Leo’s policy plan is so vague, we’d best wait for its second ‘iteration’
FOR better or worse, some things have withstood the onslaughts of “new politics”. I mean, only Fine Gael could subtitle a piece of intended political razzmatazz, called ‘Building a Republic of Opportunity’, with the earnest, passion-killing add-on, ‘The First Iteration’.
But that is the title and subtitle of Leo Varadkar’s cunning plan as unveiled at the party’s national conference in the splendour of the Cavan countryside on Saturday.
Page two of the document raised false hopes by asking: “What is this document?” Then the answer sent us right back to the dictionaries by saying: “This is the first iteration of a rolling political programme for Fine Gael.”
Posher readers among you will already know that ‘iteration’ comes to us from the Latin ‘iterum’, broadly evoking ‘again’. But to quicken up here, it appears we are to take this one in a mathematical sense, a scenario where the boffins keep addressing the maths problem repeatedly in hopes of getting ever closer to the right answer.
And beware! This word is not to be confused with the close cousin ‘reiteration’ that essentially means the same thing over and over.
Don’t worry if you’re confused at this point. If you’re not confused, it means you really don’t understand the issue at hand.
Just bear in mind that the Fianna Fáil crowd, at its poshest, might have called it “a first draft”. You may also note that there are still some cultural differences between “the big two” which may take a while longer to eradicate than we thought.
But let’s at this point tell you what we know.
Leo Varadkar, while successfully questing to lead Fine Gael earlier this year, hit us with his purplest of prose as he talked about “Building a Republic of Opportunity”.
At the back-to-school meeting of Fine Gael TDs and senators in Clonmel in September, the newlyminted Taoiseach struggled to tell us any more about what he meant. But he did say he was setting up a committee chaired by Education Minister Richard Bruton.
We now know that Mr Bruton was joined by two junior ministers, five TDs, and two senators. Their mission was to craft a rolling series of policies which could in due course be expanded, slimmed down or changed.
Their first, er, “iteration”, running to 48 pages, spanning 11 chapters, will – once the other iterations are done – be a sort of 10-year plan for where Ireland should be. The next move is a perilous one, as the party members are to be roped in to offer their additions and subtractions.
Worse again, they are talking also about going outside the party to those dreaded ‘think-tanks’ and ‘interest groups’. All of this will keep rolling and rolling for we know not how long.
There is talk of more changes at “future party conferences”. So, at the time of writing, we cannot tell you just how many iterations this one will take.
Also, the ghost of Bismarck seemed to lurk about in Cavan, reminding us that, like sausages, you should not see political policies being framed, lest you eschew voting for ever. The famed adage of Germany’s first chancellor rarely seemed more apposite.
We can give you a flavour of what has emerged in this draft released on Saturday. The input of three women TDs is evident in the inclusion of family-friendly items like shared parental leave for the first year of a child’s life and a homecarers’ tax credit.
In the same vein, there was an intriguing recommendation that all sports grants be allocated with the stipulation that it be divided 50:50 for male and female activities. We await the response of the GAA and the IRFU et al.
Transport proposals centred around motorway links between Ireland’s five main cities, giving the Cork-Limerick M20 priority, as well as upgrades to the N4, N5, and the A5/N2 project connecting Dublin and the northwest.
On taxes, there was a pledge to continue cutting rates for middleincome earners, and the merger of the USC with PRSI.
On welfare, there was the intriguing prospect of linking benefit rates with the level of PRSI contributions workers have made in their careers.
Now, as the Taoiseach himself would later explain, this is one that has a kind of ‘back to the future’ ring about it. It applied to some extent back in the 1970s and was later phased out. Its potential poses many intriguing talking points.
Equally, when it comes to jobs, the document mooted outlawing zero-hour contracts for workers as part of a plan for the creation of “good jobs, with good pay, terms and conditions and pension rights”. Now that – if it ever happens – would of itself merit an extended term at Government Buildings.
On Richard Bruton’s own education bailiwick, we are urged to prepare for a future where 65pc of children entering primary school today will work in a type of job which does not yet exist. Surely, future-shock on steroids. There were proposals for increased apprenticeships and giving 50pc more higher education access for people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
We could go on – but you’ve got the idea. This is a mixture of the vague and aspirational, the old, and the politically obvious. No shortage of good ideas – if we could ever believe we’ll see them happen.
But it is too easy to dismiss this one out of hand. It is after all a work in progress still requiring a lot more work. In summary, its only the “first iteration” – wait for the next one at very least.
The ghost of Bismarck seemed to lurk about in Cavan reminding us that, like sausages, you should not see political policies being framed, lest you eschew voting