Mick Clifford: New government already marred by low standards in high places
Independent TD Michael Lowry was effectively the man who was putting the government together. File photo
There was always a danger of complacency setting in but few could have expected it even before the government is formed.
Last November, the electorate deigned that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael be returned to power. This was despite some major social problems, most notably the housing crisis. Quite obviously, the electorate determined that they would prefer the devil they know.
Such a result was inevitably going to be interpreted by some returning to government as a licence to carry on as they see fit. What has evolved in the actual formation of a new government suggests both parties — and particularly the leaders — believe they can do as they please now that they are looking at five more years in power.
The central aspect to the formation is the inclusion of what were eight TDs under the banner Regional Independents. Nobody, among these TDs or the two Civil War parties, had a problem with Michael Lowry being the main negotiator, effectively the man who was putting the government together.
In 2013, the Moriarty Tribunal found that it was beyond doubt that Lowry, when he was minister for communications, provided “substantive” information to Denis O’Brien, which was “of significant value and assistance to him” in securing a lucrative mobile phone licence.
The report concluded that Lowry had received payments from O’Brien through a series of “clandestine” property deals. These included IR£47,000, stg£300,000 and support from O’Brien for a loan of stg£420,000.
Lowry and O’Brien reject the findings but Micheál Martin and Simon Harris don’t. Yet, both saw fit to allow such a figure put together the next government.
An awful lot of rubbish has been spouted about Lowry having “a mandate” from the people of Tipperary for the 14 years since the tribunal characterised him as a person unfit for high office. The people of Tipperary can elect whom they choose. The people of Dublin Central almost elected a man known to be a gangland criminal last November.
None of that means that the main parties should allow a person unfit for government any role in forming that government. His own decision not to seek office in this arrangement is a tacit admittance that he would present a problem. On another level, if he is as clean as we are being told by FF and FG, would either admit him to their party as a member?
His first task was to get another member of the Regional Independents elected Ceann Comhairle. Verona Murphy has plenty of ability and has also acquired a reputation as a person with a strong political will. As such she would have been one of the first in line among the regionals for any big job on offer.
Even then though, could she be trusted to bite her lip when things get rocky, as they usually do at some point? Between it all, the best course as seen by Lowry was to have her elected as chair of the Dáil. That took her off the pitch and gave her a nice, big job with commensurate salary.
Micheál Martin and Simon Harris recommended to their respective parties that she be accepted, not because they thought her the best candidate in the newly elected house but because their interests’ coincided with Lowry’s.
Murphy has made noises inferring she will have difficulty giving up her constituency role while occupying a job that guarantees her re-election. She will be given time and space to prove herself but her appointment, its circumstances and who drove it, cast a shadow over an important office.
Then the lads in the Regionals, led by Lowry, got down to brass tacks. With Murphy taken out, they were reduced to seven. Four among those were to be given jobs, two junior portfolios and another two super juniors. Even that wasn’t enough.
On Sunday Sean Canney, one of the chosen supers, admitted that he requested that a travel and subsistence allowance should be restored to all juniors, instead of the prevailing system whereby they retrospectively claim the expenses.
Who among FF and FG was going to object to more money for the boys and girls? The juniors' stipend will now include a €113,679 TD salary, plus €45,846 for their ministerial post along with another €32,000 travel and subsistence allowance.
On top of that, the super juniors — who get to sit in the high chairs at Cabinet — will receive an extra €16,200 to reflect the honour. Would FF and FG have had the brass neck to add the number of super juniors and restore a comfy allowance if they didn’t have the regionals for cover?
Then we come to the move that can only be described as taking the absolute piss. The three regional TDs who have not attained high office want speaking rights with a technical group to hold the government to account.
They are to be joined in this by Danny Healy-Rae, who with his prospective junior minister brother Michael, negotiated their own deal with FF and FG. In this the four will be holding to account the programme for government which they negotiated.
Their spiritual guru in this manoeuvre must surely be Boris Johnson, who once declared he is “pro having cake and pro eating it too”.
So of a Monday in the forthcoming Dáil, the four — Lowry, Healy-Rae, Gillian Toole and Barry Heneghan — can tell their super juniors what they want discussed with the party leaders ahead of Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.
And on Tuesday afternoon the four of them can engage in cakism, lambasting this heartless government that has lost touch with the people. Or fill in whatever thundering declaration will go down well on social media.
It’s a joke that would not be tolerated in any other democratic parliament, but figures from both FF and FG have been across the media for the last few days defending the right of the regionals to be in government and the opposition simultaneously.
The final decision on this will be down to the Ceann Comhaire, Verona Murphy. So the recently departed member of the Regionals will decide whether those of her erstwhile colleagues who have not snaffled a job in the forthcoming Dáil should be allowed to play both sides of the House. You couldn’t make it up.
Independents entering, or even supporting the government, consider it a sacrifice for which they require compensation. That is their prerogative, their only loyalty to their respective constituencies.
Political parties, however, claim that their loyalty is primarily to the national interest, including the retention of confidence in politics. Right now, Micheál Martin and Simon Harris, in how they assembled their government of choice, are behaving as if they don’t give two figs about perceptions of low standards in high places.
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