Naughten has committed a howler but he’ll be saved by the Eighth
THE Dáil came back this week after the Easter break so, as usual, the political temperature began rising as the week went on. The public were given a flavour as to how things work within Government these days with the report at the start of the week that junior ministers, Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran and Seán Canney, were in dispute as to which of them would get the ministerial car under them for the next year.
When they originally decided to alternate the ministerial position between them, on the toss of a coin, they clearly didn’t envisage, like most of the rest of us, that this Government would last as long as it has.
After the proposed jaunt to North Korea, the Independents tended to keep their head down. But this dispute, yet again, brings to our attention some of the nonsensical arrangements surrounding ‘new politics’.
Boxer, as the man in possession, got the nod on Thursday to stay in place. It remains to be seen if there will be reverberations after the dust settles. So far there has been an ominous silence from the Canney corner.
Reports leaked from the Fine Gael ministers’ meeting say that the Taoiseach has warned his ministers that they should expect a ramping up of attacks on them from Fianna Fáil TDs.
We already had the somewhat unedifying spat between Fianna Fáil’s Darragh O’Brien and the Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy in which Mr O’Brien accused the minister of not been able to understand the housing crisis because of his ‘cosseted’ background. Mr Murphy responded that Mr O’Brien’s remarks were ‘useless’ in the context of fixing the housing crisis.
Leo Varadkar was correct in expecting more pressure on his Government as it is obvious that we are on the last lap of this Government’s lifetime. While Fianna Fáil are at pains to stress that they will honour the ‘three budget’ commitment in the Confidence and Supply agreement, there is no doubt that they and all other political entities are in election preparation mode.
The difficulty for Fianna Fáil is how to trigger their pull-out. Their predicament reminds me of the golden rule of all combat. One always needs to have an exit strategy well thought out, from the very start. I’m not altogether sure if Fianna Fáil made that sort of planning, when they originally entered into the agreement to prop up this Fine Gael-led government.
They are politically astute enough to know that, if they are seen to pull down the Government needlessly, they will have to bear the wrath of the voters. So they must wait for the opportunity to arise in order to pounce.
CHOOSING the right issue will be all-important. The danger for them is that, by allowing the Government to bring in another Budget, it will be Fine Gael primarily who would get the political benefit and, despite their efforts to claim some credit, Fianna Fáil would have to grit their teeth while the Fine Gael ministers ‘milk’ the Budget goodies.
While Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe is cautioning against a ‘giveaway’ Budget, my advice is don’t be fooled. With the economy in rude health, even with a cautious approach the Government will still be able to throw in a good few sweeteners at budget time.
So it looks as if Fianna Fáil will have to bide their time and hope that some crisis arises within the Government which will give Fianna Fáil no option but to ‘pull the plug’.
In the latter part of this week it looked as if such a crisis has arisen but initially at least it is generally felt that it is not sufficient to allow Fianna Fáil to push the eject button.
Communications Minister Denis Naughten has generally been considered to be a safe pair of hands among the independent ministers. Apart from the broadband debacle, he has gone about his job calmly and quietly.
What possessed him to be so open to a lobbyist while at the same time telling the Dáil that he couldn’t comment? One could put it down to inexperience as a minister but he has been a TD long enough to know that giving out this type of information while at the same time denying it from others is a very serious matter.
While it may not ultimately end up to be a hanging offence, it was extremely injudicious of him to discuss the matter, for which he has responsibility under the law, with a representative of a body which has a vested interest in the matter.
In my view, he compounded his mistake by then trying to justify it by saying that he merely gave a ‘personal view’ rather than a view wearing his ministerial hat.
This defence just further illustrates that he still struggles with the difference between being an ordinary backbencher and a TD in a ministerial position.
Ministers are often criticised because they are seen to surround themselves with advisers and civil servants. That practice has been put in place for many decades for good and valid reason. It is to ensure that ministers remain ‘at arms’ length’ from vested interests, so that they can make statutory decisions without undue influence.
NORMALLY if a lobbyist puts a call through to the minister’s office, his or her private secretary immediately will get a view, from the relevant section in the department, as to whether or not it would be advisable for the Minister to take the call.
This is the ‘buffer’ which protects the Minister from being subsequently accused of favouring one side as opposed to another.
Obviously in the era of mobile phones it is a bit more difficult to manage but, again, a minister taking a direct mobile call from a lobbyist without informing officials both before or after the event is, in my experience, extremely inadvisable.
It’s all very laudable being an approachable minister but Mr Naughten would do well to reconsider his policy of making his mobile phone available to all and sundry.
While all the political parties are correctly criticising the minister, they are not prepared to call for his head directly. They are putting the onus on the Taoiseach to ‘take action’ – in other words ask the Minister to resign. There is a distinct reluctance to put down a motion of no-confidence in this or indeed put other ministers under the ‘cosh’ at the moment.
Sinn Féin and others are avoiding taking action because they state that they do not want to contaminate the atmosphere with a political crisis of this type in the run up to the abortion referendum. One of the anti-abortion groups has as its slogan ‘Save the Eighth’. Ironically, Mr Naughten may very well be ‘Saved by the Eighth’!