Varadkar’s career has chilling echoes of Cowen
As Enda Kenny’s leadership drifts to a close…
These are strange times in Fine Gael. Last March, the Taoiseach Enda Kenny was widely considered to have outwitted his parliamentary party by declaring that he would effectively and conclusively deal with the leadership question on his return from the annual St Patrick’s day jaunt to the White House. As the parliamentary party rushed to tell the media how proud they were of their leader after he neutered all opposition to him at that meeting, chief pretender to the throne Leo Varadkar told RTÉ that there was no leadership campaign as there was no vacancy. He went on to say that there would be no ‘overt or covert campaigning’ until such time as there was a vacancy.
Varadkar was singing a different tune during the week when he confidently called for a TV debate between the contenders for the Fine Gael leadership noting that it was not just an internal matter for the party with the prize of Taoiseach awaiting the victor.
Not wanting to be seen as being too eager to snatch the crown, Varadkar reiterated his view that the leadership question in Fine Gael was a matter for the Taoiseach, slyly noting that he had never set a deadline.
Meanwhile, his chief rival, Simon Coveney, talked about announcements on the vacancy and the contest being made shortly after St Patrick’s Day.
One would have to wonder, however, as to who is outwitting whom in the whole sorry tale of the leadership of Fine Gael and indeed the country.
The Irish people effectively gave their verdict on the leadership of Fine Gael back in February 2016.
The loss of 26 seats and 10% of the vote from 2011 attested to the view that, notwithstanding considerable achievements – including ridding the Troika from our shores – the electorate had had enough of Enda Kenny.
That Kenny managed in extremely difficult circumstances to put together a government that has lasted a year speaks positively to his strengths of coalition-building but the reality is that the government he leads is dysfunctional and barely doing its job.
It would not be fair to say the Government is doing the job it was elected to do as the electorate itself did not know what type of government it wanted.
In that context, this Government has no real legislative agenda and that is because there is no real leadership emanating from the Taoiseach’s office.
Instead we have a Taoiseach who takes himself off to foreign climes to sell Ireland.
Meanwhile legislation has dwindled to next to nothing while the Independent Alliance congratulates itself for being in office. They are replacing one junior minister with another, seemingly because it seems everyone must get a go while their leader Shane Ross tells Morning Ireland his greatest regret is his surprise at the amount of lobbying that goes on in Ireland.
It is enough to make one despair at what passes for government in Ireland.
Enda Kenny’s tetchiness in Canada this week on being asked about his own intentions offered further eloquent testimony as to the leadership vacuum that now exists at the heart of our government.
‘I can’t believe you’ve come all this distance to ask a question like that,’ the Taoiseach thundered to the Irish Examiner’s Daniel McConnell, who had been mandated to ask that question on behalf of his Irish media colleagues.
One could well reply: ‘What exactly have you come all this distance for, Taoiseach?’ His answer was to meet with the Canadian Prime Minister and Canadian business leaders to explore the opportunities that exist across the Atlantic for the creation of jobs and investment and to the benefit of Canadians and Irish people.
All well and good but why now? Why couldn’t he have made a quick trip north after the St Patrick’s Day visit to the United States and discussed trade and business with the Canadians then?
The suspicion must remain that the Taoiseach is on a valedictory farewell tour and that all in Fine Gael are happy to let him do so, particularly Ministers Coveney and Varadkar. They should remember what happened in Fianna Fáil when Bertie Ahern was granted a similar honour in 2008. The Soldiers of Destiny were happy to let Ahern have his moment in the sun, giving speeches to the British House of Commons and the US Congress. The fatal result was the casual entry to the highest office in the land of Brian Cowen. Within months he had lost the Lisbon treaty referendum vote and guaranteed the banks. By the time Cowen resigned as leader of Fianna Fáil just over two-and-a-half years after becoming Taoiseach the party was on life support.
The point here is, political leadership matters. All one has to do is look to Britain to see how the hopelessly inept display of leadership exhibited by Jeremy Corbyn threatens the very existence of Labour as a major political force and seems destined to see it in the wilderness for perhaps generations.
By interminably waiting for Enda Kenny to call time on his own leadership, both Coveney and Varadkar have not displayed the type of dynamism this country so badly needs. There is no guarantee they will offer it in office either.
Varadkar’s career so far, while meteoric, eerily echoes Brian Cowen’s. The smartest boys in the class, they were popular with both their respective parliamentary parties and the wider party memberships.
They were skilled debaters in the Dáil specialising in putting the boot in to the opposition. Cowen delighted in saying Enda Kenny was ‘neither qualified nor able’ to pass judgment on the Mahon Tribunal.
Varadkar was the darling of the Fine Gael backbenches when taunting Fianna Fáil, tuttutting that the party of Lemass which was proud to once stand up for what was right was now reduced to determining its policy on water charges out of fear of Paul Murphy and Sinn Féin. Both barbs hurt their opponents deeply.
They both swanned through a variety of ministries talking much but accomplishing precious little. Yes, Varadkar had some success in Transport, Tourism and Sport but like Cowen he left virtually no imprint in Health.
There seems to be a common conception that Varadkar’s face on the posters and his undoubted skill in debate will serve Fine Gael better come an election. That debating prowess is likely behind his call for a Fine Gael leadership TV debate. Who would want such a debate is another matter entirely.
It should be remembered, however, that Varadkar was bested by Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath in a crucial TV debate on the economy during the general election campaign. Perhaps the Dauphin, like Cowen before him, should be careful what he wishes for.
In the meantime, we the citizens of the country, must wait and count the cost of the inaction of those who wish to be king.