Kenny’s blind loyalty to ministers betrays lack of management skills

MAKING predictions in politics is a mugs game, we only have to look back on the last few days to confirm that as a fact.

I mean who would have guessed that after a period of political stagnation, and a lacklustre performance at his ard fheis in Killarney last weekend, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin would have had such a stormer of a political week.

More pointedly, who would have thought last Saturday night that former Labour TD Patrick Nulty could arguably have stayed in office, despite his entirely correct decision to stand down.

Here was a member of Dáil Éireann sending smutty messages on Facebook, and via other means, to female constituents. According to himself the Facebook message was sent to a 17-year-old “woman”, and while under the influence of drink. Reading the details online last Saturday night, and feeling shocked by them, I would never have guessed that the sordid episode would hardly be mentioned beyond Monday.

Patrick Nulty’s salaciousness was overtaken by a far bigger political drama where the Government appeared to almost unravel before our eyes over a period of 48 hours. It was shocking. At this point Minister for Justice Alan Shatter must hold some sort of record for being the minister most called on the resign over such a prolonged period.

If you didn’t grasp that the Coalition was in trouble already on Tuesday evening it was made crystal clear by Finance Minister Michael Noonan being sent out to RTÉ to bat for the Government. But as he attempted to explain the significance of what had been unveiled by the Taoiseach at Tuesday’s lengthy Cabinet meeting we were having flashbacks to the period before Noonan’s second and highly successful political life began.

As he grappled with the detail of the taping of phone calls to and from garda stations, and tried in vain to hide his frustration at Miriam O’Callaghan attempting to get some answers, I found myself transported back in time to when he was the Fine Gael leader. It was not a good memory.

The Taoiseach argues that Martin Callinan made up his own mind to stand down. While the former Garda Commiossioner didn’t quite wake up to a dead horse in the bed, he was given a loud and clear signal about his future with the visit of the secretary general of the Department of Justice to his home on Monday night.

By the end of the week we are left with a controversy that almost requires a computer spreadsheet to filter all the detail, not least the investigations and inquiries that are ongoing. There is also the knowledge of far more information that we have yet to learn and which could be potentially explosive.

But looking back over the last nine weeks what has been perhaps the most inexplicable aspect of all of this has been Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s serious failings when it has come to man management.

It may be simplistic but it seems justified to trace this back to the summer of 2010 and the attempted heave against Enda Kenny when he was leader of Fine Gael. His three strongest allies at that time were Health Minister James Reilly, his deputy leader, Environment Minister Phil Hogan and Justice Minister Alan Shatter.

What we have seen since he came into office is that these three, less so Phil Hogan, whose sins pale in comparison to the other pair, are given enormous latitude when it comes to how they conduct their jobs as cabinet ministers.

One of the most surreal moments of this current controversy came a few weeks ago when Minister Reilly told journalists that Minister Shatter had his full confidence. One imagined that Alan Shatter must have fully realised the seriousness of his troubles at that point.

Up to this Dr Reilly was a lightening rod for trouble in the Cabinet on a whole range of issues, from being officially named in Stubbs Gazette for failing, along with business partners, to pay a debt of €1.9m, to his handling of the controversy over the locating of primary care centres, to the looseness of his grasp of his department’s budgetary position.

But as time went on it became clear to his colleagues around the Cabinet table, particularly the Labour ministers, that Minister Reilly had an armour plating when it came to his backing from the Taoiseach, virtually regardless of what trouble he found himself in.

Alan Shatter has the same “favourite son” position, although prior to this there was rather more tolerance of that given his massive intellect, his work ethic and how Labour ministers were partial to his more liberal leanings on social issues.

But the arrogance which Alan Shatter has displayed in recent months, and his imperviousness to how his behaviour has affected the standing of the Government, has seriously reduced that tolerance. However, the failure by the Taoiseach to rein him in simply reinforced the sense that he had a protected position, regardless of how he acted. There is strong speculation that Phil Hogan is going to get the plum post of European Commissioner in the summer.

Contrast the treatment of these three men with that of junior minister Brian Hayes. He has spent the past three years defending the Government, particularly those tricky austerity budgets. It’s been sterling service. Actually the Government could really have done with his communication skills in recent weeks. In any other circumstance it would have been expected that Hayes would have been promoted to a senior ministry in the upcoming Cabinet reshuffle.

But the junior minister was a key figure in the Bruton camp at the time of the heave. Now Hayes appears to have made the strategic decision that his talents will remain unappreciated and unrewarded around Leinster House and that he is better off in the European Parliament. He’s been off campaigning over the last few weeks.

SO THIS is Enda Kenny’s blind spot and this week there were moments when it looked as if his Government might founder on it, until sense finally prevailed and someone sat Alan Shatter down and told him some of the facts of political life, and how to spell the word sorry.

The Coalition, especially the Fine Gael part of it, has received a major wallop. Strategically Labour can claim a victory in the establishment of an independent policing authority, which the party has had as a long held aim.

But relations between the two parties have been significantly damaged. There is a relief that Alan Shatter has survived after his apology to the whistleblowers, but there is also the knowledge that this is just a temporary reprieve as they await the findings of various inquiries and investigations.

The political opinion poll in the Sunday Business Post this week is avidly awaited by all political parties. There has been so much distraction this week that you almost forget that the European and local elections are just weeks away in May. Another fact almost forgotten in the latest melee is that Fine Gael has lost its chief election strategist Frank Flannery.

It’s time for the Taoiseach to find a middle ground when it comes to rewarding political faithfulness. It’s is understandable that after battling for so long to get into power, and being belittled by so many as not up to the job, that he would want to stand by those who believed in him. But the blind loyalty he shows is not wise.