Political misjudgement - Kenny needs to be more hard-nosed

It was an almost universal rite of passage in pre-pastoral culture that young men were sent to the forest or savannah, jungle or distant mountain range to single-handedly kill the wolf, the lion, the grizzly bear or whichever animal represented the greatest challenge to his community. If that young man returned with a trophy, his path to life’s next milestone was open and success a possibility. If he did not, it was no more than evolution in action and the tribe moved on.

In Irish life, that tradition is kept alive by appointing ambitious politicians minister for health. Even though three recent incumbents — Mary Harney, Micheál Martin, and Brian Cowen — went on to lead their parties, it is impossible to think they were successful in the department. None of them, despite considerable commitment, in two cases at least, led necessary the change. Each fled the department defeated if not broken, and the great monolith tottered on unhappy, often unloved, and defiantly unmanageable.

That rite of passage’s latest victim, former health minster James O’Reilly was passionate and committed, sometimes too passionate and so committed that he was vulnerable. His over-reach, especially on universal health insurance, cost him office. In the weeks since he succeeded Dr O’Reilly, Leo Varadkar has had to ask for patience on universal health insurance and, in his latest attempt to combine ambition and possibility, asked health insurance companies to freeze premiums for two years. That a Department of Health briefing given to him in July described alternatives to the HSE suggested by Dr Reilly, as “unworkable”, shows Dr O’Reilly had little or no support where it really mattered — among the officer class of the permanent government.

He did however, have political support from Taoiseach Enda Kenny, even if he was ordered to accept budget cuts he insisted were unworkable. Mr Kenny’s support was personal and political; Dr O’Reilly had steadfastly supported him through an attempted putsch and he and his party had been elected to lead profound reform. It is more than unfortunate then that Mr Kenny’s support for Dr O’Reilly means, in the coldest of cold lights, that reform has been delayed and that three years have, if not been entirely wasted, then marked by underachievement. This, once again, calls Mr Kenny’s judgement into question.

It is unfortunate too that, as Mr Varadkar tries to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, that former environment minister and aspirant European commissioner Phil Hogan’s early knowledge of Irish Water’s spectacular start-up costs was far, far greater than he or his party had acknowledeged. It is natural that those startling figures were kept under wraps for as long as is possible, but that Mr Hogan knew of them means he was a collaborator in the extravagance rather than the critical supervising eye needed in a straitened economy. Whether this amounts to deceit or is yet another example of why politics and politicians are so cynically regarded is a personal judgement for every individual, but it does confirm that Mr Kenny may have misjudged another member of his innermost inner circle.