The ghost of FG past is back to haunt his party

IHAVE a recurring nightmare: John Bruton fixes it for the Taoiseach to be the next president of the European Council but Enda Kenny must assume the persona of the current president, Herman Van Rompuy – a prematurely bald political eunuch. It gets darker: Bruton implants his political thought process in his presidential protégé’s brain, thus ensuring that Enda Kenny will have unlimited access to Bruton’s emotional intelligence when he is chairing EU summits.

These night terrors began after Bruton’s incredibly daft and politically gauche remarks in a radio interview on RTÉ last week that Ireland needed another decade of austerity.

‘The biggest mistake you can make in politics is to promise something that you can’t or won’t deliver,’ he told Seán O’Rourke.

‘That’s why it is important to refer back to the limitations that are there.’

Enda Kenny disowned it within hours, but then 400 million voters in 28 countries had already dismissed Bruton’s austerity argument in last weekend’s election.

YET Bruton still has a reserved place at the EU high table and remains a grandee in Irish public life with a consequent entitlement to occasionally write dull opinion pieces in the op-ed page of The Irish Times. This is the same John Bruton who, as a former Fine Gael tao is eachturned-representative of banks and financiers as chairman of the IFSC, has access to the Departments of the Taoiseach and the Department of Finance.

We can assume, given what he said this week, that when he meets the movers and shakers in Government Buildings, he urges them to stiffen their resolve on austerity and forget about trying to make life easier for the average taxpayer.

But the EU dream has not died for Bruton and many in Fine Gael: ‘sources close to the Taoiseach’ keep telling journalists that other heads of EU governments want Enda Kenny to assume Herman Van Rompuy’s role.

Mr Kenny says he doesn’t want to be president of the European Council, although the president’s principal duty is chairing a minimum of two EU summits every six months – an enviable post if you enjoy gourmet dining and vintage wines. Maybe it is a position more suited to a legendary trencherman like John Bruton.