John McNulty appointment: Treating the electorate with disdain

For a government that promised to put an end to the cronyism and stroke politics which brought Irish politics into disrepute, the performance of the Fine Gael–Labour Coalition in this regard has been truly abysmal.

The latest ‘stunt’, the only word for it, involves the appointment of the Fine Gael Seanad by-election candidate John McNulty to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). It is perhaps the most blatant breach to date of the now threadbare pledge to root out the sort of nod-and-wink scams that caused people to look on politics in general, and politicians in particular, with deep cynicism.

Responsibility for the contemptuous disregard for public opinion lies squarely at the door of Taoiseach Enda Kenny. His pre-election promise to create a new way of doing politics in this country now lies in tatters. His betrayal of the much-vaunted pledge to break the historic mould of a long discredited political system by introducing transparency and accountability as the hallmark of his reign, has shown him for what he is — a political fraud.

While the Taoiseach was basking in the limelight of the UN summit on global warming, his Arts Minister, Heather Humphries, was left floundering with the impossible task of defending the indefensible on the floor of the Seanad. In the event, her reputation too has been damaged. Pressed to explain Mr McNulty’s appointment to IMMA (a stepping stone to his nomination as Fine Gael candidate in the forthcoming by-election), she could do no better than reiterate his track record as a businessman, his involvement with the GAA, and his love of Irish culture. While such qualities are admirable, they are hardly the stuff of what one might expect to see on the CV of a person assigned to the board which oversees the country’s showpiece of modern art.

When the Government lost a Senate vote on the issue, Ms Humphreys was forced to attend the Upper House to explain Mr McNulty’s bizarre appointment. Ironically, he will have to stand down from the board when elected to the Seanad, a certainty given the Coalition’s majority there. In a further twist, it appears Mr McNulty had not even sought the Senate job. Nor was his name on the shortlist put forward by the Fine Gael national executive. That list carried only the names of three female candidates in the race to replace former senator Deirdre Clune, recently elected to the EU parliament. Clearly, the instruction to give Mr McNulty the seat came from the Taoiseach. Nobody else would have either the power or audacity to trample in hobnail boots over the views of the party’s powerful executive machine.

The McNulty affair has opened the country’s largest party to charges of political rigging. Mr Kenny has been accused by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin of playing “fast and loose” with the Seanad and of treating the Second House with lack of respect. So tainted has Mr Kenny’s term of office become by the Coalition’s jobs-for-the-boys approach, there is now little to separate him from the brand of Fianna Fáil leadership people were sick of. Shame on him for treating the electorate with such disdain. Voters will not forget it — and rightly so.