Decentralisation - Kenny’s cop-out shows lack of a plan

In his RTÉ interview yesterday, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said very little about his party’s specific policy plans except to promise, in a general way, to provide honest, open and effective government.

The only specific issue he touched on was that of decentralisation, which has been something of a political chestnut for almost 40 years - since a Fianna Fáil government announced plans, in the 1960s, to disperse government departments and agencies. If the concept was valid in the mid-1960s, it is even more so today.

Methods of communication have been revolutionised since then, and reservations about the transfer of departments have virtually disappeared. Mr Kenny had justification when he said the Government had played politics in using decentralisation to influence the outcome of the last local and European elections, but he seemed to be doing the same thing himself when he said he would pursue decentralisation in a planned and managed way - without giving any specifics.