This Government is heading for the rocks unless all of the parties learn to row together
MOST observers felt that the new Government would have a tough time on its hands once it took up office. Little did we know how much it, all on its own, would contribute to its own difficulties.
The litany of issues which have tripped it up are too numerous to mention, but for me the way the Pandemic Unemployment Payment changes have been handled highlights the ‘all at sea’ perception currently surrounding this Government.
The previous government rapidly, and correctly, brought in this payment at the start of the lockdown, mainly because it forced people to stay in their homes, and in the process hundreds of thousands of people became unemployed overnight.
At the time, it occurred to me that the new payment scheme was designed on the back of an envelope.
It was, in effect, an ‘ad hoc’ scheme, that is, without the necessary legislation being brought in to set down qualifying conditions.
Problems
Having spent five years as minister in the Social Welfare Department, I knew full well that any change, even the slightest change, in the Department’s schemes can have massive unwanted knock-on effects, with huge additional cost.
Knowing the officials in this Department, I’m certain that they would have pointed out all of the possible problems to their political masters at the time. And if they didn’t, the officials in the Department of Finance would have strenuously emphasised the pitfalls in bringing in such a universal scheme so quickly, with very few qualifying conditions.
One glaring inconsistency was the fact that there would be a significant monetary difference between those on the existing unemployment payments compared with those going on to the new payment.
Because of the design of the PUP scheme, it was always going to be difficult to unravel the broad brush approach taken. The previous government got great kudos for the way it handled the pandemic, but the reality is that it did so by throwing open the doors of the State coffers, with total abandon. Normal fiscal caution was virtually non existent.
And it was left to the new Government to pick up the pieces. Its members must have known the dangers that lay ahead. So, all the more reason for them to be coherent in their messaging. There is one golden rule in politics: if you give something to the general public, you should never take it back!
But the way in which this new Government has gone about this task has been so badly handled, that it will take some time and hard graft for it to recover any popularity amongst the public. It was a PR disaster.
The Government had really good news for the hundreds of thousands relying on the payment in that it would be extended well into next year. The downside was that it proposed to taper the payment back down to normal unemployment scheme rates.
What should have been a popular core message was lost in the confusion and cacophony surrounding the Government announcements.
Questions quickly arose as to whether recipients could leave the country on a short holiday, or whether the time-honoured social welfare requirement of genuinely seeking work applied in the case of PUP.
Indeed, the efforts to justify stamping out fraudulent claims were hampered by very persuasive accounts from, clearly, genuine recipients, who had their payment withdrawn.
For years, a substantial number of claimants have abused our social welfare system by leaving our shores for long extended periods while continuing to claim allowances and benefits from the State, as if they were still living in this country. No right-minded person would quibble with efforts to save taxpayers from this type of subterfuge.
For social welfare officials, it is always a game of cat and mouse to prove a fraudulent claim in such cases.
The more recent Government general advice against foreign travel has brought the focus very much onto the anomaly in the PUP scheme whereby people, not necessarily normal holidaymakers, could with ease come and go to other countries, while still being in receipt of the payment. Obviously, the Government could not let such a situation continue. Last week, it brought in legislation to put the PUP on a statutory footing, in an effort to close some of the blatant anomalies in the ad hoc scheme. But this is where it got extremely difficult for the members of the Government.
They and their various spokespersons were not singing off the same hymn sheet leading to utter and unnecessary confusion. If they are to survive, they need to start pulling together. All we have seen so far, is three distinct parties, and, indeed, different factions within all three, looking after their own party political interests. And, all the while, Taoiseach Micheál Martin is doing his best to give an air of coherence.
The country, in these critical times, needs to be led by a Government that is working in unison. What we have witnessed so far is the antithesis of coordinated Government. The leadership of the three parties need to get their act together, fast. Otherwise, the voting public will give them their answer in the ballot box, sooner rather than later.