New Politics is old-school cronyism with a PR gloss

THERE has always been a protocol that justice ministers leave operational policing decisions, such as the opening and closing of Garda stations, with the Commissioner. It protects both the Gardaí and politicians from accusations of improper political pressure.

So when the acting Garda Commissioner stood over procedures to reopen Stepaside Garda Station, all appeared to be in order, if maybe too convenient – but Fine Gael’s protestations of innocence in delivering the result seemed contrived.

I’ll cut to the chase: I believe (like many others) that former taoiseach Enda Kenny agreed to have Stepaside Garda Station reopened in return for local TD and Independent Minister Shane Ross’s support for the appointment of Attorney General Máire Whelan to the Court of Appeal.

The reopening of Stepaside and the appointment of Ms Whelan were announced on the same day – immediately after the last Cabinet meeting chaired by the outgoing taoiseach Mr Kenny last June.

They needed to put a respectable face on a squalid deal. So the Department of Justice was instructed to commission a report to prioritise the reopening of garda stations.

Putting civil servants’ fingerprints on the report would distance the Government from accusations of interference in policing.

It is interesting that Leo Varadkar wanted to overturn past decisions and publish the report detailing the reasoning behind the prioritising of Stepaside. That report was the political last will and testimony of the former taoiseach and any repercussions will be directed at Kenny.

The Stepaside deal could have been another day in the tent at the Galway Races but it was what the Government calls ‘New Politics’.

A French phrase succinctly describes this sort of old-school wheeling and dealing: plus ça change – the more things change, the more they stay the same.

And New Politics looks very like Old Politics – with more public money spent on communications.

WE ARE a week and a couple of days out from a fake-orgasm Budget, where the Government’s faux enthusiasm will cancel out the opposition’s phony disappointment.

Passers-by will respond proportionally to vox-pop interviews broadcast after Paschal Donohoe’s speech and then return to the daily treadmill of life. Government spending has now soared over 2007 levels and the take from income taxes this year will be nearly 50% more than at the zenith of the boom in 2007.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar says that he would like to use any money available to widen tax bands for the people who pay for everything, thus boosting Fine Gael’s attraction to middle-class voters.

Giving people their own money back doesn’t always guarantee gratitude, particularly if they believe the Government that took it then squandered it.

The leader of the opposition, Micheál Martin, wants any available money to be spent on public services in order to lure those public-sector workers (onefifth of the workforce) who once voted for the Labour Party to Fianna Fáil.

Spending more certainly boosts the wages of public servants but bitter past experience shows there is no guarantee of any commensurate improvement in public services.

Yet the economy has been growing at more than 5% each year since 2014, we are nearing full employment and the message repeated ad nauseam by the Government is that we are ‘balancing the books’.

But Mr Varadkar’s optimism is at the mercy of his party’s confidence and supply arrangement with Fianna Fáil: politics is still a business determined by numbers – not necessarily by economics.

LAST week, we got a snapshot of life in a future Dáil chamber in which Gerry Adams has moved on

and left Sinn Féin’s heavy lifting to his deputy.

Her testy exchange in the House with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar clearly showed that Mary Lou McDonald would not be patronised or intimidated by anyone – man or woman.

Ms McDonald has no qualms about demanding more and more taxes from middle-income workers to pay for more and more for people whom she hopes will vote for Sinn Féin.

She is able, articulate and secured a very good life, plus an enhanced reputation, from politics – she is a beacon of light in a party with a very dark history.

Mr Adams will never escape his murky past and the sooner he moves on, the quicker Mary Lou can deliver on the promise she has shown in his shadow.

OUR airline watchdog, the Irish Aviation Authority, didn’t bark last week as Ryanair cancelled some 450 flights out of Dublin between November and next March.

It was left to the British aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, to hold Michael O’Leary’s feet to the fire for grounding 18,000 aircraft on flights from the UK until March next year.

The IAA has the same responsibility to protect Irish passengers as the CAA as in the UK but industry insiders in Dublin believe that the IAA is cowed by O’Leary’s aggression.

After all, Ryanair has 398 Boeings registered with the IAA (and another 175 on order), more than the rest of the aircraft registered there and then some more – all of them paying the fees that pay the IAA’s bills.

And at the end of the day that puts teeth in the bite behind O’Leary’s bark.