Gilmore mouths off in China but fault’s closer to home

IN a twist on the old cliché of a bull in a china shop, Eamon Gilmore has been talking bull in a ‘shop’ in China.

In a shrill shout-out from Shanghai, the globe-trotting Tánaiste reveals who is to blame for Labour’s collapse in the polls — erm, ex-junior health minister, Roisín Shortall.

Apparently, Labour’s slump can be traced back to the woman Gilmore brands “nasty and bitter”, in an uncharacteristically graceless swipe, and to her appalling rudeness in not telling Mr Gilmore she was going until he got her resignation letter.

It is the latest in the Labour hierarchy’s increasingly delusional attempts at self-justification for, and disassociation from, their rather ragged record in government.

Labour has recently released a slither of calculated leaks they consider self-serving — but are actually self-harming — about how they “nearly” quit the Coalition in last year’s tense Budget talks, because the Blueshirts were such bullies, but Labour saved the day.

That’s odd, as on Budget day it seemed to everyone else Labour rolled over and allowed a cut to child benefit that disproportionately hit the most vulnerable families, but did not get any tax increase on top earners in exchange.

What a great look-back on a political life well-spent: “Do you remember that time we nearly stood up for our principles, and we nearly walked out of government, Eamon?”

Now, in an extraordinarily personalised attack on a woman most voters were not particularly aware of when she was a junior health minister, let alone now she is cast out to the wilderness that is the opposition benches, Mr Gilmore rounds on Ms Shortall, and her ilk, for not having the “bottle” for power.

“Short of going down to Hawkins House (the Department of Health HQ) and doing the job for her, we couldn’t have done any more to support her.

“No other member of the Government, no other minister or minister of State, got more support from my office, and from her colleagues, than Roisín Shortall did.

“I think there was a level of bitterness and nastiness in it (the resignation) that wasn’t necessary, that didn’t add anything to the story,” an unusually agitated Mr Gilmore told the Irish Independent, while on a trade visit to China.

And Roisín’s the one who’s bitter in this broken relationship?

But, emotional Eamon is not finished with her yet.

“I think that what she did was very damaging — damaging to the Labour Party. I think that to have her, and one or two others, maintaining a constant critique and a constant negative take on the Labour Party, over a prolonged period of time, contributed enormously to the difficulties that we now have in the opinion polls,” the Tánaiste said.

Hmmm, curious that, considering Labour had already collapsed to single digits, in some opinion polls, before Ms Shortall refused to put up with any more of the shenanigans of stroke specialist, Health Minister Dr James Reilly, and quit government last September in disgust.

But, with a staggering lack of self-awareness, Mr Gilmore says he got it right, and those who are angry with him have got it wrong.

“There are times when doing the right thing is, maybe, the toughest thing to do, but it is the best thing to do and I am satisfied that we have done that.”

Let’s examine some of those “tough” decisions, shall we?

Slashing the benefits of disabled teenagers, cutting respite funding for carers, ripping hundreds of teaching posts out of the most disadvantaged schools in the State — surely, they were all easy hits on people this Coalition knew could never hit back?

Upping the USC for people who earn more than €100,000 a year, in a solidarity tax, now, that would have been an act of “toughness,” a display of “bottle” — which is presumably why Mr Gilmore and Co have failed to deliver on it.

Half of the disadvantaged school posts were eventually reprieved, once Labour backbenchers — shamefully, many of them teachers themselves — realised what they had voted through in the Coalition’s first Budget (and they are surprised when they are dismissed as lobby fodder?).

But Education Minister Ruairi Quinn still refuses to move on basic things, like, with the flick of a pen, saving families €300 a year (equivalent in many cases to the hated property tax) by stopping the scam of specialist, expensive school uniforms and book demands.

But expect a climb-down some time in the future on that, when any political capital will have been lost, because the Quinn U-turns come with such dizzying speed that it is impossible to keep up.

Maybe, as Irish children are sliding down the OECD numeracy league tables, we could integrate the issue into the curriculum with an exam question: “How many bad policy reversals has Minister Quinn been forced into this year?”

Though, unfortunately, the answer would be: “I’ve lost count.”

But, just like Eamon, none of it is Mr Quinn’s fault.

As he informed us after his first batch of backtracks, he is new to all this and must be allowed to make mistakes.

Memo to Quinn: You were Minister for chuffing Finance in the 1990s. You’re not new to anything. Get a grip.

One of the many low points of his time as Education Minister came last year, when he launched a laudable initiative to stamp-out homophobic bullying in schools.

When this column asked him how 14-year-olds were supposed to understand it was wrong to call classmates ‘queer’ and ‘faggot’, when they knew the class teacher could lose his or her job simply because they were gay or lesbian, Mr Quinn had absolutely no answer, as the glaring hypocrisy had never occurred to him.

Belatedly, a move is being made to repeal section 37 of the Employment Equality Act, which allows such homophobic discrimination against teachers.

But it has been left to snake its way through the Seanad. Yes, the Seanad, the very chamber Labour ministers are constantly telling us is the useless garbage shoot of Irish politics.

And this after Mr Gilmore branded gay equality the “civil rights issue of this generation.”

Surely, it is time for some consistency, some spine, and some social justice from the self-proclaimed people’s party?

It may come as a surprise to him in Shanghai, but if Mr Gilmore wants to know who is to blame for Labour’s lack of direction and dive in popularity, he needs to look a lot closer to home.