients, is separate to the multi-billion projects to be announced in the autumn.

No doubt, the 2,000 phantom gardaí who were promised during the last general election campaign will be trotted out again, and everybody will be given a medical card.

So why are the coffers beginning to open up and decentralisation put on the back burner? As Charlie McCreevy is wont to say: “Events, dear boy, events.”