Gormley and Greens need to force real change or face political meltdown

THE coming few weeks could be very interesting politically. John Gormley has said that the Green Party will withdraw from government if the party’s rank and file do not approve a new programme for government by a two-thirds majority. That could prove particularly problematical, but then maybe he can secure some astonishing concessions from Fianna Fáil in the current circumstances.

Fianna Fáil did make some advances in the last public opinion poll, but the party was still in third place, behind Fine Gael and the Labour Party. The improvement was probably due to the polished performance by Brian Lenihan in dealing with issues relating to the NAMA, especially on the Pat Kenny’s inaugural Front Line programme.

But this was followed by mind-blowing performances of stunning incompetence by a number of ministers trying to defend the golden handshake given Rody Molloy as he was enticed to step down as director general of FÁS. This thing had been simmering for over a year. In September 2008 Tánaiste Mary Coughlan asked the Comptroller and Auditor General to investigate expenditures at FÁS over the previous eight years.

In November of last year it was disclosed that FÁS spent over €643,000 on transatlantic travel, and that the Director General Rody Molloy took his wife on some trips at the Department’s expense. There was also the infamous disclosure of Mary Harney’s costly “wash and blow dry” in Florida in 2004.

Niall Saul of the FÁS board told the Public Accounts Committee that the approval of some of the expenses was fundamentally wrong and that there was a failure of control and oversight of expenditure at the agency. Who was responsible?

Obviously the director general was answerable, especially in relation to his travel arrangements. But before he could be called to testify before the Public Accounts Committee, he resigned.

The report of Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) John Buckley finally came out last month. Among the disclosures were details that Molloy had signed a deal with Croke Park to stage the agency’s annual jobs fair at a cost of €640,000, without the approval of the board even though the it was responsible for all expenditures over €250,000. This was an abuse of power and the board was just as culpable for tolerating it.

Over €600,000 was spent on a television advertisement that was never broadcast, and another €622,000 was spent on matters “for which there was no evidence of goods or services having been provided”. There was also the €9,200 paid for a car that was never delivered. By comparison with the other squandering, of course, the phantom car was like an incidental expense.

The C&AG’s report highlighted a “substantial and prolonged breakdown in budgetary control” at FÁS. Between 2002 and 2008 FÁS spent €48m on advertising and promotions. The advertising expenditure exceeded budgets by 66% over the seven-year period.

Molloy and the board were responsible, but what the hell was the responsible minister doing? One might understand this happening one year, but not over seven years. The Government was ultimately responsible for the budgets. Mary Coughlan was only Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment for about six months of the seven years.

Her predecessors during the remainder of those years were Mary Harney and Micheál Martin. Coughlan’s problem was the gutless way she got rid of Molloy?

Following the C&AG’s report, she admitted that there were “serious deficiencies” in the financial control of FÁS. The Public Accounts Committee was subsequently told that Molloy was only willing to resign, if he was given a golden handshake. Yet he got credit for four-and-a-half-years’ extra service on his pension, which will cost the taxpayer around €1.1m extra. He also got a car worth €20,000.

Tony Jordan of the Department of Finance told the Public Accounts Committee that the package was approved against the background of the Tánaiste seeking Molloy’s urgent departure and her inexplicable fear that this could be delayed by possible litigation. But she never sought any legal advice. This was not saving the State a cent — it is already paying the Attorney General for this kind of advice.

Nobody has ever been in a stronger position to demand concessions from coalition partners as John Gormley. Fianna Fáil could be facing the greatest democratic meltdown suffered by any party since Kim Campbell of the Progressive Conservatives called a general election in Canada in 1993. Her party had an overall majority of 169 seats in the general election of 1988, but they won just two seats five years later. The prime minister and all but one of her ministers lost their seats.

When Gormley demands concessions from the Fianna Fáil leadership, he will have the whip hand. The last time a coalition party brought down a government and forced a general election was in 1992, when the Progressive Democrats pulled the plug on Albert Reynolds. The PDs had little choice after he essentially accused Des O’Malley of committing perjury before the Beef Tribunal. It was a reckless accusation. No self-respecting party could stand for its leader being treated so unfairly. At the time the PDs had six seats, but they gained four extra seats after bringing down that government.

The current government is the most unpopular in our history. The way things are, the Greens could possibly be wiped out. But, if they, with their six seats, actually bring down the government, they could well enjoy the same kind of bounce as the PDs got in 1992.

On the other hand, if they are divided and they bring down the government like Clann na Poblachta did after the Mother and Child fiasco, they could be devastated. Clann na Poblachta lost eight of its 10 seats in 1951 and never recovered.

The Greens are in a strong position to demand meaningful changes. “When you have them by the balls,” Lyndon Johnson used to say, “their hearts and minds will follow.”

The Greens should insist that expenses for all civil or public servants should be vouched, and they should demand an immediate end to pensions being paid to sitting Oireachtas members. All payments made to public servants and politicians, both local and national, should also be a matter of public record posted on the Internet.

The people paying the bills, the taxpayers, should know what they are paying for in all instances. It is no hardship for an honest person to turn in receipts for expenses, which is standard practice in the private sector. The argument that this would add a bureaucratic layer of expense checkers is absurd, because approving expenses is the responsibility of bosses in the private sector. It would not end such abuse, but abusers could be more readily identified. Instead of being rewarded, they should then be forced to pay restitution, sacked and even jailed in more serious cases.

The Greens should also demand that the board of FÁS be ousted immediately, and the minister, who so shamelessly rewarded Rody Molloy, should be dumped. Do more than a third of the Greens have the guts?