Calm before storm of opposition’s slash and burn

IT has been an incredibly slow summer even by the standards of incredibly slow summers in which Irish politics seems to specialise.

That’s understandable. We have just been through a bruising election. It’s a bit early for the opposition to be tabling no confidence motions or talking about a tired Government that’s been in power for too long. Fianna Fáil ministers vamoosed within nanoseconds of getting their seals of office (though the anorak-in-chief had to hang around for a few weeks before being stood up by Mahon).

So as a taciturn July turns into a listless August, the only sounds that can be heard are the panting of the two Green Ministers as they furiously pedal (sic) their wares and the collective licking of wounds by the opposition.

And the party that will come to rue lost opportunities most will be the party that — on the face of it — did best. It seems a strange supposition to make. Fine Gael gained a score of seats. Its parliamentary party in the last Dáil were a pretty ordinary lot and most of its spokespersons were outshone by their Labour and Green counterparts. Mary Harney’s cruel little jibe that FG relied on Richard Bruton to be the spokesperson for everything also had the ring of truth about it.

Let’s briefly survey the rest of the landscape on what was once the opposition benches. The Greens have gone over to the dark side and outside the expanded FG corral the rest of the opposition benches look a sorry mess.

Labour’s flatline performance in the election will be analysed internally eternally. Was it the ‘brand’ that wasn’t right as Pat Rabbitte argued, or was it that the party mistakenly took a right turn at Mullingar as Brendan Howlin claimed recently? Would the party have fared better as a stand-alone?

It’s moot. Fianna Fáil ministers would have brayed loudly (and successfully) that no alternative government existed. Labour would have fared no better offering to ride shotgun for FF (that was the only other option) rather than FG.

This column has whinged about the futility of the Seanad before. But by dint of the reality that Labour, the PDs and Sinn Féin have most new blood in the upper house, expect the most activist — and almost justified — Senate ever.

And what of the independents? Or should that be the independent? With the other four sweethearted into deals, Tony Gregory sits in isolation where once there were 14, including the remarkable Joe Higgins.

So, how in all of that destruction, could anyone be crazy enough to portray FG as the biggest loser? From the night of the election, Enda Kenny and company persevered in claiming some kind of victory, held out some hope (unseen to everybody else) that he could be Taoiseach. It was all in vain. It was also sadly all in vanity.

What was it all about? To shore up Kenny’s leadership for another five years? To show that he got within a bounce of a ball? To try and claim some kind of moral victory?

Well, the answer to all that is this: who remembers the second man to land on the moon?

What Fine Gael was left with last June was the reality of a prospective 15 years in the wilderness. There is no guarantee that the resurgence the party experienced over the past five years will continue (as if on automatic pilot) and that the interaction with government will be unchanged.

For one, the Greens will give this administration a markedly different complexion. And secondly, down the line, Bertie Ahern will be hanging up his anorak well in advance of the next election allowing a new leader give a sense of renewal.

FG can’t escape the scorched earth tactics that other parties must follow. It’s going to have to come up with new policies and strategies. It knows now that this election (and the next) will not be a referendum on health.

And as such Kenny’s front bench reshuffle will be instructive. He’ll need to ditch all the under-performers, and accommodate the likes of Hayes, Coveney and Flanagan plus the best of the new intake.

Like all the other losers, FG will have to slash and burn or else it will become the permanent party of opposition.