Cowen’s first year - Affirmation of political maturity

Today marks the first anniversary of Brian Cowen coming to power. It has certainly been an eventful year. His friend Senator Geraldine Feeney described it as “the worst time” in her memory.

The country has essentially been confronted with the greatest economic reversal since the establishment of the State. Yet in a sense the events have been an affirmation of our political maturity.

It would be wrong to suggest that the scale of the problems confronting his government in its first year have been unprecedented. WT Cosgrave found himself confronted with a bitter Civil War in his first year in power, and Eamon de Valera had to deal with the Economic War and the danger of being toppled by a neo-fascist coup d’etat in his first year.

Charles J Haughey inherited an economic mess in 1979 and promptly recognised that the country was living beyond its means, but did little to rectify the economy during the next 18 months. Garret FitzGerald replaced him and probably tried to do too much and too fast. He was brought down after a mere seven months. Mr Haughey returned but lasted little longer with a government that is remembered for the GUBUs. A decade later Albert Reynolds’s first government was ousted later the same year.

By contrast Brian Cowen’s tenure might be considered staid. He also inherited an economic mess, but he was Minister for Finance for most of the previous four years. Mr Cowen’s elevation to the Taoiseach’s office was a baptism of fire. But unlike 1932 when Mr de Valera was confronted with national sabotage in the form of the Cumann na nGaedheal opposition secretly instigating the British to wage the Economic War against this country, the opposition to Mr Cowen has been distinctly civilised.

The three main parties were supporting the Lisbon treaty, so it should have had an easy passage, but the new Taoiseach contrived to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. He unwittingly gave opponents of the treaty a trump card when he admitted honestly that he had not read the document from “cover to cover”. He might just as well have said that he did not bother to read the treaty at all from the way those critics were subsequently able to use the admission against him.

In the midst of the economic cuts and the banking crisis, there have been rumblings on the backbenches of Fianna Fáil, but the party has been positively cohesive in comparison with the upheavals under Jack Lynch, Charlie Haughey and Albert Reynolds.

Moreover, the opposition has been largely constructive. When the Taoiseach went to the US in March, Eamon Gilmore, leader of the Labour Party, credited him with “a big diplomatic success”. Despite the apparent political and economic bungling of the past year, we can take real solace from the fact that our system has shown maturity in at least recognising the problems – if not actually dealing with them.