No West Wing at the Westlink

Last Saturday Tayto Ahern laid it on the line for those who would seek to oust Fianna Fáil from government. Do so at your peril, he warned, for there be cash-eating monsters in the opposition. Vicious creatures with snarly teeth and bad monster breath who seek to return Ireland to the bad, bad borrowing days of old—the days from which Fianna Fail alone rescued us. I’m sure at that moment some Rob Lowe lookalike was gazing down on Tayto with a tear in his eye and swirling music in his head as he remembered that long march from misery. The endless night that the present government had alone ended. Tayto told us to remember the past and to learn from it. Remember those evil Labour and Fine Gael governments that had recklessly tossed us into the quagmire. “Look to the past,” he said, “Look to the past.” Well, good advice Tayto.

Fianna Fáil has held the Finance ministry for 56 of the last 74 years. They held it during the disastrous trade war of the 1930s. They held it in the 1950s when emigration was at its highest and soul-crushing poverty was endemic. They held it during the 1970s when the mohair suits were consolidating power in the party, and again during the Haughey years when borrowing was undertaken by the government in order to pay the wages of newly-hired civil servants, and silk shirts were flown first class from Paris.

The five year Fine Gael-Labour government of the 1980s inherited a bankrupt economy. It struggled to keep the country afloat, while at the same time preparing the groundwork for what became social partnership. The economic policies of that government were wisely accepted by Ray McSharry, who showed himself to be more than willing to continue proper fiscal policy, and who received the backing of Fine Gael under Alan Dukes: the so-called “Tallaght Strategy.”

The only time when Fianna Fáil has ever shown initiative in the finance ministry was during the Lemass years and again under Ray McSharry, who held the office for a total of twenty one months.

So when Tayto Ahern gets up in City West and brushes the cheese and onion from his suit, telling us that a Fine Gael/Labour government would be a disaster for the country, let us be clear what cards he is playing.

Since the 1970s an influential block within Fianna Fáil have used power to enrich themselves. They have made millions in the process while billions have been made by property developers who have thrown up legolands along the M50. That money could only be made if the right planning decisions were passed by the appropriate councils in the appropriate drip-feed way. This was done, but could only be done with Fianna Fáil in power.

The desire for power that drove Haughey and his fellow-travelling pimps was the desire for money. Politics was where the pay-off happened. And planning decisions were made not in the interests of the public, but in the interests of a very small, and very rich, slice of Irish life.

The payoff culture that surrounded Fianna Fáil was such that apparently no-one saw anything unusual about having a whip-around for the Irish finance minister at an after-dinner speech in Manchester. The circumstances behind the whip-around were different, but the culture was not.

We have yet to see a Fine Gael/Labour government fuck up the economy as spectacularly as Fianna Fáil did in the 1970s and early 1980s, as they had done before in the 1940s and 50s, and have done again from 2002. The ‘boomer’ times, as Tayto calls them, are fuelled by half a trillion euro in mortgages secured to a worrying degree by PAYE employment in the construction industry and ancillary services. The borrowing is paying for the jobs, man, just as it did with the civil servants in 1981.

Tayto knows all of this, and yet he can get away with saying that Fine Gael and Labour are not to be trusted with the Irish economy. How is this possible? The opposition can’t lay a finger on Fianna Fáil these days. Kenny hasn’t got that killer instinct and Rabbitte’s tied to Kenny’s aprons with the vote transfer pact. God knows why.

Based on the 2002 figures available at ElectionsIreland.org, the idea of an election pact is one that can only benefit Fine Gael. As it is, the party gets more transfers from Labour than any other party. Labour may gain a few extra votes, but then again it may not. The gamble is all Labour’s. Either way, Labour transfers to Fine Gael are hardly going to decrease because of the pact. Rabbitte is walking into the 30th Dáil—provided he retains his seat—with only Enda Kenny as his choice for Taoiseach. The funny thing is, the Labour party don’t even bother fielding a candidate in Kenny’s constituency of Mayo, whereas Rabbitte got elected on the 6th count in Dublin South West, pipping Fine Gael’s Brian Hayes for the final seat.

It has been remarked in the media that Fine Gael are looking to Fianna Fail to lose the election. The strategy is like facing Man United and hoping that OGs will win the day. It’s not going to happen. Fine Gael have to attack, attack, attack. And they can’t let opportunities like Tayto’s “look to the past” to slip them by. As for Labour…

The party’s website says that the task is to get those who think Labour to vote Labour. It would be nice if the Labour party started doing the same thing itself. Ambition needs to be made of sterner stuff, otherwise it’s Tayto and the property cartels for another five years while Labour licks another self-inflicted wound to keep company with the others. Look to the past, lads.