Public deserves to see a proper race in the FG battle to be Taoiseach

IT was reassuring to see that Simon Coveney has decided to stay in the race to become Fine Gael leader despite Leo Varadkar’s seemingly insurmountable lead. In the face of a Varadkar publicity blitzkrieg Simon Coveney’s campaign was rocked to the core as senior cabinet minsters and party grandees lined up behind Leo in a series of well thought out and well timed ‘ surprise’ media appearances.

By Saturday morning Coveney’s campaign – which has strong support across the country among councillors and rank and file party members – was all at sea and media speculation that he was about to quit the race went into overdrive when he cancelled a scheduled campaign event in Cork that afternoon.

Thankfully Coveney was convinced to stay in the race – seemingly thanks to the intervention of Michael Noonan - and Enda Kenny’s successor will still be decided by a vote, albeit a vote that involves only a miniscule section of the electorate.

As young, educated, articulate and intelligent politicians both Coveney and Varadkar would seem well suited to the role of Taoiseach but the people of Ireland – not just the members of Fine Gael – deserve to know more about what each candidates plans to bring to the role.

As such the fact that there will still be a race to succeed Enda Kenny – even if the outcome appears to be a foregone conclusion – is welcome. While the vast majority of voters will have no say whatsoever in who becomes their leader we will at least have some idea of where the two candidates stand on key national issues.

Even so the process of electing our next Taoiseach is profoundly undemocratic.

It is marginally better than the scenario in 2008 when Brian Cowen was anointed as Bertie Ahern’s successor but not by much.

In this case there are at least two contenders but Ireland’s next leader will be picked by an electorate of only 25,500 people. To put that in perspective that represents just over one per cent of the electorate who voted at the last election.

It should also be noted that the vast majority of these voters did not back Fine Gael or Enda Kenny to lead the country.

Under Kenny’s leadership Fine Gael lost 16 seats and the party remains in charge only thanks to the good graces of Micheal Martin and Fianna Fáil who can pull the plug on the administration at any time they see fit. Indeed Fine Gael may elect the next Taoiseach but it is Fianna Fáil who will dictate what he can do once he’s in office and how long he will stay there.

One things appears almost certain. Whether it is Minister Varadakar or Minister Coveney who inherits Enda Kenny’s office they won’t pose any threat to his record as being Fine Gael’s longest serving Taoiseach.

In fact, it could well be the dubious honour of being the Fine Gael Taoiseach with the shortest ever tenure in office that awaits them. Whatever happens in the race – which may be a lot closer than the media suggests - and whatever the outcome we should at least welcome the fact that the battle to succeed Enda Kenny will involve a modicum of democracy.