Taoiseach must take ownership of success and reveal vision for future

TAOISEACH, believe me, I’m not one of those begrudgers who complains when you say your ministers are tired.

I’ve been there, and I know how unrelenting the pressure can be.

Mind you, you haven’t had to deal with some of the crises of the past, and you haven’t been dogged by scandal like some of your predecessors.

But still, I’m guessing it has been pretty unremitting. The troika every three months, and the constant search for savings and cutbacks. Balancing the books is tough work. We’ve all experienced the results, and guess what? We’re all pretty tired. Those that can afford a decent holiday will no doubt be looking forward to it with relish.

So go on, enjoy a bit of a break. It will do you good. Hopefully, there’ll be no sudden crisis to disturb you for a week or two anyway.

But — and this is not intended to send you off with a flea in your ear — there is a problem.

By any objective and fair-minded standards, your Government has done a hell of a job in beginning to dig us out of the hole we were in. Now, of course, I’m not talking about the standards employed by newspapers such as the Sunday Independent, which reads as if it’s written by a gang of sneering school children. They appear to be interested in nothing except cynical dismissal of every effort — except, of course, when they are ascribing sinister motives about freedom of the press to anyone who disagrees with them. The freedom to do nothing but sneer — it’s a new democratic standard, that’s for sure.

You didn’t put us in the hole — indeed, I doubt if any government in the history of the State has ever inherited a bigger mess. The government that took office in 1983 had to cope with a bugging scandal left behind by its predecessors, and the government elected in 1992 walked straight into an international currency crisis that drove mortgage rates through the roof. But there’s never been anything as deep, as sudden, or as intense as the crisis you inherited.

You’ve been there now since Mar 9 last year. By my reckoning, that’s around 500 days. I know the news cycle is much faster these days than it used to be — John F Kennedy was 1,000 days in office altogether, and his presidency is still remembered — but by most historical standards 500 days is not a long time. Especially given the job you were asked to do.

Your job was no less than to win Ireland’s sovereignty back. And it seems you’re well on the way. The breakthrough at the last European summit, although it has been dismissed in some quarters as the mere insertion of a sentence into a wider communiqué, was actually profound. And it’s clear that that wouldn’t have happened without a lot of quiet, intense preparation, and the exercise of brilliant timing and judgement at the right moment.

Apart from that, the management of the economy, painful as it has been, has begun to work. I don’t agree with all the measures that have been imposed, and I believe your Government deserves criticism for ignoring the need for (and the benefits of) greater equality in the way some of the cutbacks have been unfairly targeted. Some of the political management of things such as the introduction of a property tax has also left a huge amount to be desired.

But there are signs, nevertheless, that Ireland is beginning to turn a corner. We’re not there yet, for sure, but we’re a lot further along the road than most of us would have believed possible when Brian Cowen and his discredited government left office.

There is every reason to believe that by the time you and your Government face re-election, you’ll have done the near impossible, and a lot more besides.

So what’s the problem? The problem is none of us feel that way. None of us feel that we’re onto something here, that we’re all beginning to climb out of the pit of despair. None of us feel that these sacrifices you’re asking us to make are worthwhile, and that they will pay off in the end.

Why is that? Why is it that so much is being done, and yet so few of us can see it?

Part of the explanation, I’m afraid, lies in your style of leadership. During the last referendum, when you were heavily criticised for refusing to debate the fiscal compact with Gerry Adams, I felt you were right. That would have given him a “leader of the opposition” status he hasn’t earned.

But you did no interviews either, and you haven’t done one decent searching interview that I can recall since you were elected Taoiseach. You didn’t even do any interviews in the aftermath of your achievement at the last European summit (and doorstep interviews don’t count, Taoiseach, you know that).

There are only two possible reasons you haven’t. The first is you’re afraid, the second is you don’t believe it’s necessary. I don’t believe you’re afraid of being interviewed, because you did a lot of them before you became Taoiseach (and debates as well). So could it possibly be true that you don’t think it’s necessary for a leader to communicate well and effectively with the people he leads? If you do think that, you couldn’t be more wrong. And what’s more, that belief could damage and erode your leadership. You have a duty to yourself, and to us, to work much harder at showing us that you have a vision, and that it’s worthwhile. Actions may speak louder than words, but nothing speaks louder than a sense of purpose and direction.

OF course, that means being on top of the brief all the time, to the point where you’ve internalised it. But they tell me that you’re as knowledgeable as anybody at those private Cabinet sub-committees. There shouldn’t be a major problem in turning that insight into a much stronger public presentation.

By the time you next get a break, a lot will have happened. This time next year, Ireland will have just completed a term in the Presidency of the EU. As things stand right now, that looks like it could be the busiest and most stressful six months of your life. If the crisis over Spain and Italy hasn’t completely destroyed the euro by the time your presidency begins, your six-month term could be the time when a real rescue is finally put together.

Even before you get there, you’ve got to make good on the promise of the last summit. There’s a deadline in October when the commitment in principle to separate Ireland’s banking debt from the people’s debt has to be realised. And there’s a really tough budget in December.

Oh, and you’re also committed to a referendum on the rights of children. You promised that a long time ago — in a really powerful speech you made in the debate on the Ryan Report. Then, you spoke not as a politician, but as a father and as a citizen. A bit more of that — a lot more of that, in fact — will be needed after your holidays.