The next Dáil term - Cowen faces his greatest challenge

THE Dáil returned from its spring break yesterday and if most of us were to be honest we’d far prefer to try clean up the scandalous mess left by Michael Fingleton at Irish Nationwide — a loss of €2.9bn for 2009 — rather than take on the huge challenges facing our Government.

Even if we can still, remembering what our mother told us about being kind to others, muster a smidgen of sympathy for politicians it is quickly dissipated by the briefest consideration of their unforgivable role in our economic collapse. Their kid-glove treatment of the chief architects of our crisis is a festering wound and is, as every El Dorado pension deal is uncovered, becoming the symbolic fault line between an untouchable, self-serving cabal — including senior academics and public servants — and the vast majority of Irish people.

In a society where every worker and nearly every household has seen their pension expectations diminished this is a ticking time bomb and there is only one way to defuse it. The issue might be avoided by politicians for a while more but the contrast between the terms enjoyed by failed — the kindest possible term — bankers, developers and regulators and the vast majority of Irish people is immoral and unacceptable.

The Dáil’s summer session will be dominated by the economic crisis and the prospect of the public sector unions rejecting the Croke Park compromise. The Leinster House mood music will be grim if not funereal.

There will be growing pressure for Taoiseach Brian Cowen to set dates for bye elections in Waterford, Donegal South West and Dublin South. Given his party’s prospects it is unlikely he will blink any time soon.

The greatest threat of all, though the political class have been slow to recognise the depth of it, is the deep and growing sense of anger felt by many ordinary Irish people. The very people who want the Government, whichever party is in power, to succeed.

Though our Government has had little enough if anything to do with US bank Goldman Sachs’ announcement that it made profits of €2.57 billion for the first three months of the year — up from €1.33bn a year ago — will add to the sense that we’re being led up the garden path, one more time, by the banks. Goldman also revealed that it paid its employees about €4.08bn. The bank is facing fraud investigations in at least three jurisdictions.

We are assured that Irish bank investigations continue apace and that we can’t do anything that might jeopardise them but that line is wearing thin. This tardiness may contribute to the rejection of the Croke Park deal by very many public sector workers who rightly feel that justice is not being seen to be done.

Until this important issue is resolved the equilibrium needed to manage our affairs in an effective way will be missing and we will pay a heavy, destabilising price.

Mr Cowen is not a silky orator but he can be a convincing one. He has been a poor communicator, often giving the impression that he feels that he need not bother to be one. Yesterday he entered what may be one of the final stages of his leadership of Fianna Fáil. He faces many critical issues and unless he can convincingly articulate a plan to rebuild the economy, create jobs and ensure that casino banking does not pay he will remain part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Let us all hope he is up to it.