Look who’s telling us we shouldn’t boo our hypocritical Taoiseach

BERTIE AHERN, is, quite simply, a hypocrite.

Now I know that it’s almost official State policy that no criticism be directed at the Taoiseach and an edict to that effect, with the full backing of the Fianna Fáil party, will probably be issued shortly.

At a parliamentary party meeting, Bertie himself raised the issue of being booed during the recent U2 concert in Croke Park.

Well, it wasn’t only at the concert it happened, but at a number of events before that.

His namesake, Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern, accused the booers of “taking a cheap shot” against somebody ... “who has led a government that in the history of our State has delivered... the biggest increases in overseas development aid.”

So grave is the threat to the country’s democracy of booing the Taoiseach that it was raised in the Seanad by the leader of the Upper House, the senator from Athlone, Mary O’Rourke.

She declared: “The Taoiseach shouldn’t be booed. I don’t think the Taoiseach should be booed.”

The leader of the Seanad stopped short of declaring a ban on U2 concerts, or a curfew on citizens under 90 years of age, but she did offer this little homily: “I want to say that it is very bad manners for a section of an audience to boo a person in authority.”

Now it has to be said that this is rather rich coming from her. Anybody who watched the final instalment of the RTÉ series on Charlie Haughey would have learned she told Padraig Flynn and Albert Reynolds to politely “f**k off” when they came a-looking for her brother, the late Brian Lenihan.

Her own nephew, Conor Lenihan, a junior minister in Foreign Affairs with responsibility for development aid, could well do with a grind in civics which might help him refrain from uttering slurs in the Dáil, like his “kebabs” comment to socialist TD Joe Higgins in relation to Turkish workers.

Auntie Mary didn’t take that one too seriously, so maybe there’s one standard for junior ministers and another for the rest of us.

The assertion that the Taoiseach is a hypocrite is based on utterances from his own mouth, aided and abetted by his short attention span which leads him to believe everybody else also has a memory problem.

A few days ago Bertie Ahern said it was not possible to raise overseas aid from €600 million to €1.4 billion as he would not be able to explain such an increase to the Irish people.

His comment came in the wake of last weekend’s Live 8 concerts, and he was comfortable enough to say he did not feel under any additional pressure to raise Ireland’s level of overseas aid.

Mr Ahern may well feel complacent in his hypocrisy and possibly believes - as Tánaiste Mary Harney said at the time of the Hugh O’Flaherty controversy - that people would forget after three months.

Well, just in case his memory is as short-lived as Ms Harney thinks that of the electorate is, here’s a little aide-mémoire, or mature recollection.

Five years ago Bertie Ahern, our Taoiseach, made a solemn pledge before the leaders of the world at the United Nations’ Millennium Summit in New York.

Exactly what he said was this: “On behalf of the Government and people of Ireland, I wish in this forum publicly to make a commitment to fully meet the United Nations target of spending 0.7% of GNP on official development assistance... and we will reach the UN target by the end of 2007.”

On that occasion, obviously, he was not a bit concerned about how the Irish people would view such a commitment, unlike the specious concern he expressed this week.

At that UN summit in New York, about 160 leaders from around the globe heard Bertie Ahern say: “Today, we are one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Our history should make us generous, and it has.”

Great sentiment - even greater waffle.

Through increases in the overseas development aid budget, our Taoiseach had solemnly promised - in your name and mine - that by the end of 2007 Ireland would be donating £800 million, or €1 billion in today’s values.

What he promised was actually historic because, at the time, only four other countries - Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands - met the UN aid target.

SUCH a pledge was not just historic but almost revolutionary for a country such as Ireland. However, because the Taoiseach treated such a world gathering with about as much respect as he does the integrity of the Irish people, he forgot to tell the UN that before he had any intention of delivering on that promise, there were a few things to be done at home.

Like spending €50 million on a leaking national aquatic centre.

Like wasting another €50 million on a useless electronic voting system.

Like spending €15 million on an equestrian centre. Those are just a few examples and the sums involved are just a tiny fraction of the millions of euro wasted by this Government.

Bertie Ahern, literally, promised the world that the Irish people would achieve the UN target - and then shamelessly, and without a second thought, quickly reneged on it.

In 2002 he told the UN that we had one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and we still have. In European terms, we are second only to Luxembourg.

So, nothing has changed - except Bertie Ahern’s mind.

It must be remembered that that UN pledge was not a spur-of-the-moment gesture, or Bertie being overcome by a spontaneous whim of generosity.

At the time, Ireland was seriously lobbying for a seat on the Security Council, which is responsible for steering through UN policy.

With the help of African UN members, Ireland secured a rotating seat on the council and Foreign Minister Brian Cowen occupied it.

Ironically, he is now finance minister and, as such, presides over this appalling policy of reneging on our overseas aid commitment.

It will be interesting to see what Bertie Ahern says when he travels to New York next September for the five-year review of the goals set at the millennium summit.

God only knows what he promised Pope Benedict XVI during the private audience yesterday.

Even the Pope’s acquaintance with the Holy Ghost wouldn’t be enough to divine the thoughts of the man Charlie Haughey dubbed the most devious and cunning of them all.

One thing that Bertie Ahern probably believes the two men have in common is infallibility - although the Taoiseach, in all humility, knows himself to be the more infallible of the two.