A minister appointed – Taoiseach must crack the whip

When ambitious ideologies and contracting budgets collide there is almost inevitably a period of disappointment followed by a compromise and then, maybe, a tolerable resolution.

When idealism, if that is not too trite an idea for a programme for government, and the exigencies of political life collide then the higher path is not always chosen.

Health Minister Dr James Reilly’s decision to add two primary health care centres in his constituency, neither of which satisfied an agreed criteria, to a list finalised by his former deputy Labour’s Róisín Shortall was a shabby abuse of power straight out of the Soldiers of Destiny Handbook of Self-serving Strokes.

Dr Reilly may see it otherwise and if he does then he is either politically naive or indifferent to the promises of transparency in government that were so very influential at the last election. That he has been allowed to be so very cavalier by his party leader and Taoiseach Enda Kenny moves what should have been a minor administrative matter onto an altogether different plane.

A string of resignations in the HSE, the VHI and among programme managers suggest, albeit in hindsight, that the robustness needed to deliver reform might need to be tempered with an better understanding of when compromise or accepting an alternative view might be the better course of action.

Unfortunately, Dr Reilly’s attitude to transparency has been echoed by nearly every government figure inveigled to speak in public on the affair. Sadly, their squirming prevarication has done them no credit. The ease with which the commitment to transparency — open democracy was the very grand phrase sometimes used — has been set aside is, if not alarming, then very disappointing.

If Dr Reilly’s record of achievement had been what he had led us to expect then it might have been possible to overlook his inappropriate intervention but that he has failed to make what could be described as reasonable progress on several frontline issues — consultants’ pay, drug costs, universal health care and the national children’s hospital — leaves him with far less room for manoeuvre than he might imagine he has.

In the immediate aftermath of Ms Shortall’s surprise resignation the focus was on what it meant for the Labour Party and what it meant for Dr Reilly. However, the episode probably has a significance beyond its central players.

Enda Kenny owes the fact that he is still leader of Fine Gael to the two ministers in the deepest hot water in recent days — Phil Hogan and James Reilly — and it would be more than unfortunate if he felt a degree of loyalty to these men that precluded him from insisting that they observe the principles of openness and reform, an end to clientelism and stroke politics so vigorously championed in the programme for government.

That barrister Alex White has been appointed to succeed Ms Shortall less than 24 hours after she resigned reminds us all than none of us, no matter how principled, are indispensable but it does not answer the most important question — does Enda Kenny have the steel, the uno Duce, una voce authority to pull wayward ministers back into line to deliver the central promises of the programme for government? If not he and his party, and Labour too, will be the ultimate casualties in this affair. Apart that is from the rest of us.