Smell of cronyism still alive and reeking

ANYBODY waiting for Taoiseach Enda Kenny to tell them who forced ex-Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan to fall on his sword came away sorely disappointed from Fine Gael’s national conference in Castlebar last night.

Nor did anyone hear him say whether Ireland put any pressure at all on Europe during the bank bailout crisis.

As RTÉ’s Miriam O’Callaghan discovered, and what the rest of the country already knew, despite his grand promises about transparency and accountability, this is a Taoiseach who kowtows to minders that like to keep the Irish people in the dark. Whether he likes it or not, the public wants to know the answers to these and other burning questions.

Were he to come clean, instead of drawing criticism he would hear the kind of credit his government richly deserves for the enormous improvements which have been achieved in this country, especially in comparison with the dark abyss left over when this administration came into power in the wake of the excesses and ineptitude of the former Fianna Fáil-Green coalition that left Ireland in such a mess. Without a shadow of a doubt, the contrast between then and now is as night compared to day. Despair has given way to hope.

Yet, it also must be said that the Fine Gael-Labour coalition has betrayed voters by failing to deliver on its promises of fundamental reform. The rank smell of cronyism in Mayo under Fianna Fáil is still alive and reeking in Fine Gael.