Kenny needs a proper holiday to best serve the nation’s interests
In every couple there is usually one person who makes the vacation decisions, and given his hectic political schedule it’s unlikely that Taoiseach Enda Kenny has too much time to devote to the task, so in all likelihood it falls to his wife Fionnuala.
The best thing that could happen to us as citizens now would be for her to choose a faraway destination and whisk her husband off for at least ten days for a proper holiday and some proper rest.
The pair need to take off to somewhere sunny, distant, remote and preferably non-English speaking. Let them travel in the Government jet. This would increases their chances of the destination being kept secret and minimise the airport hassle. I realise that it goes against popular Irish thinking to suggest any sort of leisure or recreation for our politicians (hung, drawn and quartered would be the usual request) but the desire to see Enda going on vacation is for the good of the nation.
The man clearly needs a break, and more than his annual summer trip to Kerry. It is in our best interests as a country to see that he gets one. He has made such spectacularly bad errors in recent times that he can only benefit from some time off. You may not be an Enda or a Fine Gael fan, and you may think that you’d rather swallow a toad than give him any pleasure, but looking at the situation dispassionately this approach is just what the doctor ordered.
In fairness the man has had an incredibly tough three years and done some very good work in that time. The spectacular slippage of recent months is due to a myriad of factors, but lethargy must be one of them.
The local and European elections results showed how much trouble the Taoiseach and his government were in. Rather than the ship being steadied since then the situation has worsened. It could soon reach a tipping point from which the administration would find it impossible to recover. That sort of scenario does not seem that far off at present, and the Coalition may well be saved by the timing of the summer break.
On the one hand it’s clear from the Taoiseach’s comments on the mother and baby homes, and his trip earlier this week to Lebanon to see the Irish troops, that he and his handlers are making valiant efforts to portray him in a positive light.
However, the reaction to his statement to the Dáil that babies of unmarried mothers were treated as “an inferior sub-species” for decades in Ireland and that their treatment, and that of their mothers, was an abomination, shows a lot about his political standing at present.
His emotion and compassion may well have been genuine but the public is far more inclined to think the worst of their political leader than to put a positive spin on his efforts. They simply saw it as more of the same ’oul blather, and lumped it in with their unhappiness over Mr Kenny’s handling of water charges, GSOC, the banking inquiry, legacy bank debt, medical cards, the lists goes on.
If one was to imagine the collective mentality going into this week’s Cabinet meeting it must have been: “Jesus we need a win out of this, something positive that will stop the rot.” What we got was the medical card “solution”. This came almost three weeks after the disastrous election results and various announcements on it in between times.
It is difficult to operate politically when you are dealing with a 24/7 news agenda, and feeling particularly spooked after bad election results. But a far better strategy on the medical cards would have been to announce the Government would be making changes, and would make an announcement on that on a certain date. It may not have been ideal, but the end result is that instead of giving the Government a much needed boost, it comes across as something finally cobbled together, that everyone is hoping will work, rather than a carefully thought out political decision.
The banking inquiry has turned into yet another toxic experience for the Government, and this is just the sort of thing that annoys middle-class voters. Independent TD Stephen Donnelly did what he felt he had to by stepping down from the committee and it is difficult to feel much optimism for the outcome of this inquiry after the committee membership fiasco.
The growing sense that the Taoiseach is exhausted and not thinking rationally was cemented by what he said in relation to the inquiry committee while in the Lebanon visiting peacekeeping troops earlier in the week.
After the cackhanded effort to impose the Government’s authority on the committee last week he told journalists that it would “not operate to a mandate or direction or instruction from Government”.
He said the Government members of the committee would be independent after the Coalition decision to lift the whip on Fine Gael and Labour TDs and senators.
It would be up to the committee to decide what terms of reference they want to draw up, who they should interview, what they need to explore and so on and that there was “no party politics in this”.
AN ALIEN, recently arrived from a far off planet, could spot that the controversy surrounding this committee — its make up and its agenda — has been one of the most party political issues to face the Government since it came into office. Nor would one predict that this situation is likely to change. Just wait until we get to deciding what the scope of the inquiry should be. Mr Kenny must know, or you’d imagine he must at this stage, that just because he says something with a straight face doesn’t mean that people will take him at face value. They are smarter than that.
It’s all been a fabulous opportunity for the Opposition to take advantage of the Government disarray. It must be at least ten days since we’ve heard any mutterings about Micheál Martin’s leadership, as distracted Fianna Fáilers gleefully pounce on the Government’s ineptitude. Their leader performs particularly well in this sort of situation. Sinn Féin has opted to stay inside the tent, by remaining on the inquiry committee, obviously deciding it is the only chance of getting some answers.
We’ve come through an awful lot in the last few years, and much credit is due to the Government for that. The truth is that a general election any time soon would not really be a good idea, nor would the other political parties, in reality, wish for one to occur in the short term.
What we need is for the Taoiseach to pull himself together and get some fresh perspective on the many situations that face him, not least a Cabinet reshuffle. He needs a break.
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