What Enda Kenny needs to do

NO doubt Enda Kenny’s speechwriters are busy drafting his first speech as Taoiseach and setting the tone for how he will reform Ireland.

However, before he starts that, there are three simple statements, which won’t cost a cent, Mr Kenny can make: Firstly, he can acknowledge the thousands of men, women and children whose lives were destroyed by the abuse they suffered in institutions as a result of the failure of the Irish state to protect them. He should announce his government will remove management control of the health and education system from the religious. Also, that all those who were given criminal records, which were then used to justify sending them to institutions, will have those records expunged and their names cleared. He should confirm that all records relating to these institutions will be passed to the National Archives, uncensored, so they can be made freely available to all the people of Ireland.

Secondly, he should announce that all the new members of his government will receive no pay rise for the duration of this Dáil at least. None of them incur any additional personal expenses by being appointed to government and at this stage they have done nothing to deserve a pay rise. He should confirm there will be no slew of advisers appointed as a central pool of advisers can be used across departments and existing department staff can be up skilled. Nor will extra departmental staff be appointed to deal with constituency matters for the minister, one extra member of staff in their Dáil office is more than sufficient for that task and local matters can be referred to any number of already elected councillors.