The cabinet reshuffle is a theatre of the absurd Sunday, May 11, 2008 By Vincent Browne The theatre that we have watched in the past few days illuminates some of what is wrong with our political system, and also what is wrong with our perception of what politics is about. Let me explain. At least five of Brian Cowen’s cabinet have no experience or specialised knowledge (in some instances, no knowledge at all) of the departments they are now expected to manage. Brian Lenihan is a clever barrister and a skilled communicator, but does he have knowledge of economic management, fiscal policy, official and economic priorities? None at all. As executive head of the Department of Finance, he is expected to manage that department, having had no experience of managing anything, aside from 11 months in the Department of Justice. Mary Hanafin knew a thing or two about education before she became the Minister for Education, having been a teacher. But Social and Family Affairs - or Social Welfare, as it used to be called? There is no reason to think she knows anything at all, or has had any interest in, the issues that arise in social welfare - such as social justice, wealth, and income distribution and poverty. Mary Coughlan may have known a little bit about agriculture before she was made the Minister for Agriculture, but hardly that much. But knowledge of anything to do with Enterprise, Trade and Employment? Managing a huge department? Managing anything? Martin Cullen has proved, repeatedly, that he is not competent as a minister for anything - and now he is given responsibility for Arts, Sports and Tourism. Does he know anything about these issues? Micheál Martin gets Foreign Affairs. Can anybody remember anything he ever said about a foreign affairs issue since he was elected to the Dáil almost 20 years ago? He is perhaps the best Minister for Health and Children we have had since Rory O’Hanlon or Barry Desmond, but just think of what faint praise that is. Mary Harney is retained in the Department of Health and Children, having given ample proof that she is quite incapable of running our health system. And please don’t reply, claiming that it is the Health Service Executive (HSE) that is responsible for running the health system; just look back at who Harney said would be running the health system when she first became minister, and when the HSE was being established. Dermot Ahern might be assumed to know something about justice, given his previous life as a Dundalk solicitor. But does he want to be the Minister for Justice? Yes, he said, in an unguarded moment, some years ago that he would indeed like to be in Justice. But did you see the face on him in the Dáil when the new ministers were being announced? Willie O’Dea, at least, deserves to be retained in Defence, since he has acquired some knowledge and, presumably, expertise in that area over the last several years. Ditto Éamon Ó CuÃv in Community, Rural and Gaelteacht Affairs. I actually think he was a good minister, having seen him in action at a conference on the Rapid programme in Croke Park some months ago. The awarding of executive office to people who, in the main, have no experience of executive office at all, and no special expertise or skills in the relevant portfolio, is absurd. They are elected to the Dáil, not on the basis of their ability to manage anything, but on a hodgepodge of other criteria: likeability, party affiliation, geographic location, personal acquaintance, appearance and, maybe occasionally, policy grounds. But certainly not because they have any ability to manage anything. However, this is what our politics has become: it is about the plum jobs, and the jobs and favours that those with the plum jobs can award. Fine Gael campaigns against the government, claiming it would be better managers than Fianna Fáil, but not on the grounds that they would operate on any significantly different policy. The reality is that Enda Kenny, Richard Bruton, Olwyn Enright, Charlie Flanagan, Olivia Mitchell and the rest of them have no track record in managing anything. It is true that Alan Shatter has managed to make a fine livelihood from the practice of family law, but that is a different matter. The focus on jobs has demeaned politics. It is all about jobs nowadays, and almost nothing at all to do with policy. Policy is regarded as a pastime for wonks and poseurs. So, we have no debate, or argument, about the massive, unfair distribution of wealth and power in society. Certainly, nobody in any of the parties wants to do anything about it, aside from the vanishing PDs who want to make the distribution more unfair. There is no concern at all about the death toll for poverty and inequality: 5,400 premature deaths a year. It never gets mentioned, in part because of indifference and in part because the consequence of appreciating this is to demand radical redistributive measures, for which nobody has the stomach. Last Wednesday, in his first speech in the Dáil as Taoiseach, Brian Cowen warned against the danger of playing politics with people’s lives. This was a ruse to deflect criticisms from the chaos of the health service. But that is what politics is now about - people’s lives - and nobody in any of the main parties seems to care one iota. To be fair, Liz McManus made an issue of this when she was Labour spokesperson on health, but she was, and is, alone. Nobody from the main parties will make the crucial point about the Guinness redundancies: that the workers who have amassed vast profits for Guinness are now entitled to a significant share of its wealth, on being forced to depart from it. Remember that corporate management lingo about stakeholders - shareholders and workers? Why, now, should only the interests of one set of stakeholders prevail? No, politics is about jobs, executive jobs for those who have no capacity to handle executive jobs. I have proposed a resolution for this before: get rid of the government as we know it. Let the executive branch be unelected and fully professional. Let them get on with the execution of policies defined by the people (ideally), or the people’s representatives in parliament. Let the argument be about priorities on the allocation of scarce resources in wealth, income, healthcare, education, housing, respect and welfare. The absence of the plum jobs would liberate representative politics from the confines of party whips - for few would care how TDs voted on issues when there weren’t jobs at stake. I bet that will have happened before 3008.Well,maybe 4008. PS. I leave aside, for now, the appointment of Batt O’Keeffe as Minister for Education. It will be a subject to which I hope to return again and again. Great article and sums politicians up. JOBS FOR THE BOYS.
i was Listening to Newstalk last Week and they were Talking about the French and Spanish Govenments.the French Prime Minister(and i'm almost Certain the Spanish PM too)can Choose anybody to fill Ministerial Places regardless of whether they have any Political Experience or not. if that was to happen here half the Clowns that are Running our Country would be gone yesterday....
Local rag wanted my opinion on Coughlan been made Tanaiste.I told him that he wouldn't be able to print my views in a family paper.
Ha we pay them an awful lot of money to be just "figureheads". It sickens me to think the amount of money them egits get paid every year - top of the list being Bertie, and now its BIFFO- to do a job they are neither qualified, experienced to do, nor evidently do they have the will to even learn how to do the bloody job they are being paid for!!!!. The mess this country is in due to bad planning and squandering of wealth over the years. Our health service is more reflective of a third world country then supposedly one of europe's wealthiest nations. The list goes on..,.. All our politicians care about is themselves and keeping the rich happy in this country. Biffo's shower is another case of looking after the cronies. No surprise there. Politics will always be the same in Ireland as long as people put up with the sort of sh*te that goes on.