New-look cabinet but same old politics

THE excitement is too much. Over the last few days, a wave of heightened emotion has been sweeping across the country as the citizenry wait with bated breath. Will he, won’t he? No, not Garth Brooks, but Enda Kenny.

Who’ll step in and who’ll step out in this massively anticipated cabinet reshuffle? Will Enda deliver a sermon from the plinth on how his “new” government will engage in a democratic revolution, eschewing the old way of doing things? Will he use the occasion to warn the country about Gerry Adams? Or Micheál Martin? Or, and this is a real long shot, will he actually submit to a grown-up interview of the type that is routine for democratically elected leaders? OK, maybe the excitement is getting to me. There’s no real chance of that.

Notwithstanding the throes of silly season, the speculation around the cabinet reshuffle largely misses the point. We are told that the Government must “freshen up” its image; that “new faces” are required; that this represents a chance for the executive to better communicate its achievements in time for the next general election.

It’s as if the most recent past is another planet. Three years ago, Fine Gael and Labour entered government when the country was on its knees. There was widespread acknowledgement that the previous Fianna Fáil-led administrations had steered the ship of State onto the rocks under the reckless stewardship of Bertie Ahern.

As an antidote to the crony capitalism perfected under Ahern, we were told that things were going to be different. Apart from the business of raising the country up onto a relatively stable footing, the nature of politics was going to change. There would be no more feather-bedding, or jobs for the boys and girls, or using elected office to big up the party. No, this was going to be clean, transparent politics, a new way of doing things.

Three years on, this Government is beginning to make Ahern look like an inept choir boy when it comes to using the spoils of office.

Take the big beast of Fine Gael, Phil Hogan. His exit from cabinet is being spoken of in hushed tones, as he is regarded as Kenny’s right-hand man. Is he leaving because he’s perceived to have done a less than competent job? No, he’s going on to greater things, a promotion to Brussels, to take up the role of Ireland’s European commissioner. His elevation is not attributable to any deeply hidden love of Europe’s institutions, or some slumbering, personal vision of how Europe should evolve. It’s simply down to the kind of “jobs for the boys” politics that Hogan and his colleagues railed against at the last election.

Going to Europe will double his take-home pay. He won’t have to stand before the electorate again. His pensions have been fattened, and he will make contacts in Europe that should ensure he’ll pull in some handy bucks when his time is up in five years.

Those considerations mean the job is much sought after, and Big Phil is on a promise from Enda. There has been no discussion or debate on whether Hogan is the most suitable candidate for the job.

Europe has loomed large through the current crisis. Large swathes of the population are growing sceptical of the country’s role in Europe, and more particularly, Europe’s role in this country. Yet the bright shiny government ushered in three years ago considers the commissionership as merely a plum job for a top boy.

In 1982, Fianna Fáil pulled a stroke by appointing Fine Gael’s Dick Burke as commissioner, hoping the government’s majority would be shored up by winning the resultant by-election.

In 2004, Bertie Ahern appointed Charlie McCreevy to the role, on the basis that McCreevy had become a lightening rod for disaffection among the electorate. The only thing for it was to pack him off to Brussels in the name of winning the next election.

This time around, it’s nothing as complicated. Enda owes Phil. What matters the best interests of the country when these boys have personal honour and friendship to worry about.

In the best traditions of grubby politics, Hogan is leaving with a flourish. In the last few weeks, as he has been packing his bags, he found time to appoint seven former councillors to state boards. Five are Fine Gael people, while, in the spirit of coalition, two are from Labour.

No doubt all of these fine people are as suitable for their new roles as Big Phil will be for his, but where-fore the democratic revolution? On entering government, Enda Kenny said appointments to state boards should be by public application. This turned out to be more empty rhetoric.

Fewer than one in five appointments to state boards in the last three years have been through the public system. Earlier this year, this newspaper reported that of 1,067 appointments, only 191 went through a public advertisement process.

So it’s no surprise that Big Phil is getting his jobs in as he’s going out the door, a stroke that resonates perfectly with what Fianna Fáil did when leaving government in 2011.

Pat Rabbitte, another man expected to leave cabinet this week, left his own mark by appointing two former politicians, one from each party, to state boards in the last fortnight. And guess what? Joan Burton, the new leader of the Labour Party, wants to see more appointments by public application. Where has she been for the last three years? The deck chairs will be rearranged. We’ll no longer have Big Phil to kick around.

Burton will be on the airwaves more regularly. Kenny will have a fresh pep in his step. But so what? Precious little has changed in the last three years when it comes to the business of politics. Does anybody really believe that things will be different from here on in?