Elaine Loughlin: Spare a thought for the Ministers of Zoom
It was Mary Harney who famously coaxed Green Party leader John Gormley into the 2007 coalition with the advice that even the worst day in government is better than the best day in opposition.
There must have been many days over the past nine months when Micheál Martin has seriously questioned those words of wisdom.
This week, as he sits in front of a computer screen for a Zoom with the US president instead of a chat in the Oval Office, it would only be human to feel a little cheated.
It’s 36 years since Martin set off on the path that has finally led him to the office of An Taoiseach. Having toiled at local and national level, in government and for long periods on the opposition benches, Martin has been denied many of the little spot prizes that have been awarded to every other taoiseach.
Regardless of your politics, becoming taoiseach is a proud moment and one of the few times that family members who have silently supported you from the wings come to Leinster House to share in the achievement.
Martin’s wife Mary and his children were not by his side when he became Taoiseach — he did not get the usual jubilant guard of honour as he made his way to the Áras.
Instead, his first day as leader of Government was marked by social distancing and the long, slow journey up the escalators of the vast glass and steel Convention Centre.
The image of Martin eating a chickpea salad with a boiled egg as he watched his son tog out for Cork — not from the Páirc Uí Chaoimh stands, but from Government Buildings — was truly pitiful.
Covid has denied him many political perks, but those around him will claim he doesn’t view it that way.
“He sees that there are so many other families who have gone through so much worse, everybody has made sacrifices,” one source close to Martin said.
Maybe the Taoiseach is some sort of true self-sacrificing saint on earth but, as St Patrick’s Day approaches, most mere mortals would be feeling a bit hard done by.
The annual St Patrick’s Day trip to the White House is seen as one of the rewards of the job, but the Taoiseach’s Washington trip — and the global tour taken by ministers — serves an important and effective purpose.
For a country that has just over half the population of New York, we carry enough clout to have Fifth Avenue shut down each year for a parade in our honour.
Then there are the famous landmarks that get the green treatment, from the Sydney Opera House to the London Eye, Niagara Falls, and the Colosseum.
But it’s more than just leprechaun hats, pints of Guinness, and dyeing rivers green. St Patrick’s Day offers a unique opportunity to promote Ireland’s economic and political interests overseas, with levels of publicity and media attention unmatched by the national day of any other country.
Yes, it costs a lot — the Government spent over €260,000 on flying ministers to more than 40 countries across the globe in 2018 — but it’s just a fraction of what we reap from the consular drinks receptions and ex-pat gala dinners.
You cannot quantify the benefits gained from a 2016 trip during which Enda Kenny came straight off a plane to regale a room full of businesspeople in a posh Silicon Valley hotel before meeting the head of Facebook at its HQ the following morning.
No monetary value can be attached to Leo Varadkar’s 10-day whistle-stop US tour in 2018 which took in a visit to members of the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma and a viewing of the JFK museum in Dallas.
One tangible benefit of such trips is the seat we currently hold on the UN Security Council.
Against the odds, and after considerable campaigning by members of the former government, Ireland managed to secure the votes of a myriad of countries in parts of the world where we wouldn’t traditionally have had significant ties.
Another was The Gathering, which was launched to the global diaspora in 2012 as part of St Patrick’s Day events. The campaign drew 250,000 more visitors and additional revenue of over €170m in just 12 months.
Eamon Gilmore, who held the foreign affairs portfolio while in government, summed up the annual flight of ministers well.
“You can say: ‘Come and visit, come and study’. You can showcase the work of our tech companies, our farmers, our artists, and our researchers, and say: ‘This is what the Irish people can do’.
This year, those conversations will be held online, but you can’t get a feel for a room through a computer screen.
Nevertheless, the Government has decided to work with what it has, and is rolling out a series of over 70 country-specific virtual receptions.
We have lost so much in the past year — not getting a trip to Sydney or Beijing, Washington DC, or Auckland pales in comparison to the loss people have suffered and the sacrifices we all have made.
But it is not just the Cabinet members who are missing out on a global shindig — it’s the entire country, and the benefits the St Patrick’s tour brings.
Normal (more critical) analysis will resume next week. But in the coming days, spare a thought for our Taoiseach and his ministers as they grow weary of yet another Zoom.
- : The future of post offices is to be examined by the Oireachtas committee on transport and communications. Postmasters say they are facing a financial cliff-face if the Government does not provide a public service obligation subsidy before the summer.
- : The Taoiseach is in for a zoom-packed day as he virtually presents US president Joe Biden with the traditional shamrock bowl. Then it’s on to another video call with Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi and members of the US Congress’s Friends of Ireland Caucus.
- : The European Commission is to publish details of the plan to introduce ‘vaccine passports’ or ‘green passes’ to aid free movement within the EU. The pass will indicate whether a person has been vaccinated, has tested negative or is immune after contracting the virus.
- : The transport committee will look at the impact of Covid on driving instructors. The Road Safety Authority has warned that driving test waiting lists pose a “direct road safety risk” and undermine efforts to tackle drivers who rely on multiple learner permits.
- : The Central Bank is to publish data on residential mortgages for the final quarter of 2020, with information on arrears and repossessions.
: The Crossbarry Ambush in Co Cork left 10 British and three IRA dead. A report headlined ‘Big Encounter Near Cork’ in the described the terror experienced by locals as the fighting broke out. “Machine guns, bombs, rifles and revolvers were used and the quiet countryside resounded in the noise of rifle volleys and bomb explosions.”
: The first St Patrick’s Day parade in the Irish Free State took place in Dublin.
: The State funeral of former president Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh took place in Sneem, Co Kerry. Detailing the wake the night before, Donal Hickey wrote: “Sneem (population 250) is now preparing for its first State funeral. It will be the biggest occasion in the area since the late president [Charles] de Gaulle of France spent a holiday there 11 years ago.”
: The front page of the carried a report from one of Pádraig Flynn’s infamous St Patrick’s Day gatherings in Brussels. The entire European Commission, of which Mr Flynn was a member, had resigned amid controversy just days before, but the piece detailed how this did not spoil the party.
“Mr Flynn, sporting a sprig of shamrock on his pinstriped lapel was determined to enjoy himself” and gave a rendition of .
: Ireland confirmed its first case of foot-and-mouth disease in many years and the country went into lockdown.
The first St Patrick’s Day meeting between a US president and a taoiseach took place back in 1956 with the visit of John A Costello to the White House. However, it has only become an annual fixture in more recent decades.
The yearly trip to Washington became a guaranteed date in the diary when Albert Reynolds was in power, and taoisigh have made the yearly trip ever since.
The event really took on 40 shades of green with the election of Bill Clinton, who turned it into a massive celebration with a packed agenda of events.
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