Another fine mess - It is time a few people resigned

SOMETIMES you’d wonder if we’d be better off if Darby O’Gill and the Little People were running the country.

In what was one of the most cringe-making climbdowns of modern times, Transport Minister Noel Dempsey, in a short few minutes yesterday, prevaricated and stumbled his way through a whole political career’s quota of “ifs and buts”, “maybes and wait and sees”.

His ordeal — and ours — came when he had to admit the Road Safety Authority’s proposals on constraining drivers using provisional licences would be applied with opt-out clauses on the scale of a Las Vegas pre-nuptial agreement.

Even a drink-and-cocaine-fuelled Las Vegas marriage at midnight would last longer than the 24 hours that passed since the provisional licence proposal was launched with the blessing of the Taoiseach — the third such scheme he has endorsed.

Well before yesterday’s startling U-turn it was an egg-on-the-face week for the minister. Earlier yesterday he had endured the ignominy of explaining why one of his civil servants had not thought it worthwhile to tell him of Aer Lingus’s plans to end the Shannon to Heathrow service. “It was a mistake,” he said, “but it is time to move on.” That is the kind of suspension of reality that makes it possible to occasionally enjoy Darby O’Gill. However, it is not an appropriate response from the minister responsible for transport policy and the consequences of a decision like the one made by Aer Lingus on Shannon.

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: One public meal of humble pie a week is enough for a minister, but two...

The great tragedy of the sorry mess is that the whole, laudable and welcome RSA scheme has been undermined even before it is put in place.

There is a dispiriting symmetry and an unfortunate whiff of déjà vu to this stand-up, off-the-cuff form of governance — remember college fees?

The provisional driver proposal came toppling down because the Government believed it could stop an estimated 420,000 people driving while alone and sustain a driver-testing system that in some instances expects applicants to wait nearly two years for an opportunity to establish their competence.

Did nobody think this through? Did it not occur to them that most of the people using provisional licences needed their cars to get to work or to take children to school? Did nobody imagine that such provisions demanded a more efficient driving test system?

It is this lack of thoroughness, of joined up, adult planning that so enrages us all. This level of oversight would be unimaginable if the consequences had an impact on the profit and loss accounts of a business.

And before the Taoiseach winds himself up for one of his naysayers dismissals, he should know that the issue moved 7,000 people to contact Liveline during the first hour the programme’s lines were open yesterday, a record for the long running, flagship programme.

If there was any virtue in Mr Dempsey’s performance yesterday it was that he immediately acknowledged the proposals were a path to chaos. There was no way gardaí could have imposed the regulations next Tuesday even if they had the resources to do so.

Senior Garda officers who, no doubt seeing what those who prepared the proposals could not, suggested the new rules would be “policed with common sense, advice and cautions”. Mr Dempsey might consider if these officers, who were on Thursday obliged to insist that the new regime would apply from Tuesday morning, are owed an apology.

Once again we have exposed ourselves to justified ridicule and once again it seems there will be no consequences. Mr Dempsey has got his pay rise and the civil servants involved in this fiasco, and the Shannon silence, will probably have run the calculator over their benchmarking expectations. This kind of Carry On Governing farce has to end and a whole new set of standards and expectations must be put in place.

A few resignations would be a good place to start.