Bertie Ahern’s legacy - A lot done, but a lot left undone

THE announcement was as emotional as its timing was unexpected but even that great emotion and surprise were not enough to dispel an atmosphere heavy with inevitability.

When, yesterday morning, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern stood on the steps of Government Buildings and announced that he would resign on May 6, he had accepted what had become the unavoidable conclusion to his political career.

If you admire and support Mr Ahern, he fell on his sword because he was putting the good of the party and the country first — and party and country always come in that order in the Fianna Fáil psyche.

If you do not admire Mr Ahern, it is because his credibility is shot through and that he is no longer capable of exerting the kind of moral authority needed to run the country properly. In an unusual confluence of opposites, both of these positions are correct.

Mr Ahern’s announcement will allow the Government, and his successor, to refocus their attention on governing the country and confronting the economic and health service issues of the day.

Despite the impression the Praetorian Guard surrounding him yesterday morning tried to create, Mr Ahern’s credibility is no longer sufficient to sustain his leadership.

His “confusing financial arrangements” long ago put paid to any prospect of him retiring universally admired or trusted. That trust was inevitably conditional and in these issues Mr Ahern has always walked on thin ice because of those who had gone before him.

Anyone who admitted signing blank cheques for Charles Haughey left themselves open to a type of scrutiny an ordinary individual should not expect.

By restoring another crook — Ray Burke — to cabinet, Mr Ahern was either wilfully ignorant or indifferent to his north Dublin colleague’s corruption. Neither ignorance nor indifference are acceptable when the leader of a country is inviting someone to become a member of government. By appointing Liam Lawlor chairman of the Oireachtas committee on ethics, he gave a defiant and brazen two fingers to those who believe in any sort of principled government, all the while giving lip service to high standards in high places.

As this day approached, the legacy options suggested by his supporters were simple enough.

You either accepted that Mr Ahern’s role as a peacemaker in the north and his part in creating tremendous affluence outweighed any incongruities in his performances at Dublin Castle.

This view is far, far too narrow and ignores the fact the Mr Ahern has been in charge of this country since June 26, 1997. Before that he was a senior cabinet member, becoming minister for finance in 1991.

It ignores too many failures: our health system; our substandard education system; our dreadful public transport; our inadequate infrastructure; an energy policy informed by wishful thinking; little or no impact on confronting the causes of transgenerational poverty; a multi-million-euro bill for the outrage that is benchmarking without significant public sector reform; a drugs epidemic — inside and outside prisons — and an ineffective response to violent crime.

Had he been unable to confront these issues because the resources were unavailable, failure would have been understandable but Mr Ahern had resources that his predecessors could have only dreamt about.

He had the money but did he have the vision and the leadership to shape a new Ireland, a new Ireland where we have social development and services on a par with progressive European countries, some of which can only dream about our wealth?

Sadly, he did not, and in time his legacy may be seen as one of squandered opportunities.

However, it would be churlish not to acknowledge what he describes as his greatest achievement.

He did what all of his predecessors had failed to do. He played a pivotal role in securing peace in the north. He built on the work of Albert Reynolds and Dick Spring, and in an earlier time, Garret FitzGerald and Peter Barry, and used his skills to end the greatest cancer this country ever endured.

This is a substantial achievement, one that we must all give thanks for and one he can take great pride in.

Bertie Ahern has given his life to politics — achieving a lot — but there remains a worry, a gnawing feeling, that just won’t go away. That sense is that a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become the country we could be has come and gone on his watch.

A lot done, but too much left undone.