Cabinet changes - So much reshuffled so little changed

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has fulfilled his description of the Cabinet changes as a reshuffle. The changes in ministerial portfolios are the most extensive made by any continuing Taoiseach since the declaration of the Emergency in 1939.

Yet, in a sense, the changes have been minimal. Only three new ministers have been brought into government, and two of those were to fill vacancies brought about by the appointment of Charlie McCreevy as European Commissioner and the voluntary retirement of Joe Walsh as agriculture minister.

The new appointments of Dick Roche, Mary Hanafin and Willie O’Dea will be seen as merited promotions, but the other changes are likely to be viewed as promotions or demotions. Brian Cowen, Dermot Ahern and Mary Coughlan were the big winners, but Noel Dempsey certainly seemed pleased with his appointment to communications, marine, and natural resources. It is a post that could well afford him ample scope for reform initiatives.

Effective politicians seek to change the inefficiencies of government. There is little doubt that Tánaiste Mary Harney will have enormous scope for change within the aegis of the Department of Health. It has been a black hole in which enormous amounts of money have been expended with little evidence of progress. Her move is undoubtedly a big political gamble, because the position has been something of a poisoned chalice, yet it has tremendous scope for the kind of reform and efficiencies that the Progressive Democrats like to promote.

Even though the appointment of her friend Séamus Brennan to social and family affairs has been depicted as a kind of a demotion, this may be more apparent than real.

With the Tánaiste taking over at health, his appointment can be seen as auguring a right-wing shift in the Government.

The winners also include the five new appointments as ministers of state, but there can be little doubt that the two biggest losers were Michael Smith and Jim McDaid. The latter lost out as minister of state, having been dropped from the Cabinet following the last general election.

Mr Smith resigned as minister for defence, but he obviously jumped at the request of the Taoiseach. Yet he deserves credit for resigning.

Since the Arms Crisis a number of ministers essentially challenged the Taoiseach’s right to remove them by refusing to resign. That included future Taoisigh Charles Haughey and Albert Reynolds as well as a sitting Tánaiste, Brian Lenihan.

In each instance the Taoiseach of the day had to request the President to remove them from office.

If yesterday’s changes are the Taoiseach’s response to the recent setbacks in the European and local elections, they can only be seen as minimal in view of the overall concept of collective Cabinet responsibility.

In the last analysis, that most remarkable aspect of the much-awaited changes is that the Taoiseach reshuffled so much yet changed so little.