Dempsey gives shot in the arm to FG

Fine Gael’s new slogan is ‘On YOUR side’. I was bit bamboozled when I saw it first. What the hell does it mean?

If you inserted an extra word 'back' near the end of the sentence, it might no longer make for their slogan of choice but it would give a cruel and more accurate description of FG's stock over the past 15 years.

And then, on Thursday night it all became clear. FG had been fantastically prescient. They were actually referring to the Minister for Education and the act of extraordinary generosity he was about to bestow on them.

This weekend, Dempsey was able to deliver invaluable propaganda material to FG that could very well have been stamped with the legend: 'On Your Side'.

For a ship that has long been drifting from port to port without ever finding a permanent dock, the bit of good news they got from Noel Dempsey was a godsend on the eve of their Ard Fheis.

Events, dear boy, events. There's a book in the role coincidence has played in Irish politics. Compared to Charlie Haughey's GUBU moment in 1980, this one is relatively minor. But Dempsey's drive for greater freedom of information (well, for FF local election candidates) will be gratefully accepted by FG who are sure to major on it during the course of the Ard Fheis.

Some Cassandras in the opposition parties already believe the only way FF can be denied a third term of government, is if they get mired down in a desperate scandal, or if their credibility hits such continued and unrelenting turbulence voters won't trust them and will deny them at the polls.

The picture is more complex than that.

But on this weekend, the question of FF and high office will again feature prominently.

The Minister for Freedom of Some Information to Some People hasn't done himself many favours since the story broke on TV3.

His first statement was hilarious, not only in its 'brassneckery' but also in the way that he deliberately missed the point:

"The pack was customised for Fianna Fáil election candidates but similar packs and information are available for election candidates of other parties if they wish to inform their constituents of the good work being done by the Department of Education and Science."

It was pretty dismal stuff, and woefully pedestrian logic, from one of the few genuine lateral thinkers in Government at present.

The controversy had nothing to do with the information itself. Rather, it was about how a Government Minister used his Department's staff, time and resources to compile a tailored briefing pack on every county in the country for the sole benefit of FF candidates.

It seems a couple of hundred of these were produced. What's more, each featured a big puff-picture of the Minister along with the FF 2002 General Election slogan A lot done, more to do.

It wasn't designed just to highlight the "good work" done by his department per se. It was designed to showcase the good work done by Minister a Lot Done More to Do and by FF.

Despite his protests, it would be hard to disagree with Labour's Eamon Gilmore who said that Dempsey had used his department's resources to put together election propaganda for FF local election candidates.

The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern certainly didn't go all the way in backing up his Minister either. Speaking yesterday, he differentiated between using the Department's resources for the preparation of information and using resources to prepare specific documents for the benefit of a political party or candidate.

There are other problems for the Minister. He told the News at One yesterday that the information was requested by FF. And he stressed the only difference in this case was that the information (freely available) was collated together and put in a pack for FF councillors.

But FF as an entity did not request the information. It beggars belief that 400 individual councillors around the country simultaneously came up with the idea of asking the Minister to do them up a customised pack giving detail about all the work that had been done on every school in their county over the lifetime of the Government.

The Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) will now look into the matter to see if Department of Education resources were used in a manner that could be construed as a political donation. If it judges that it was a political donation, its value will have to be declared by FF.

And while the Department was unable to say yesterday how many packs were distributed and how much the cost was, there is every chance that it will exceed the maximum donation allowable for a political party of slightly under €6,400.

If you peruse SIPO's code of conduct for office holders, you will find a couple of paragraphs that may put the Minister on a sticky wicket.

In a specific reference to upholding public faith in their office, the guidelines say: "This is a personal responsibility and requires [office holders] at all times to promote the common good, fairly and impartially, to conscientiously and prudently apply the resources of their office in furtherance of the public interest and to observe the highest ethical standards in the performance of their duties."

Saying that Ministers and other office holders must apply the highest ethical standards at all times, it goes on to give examples, including the need to dedicate the resources of their offices on behalf of the public interest.

The story of the weekend can be boiled down into two possible slogans.

FG: On your side. FF: Offside (again).