Whimsy, conservatism and inaction: Why Enda and Leo are so alike

NEW regimes always produce catchy gimmicks to get positive publicity before their relationship with the press deteriorates. The Enda Kenny-led administration, when it took power in 2011, focused on transport and getting to work. The taoiseach made a big thing of walking to work. He lived in an apartment 300 yards from Government Buildings.

Joan Burton got the bus from Blanchardstown to Dublin city centre a couple of times in the early spring of 2011.

When the photographers lost interest, she quietly returned to her car, with its State-salaried drivers. As events in Jobstown have shown, she might have been better off on the buses.

In 2011, Simon Coveney pushed a plan to abolish the luxury state car pool for ministers. Garda drivers were reassigned. The plan meant that all ministers got two state-paid drivers, used their own car and got mileage. It saved no money and was a move designed for a press release, rather than a noble purpose. Many would prefer to see a minister in an imposing Mercedes, rather than the 1990 Toyota Corolla (in which I once saw a minister pull up outside Leinster House).

Anyway, as we now know, Coveney developed a penchant for helicopter travel between meetings.

All of it was meaningless PR frippery, which did nothing to protect the Government from the water-charges catastrophe, hospital waiting lists and Justice scandals which soon hobbled it.

Leo Varadkar’s gushing about Hugh Grant movies at Downing Street and flashing silly socks during Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit were embarrassing – yet such public relations stunts were of the Enda Kenny old school. While the schmaltzy style is similar to the old taoiseach, the lack of action and conservatism displayed by Varadkar are also eerily familiar.

VARADKAR, 38, has been Taoiseach for just a few weeks, but the manner of the transfer of power, and the nature of the administration that he has inherited, mean that he is destined to fail for as long as the minority Government lasts.

Only one bold action can prevent that failure – a general election. Yet in the past week, he has rowed back on an attractive Fine Gael election promise – abolishing the Universal Social Charge. And he has performed a U-turn on a promise made during his own leadership campaign – publishing the names of social-welfare fraudsters.

These actions are not those of a man girding himself for an imminent general election.

Before Kenny became Taoiseach, he was lampooned for his wooden persona. He was so disliked and disrespected by Varadkar and his fellow young Turks that they tried to oust him in 2010.

So when Kenny was handed the 2011 general election by a disintegrating Fianna Fáil, expectations were very low. His competence in the first two years of his premiership was a pleasant surprise.

Varadkar has spent those seven years between 2010 and 2017 in broadcast studios, telling us how wonderful he is. We have had years of friendly press for him. Expectations were very high. Since he become Taoiseach, however, we have little more than PR stunts.

What he did do was plunge straight into a cronyism controversy over the appointment of former attorney general Máire Whelan to the judicial bench. He left most of Enda Kenny’s political cronies, like Frances Fitzgerald, Paul Kehoe and Heather Humphries, at the Cabinet table.

He reduced the number of women in ministerial roles. He exacerbated the rolling Justice crisis with last week’s criticism of garda evidence at the Jobstown trial.

CRONYISM and Justice mayhem dogged Kenny. Fine Gael, like most political parties, has a bad record on gender balance. There was a hope that Varadkar would move to deal decisively with the Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan. There have been veiled threats but no move against her.

It is in the Dáil chamber where the lack of energy and the absence of renewal are so conspicuous.

When the row erupted over the lack of correct procedure in the appointment of Whelan to the bench, part of the Government’s defence was that the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill would be passed by the summer.

Last week, Fine Gael used the hard left support of Sinn Féin and Solidarity People Before Profit to pass the second-stage vote for the judicial Bill by 83 votes to 53.

Fianna Fáil, which is nominally supporting the Government, opposed the legislation. Still, the Bill now has no chance of getting through the Dáil and Seanad before the summer recess, due to begin next Thursday. It may pass in the autumn.

The Bill had originally been planned to pass second stage the week before last, but was delayed because of extended speeches by TDs from all sides, including Fine Gael, which extended the debate into a second week. This looked like old-fashioned filibustering.

Legislation to introduce refunds for those who paid water bills has also been put off until the autumn.

By the time the Dáil and Seanad went into summer recess in July of last year, just eight Bills had been passed. In the autumn session, the same number were completed by the Dáil. Since the start of this year, just 14 Bills have been passed.

Every Dáil term I have covered has been ended with a flurry of activity as the Government rushes to finish off all its legislation. Last week was the quietest July week I’ve seen, bar one – last year.

In new politics, making law just causes trouble. Law-making is now so complex, involves so many moving parts and parties that it is becoming an unwelcome risk. Each Bill seems to have the potential to cause a general election, which is a lottery that sees some politicians lose their income.

This is the Dáil that Varadkar inherited and he has little choice but to work within the regime established by Kenny. This dysfunctional political arrangement, a minority Fine Gael/independents Government, supported by Fianna Fáil, grew out of Fine Gael’s electoral failure in 2016.

So while Varadkar has plunged immediately into a complex situation that is littered with risk, he can only be successful in the long term by taking a far bigger gamble.

That gamble is calling a general election. And he must do it soon or continue to suffer for the failings of the man he worked so hard to remove – Enda Kenny.

Varadkar has the youth and vigour to revitalise a demoralised and split Fine Gael party. This must be achieved quickly. He showed in his leadership campaign victory over Simon Coveney that he knows how to organise a brilliant campaign. He showed that he is a winner.

Fianna Fáil has used its time in opposition to continue the rebuilding of its electoral machine.

The showdown is coming and Varadkar has the opportunity to combine his PR and electoral skills with the sense of adventure that all great leaders display.