The Price of Loyalty, Finian McGrath and Support for Mary Harney

In late November Mary Harney was under immense pressure over the care of cancer-patients and the direction of the health services. There was a small possibility for blood and the opposition forced a vote of no confidence in the Minister. Despite speculation to the converse, the Minister survived and the only overt damage to government was the defection of Ned O’Keeffe.

Interestingly a report in today’s Times shows the manner in which support from those independents who were undecided was gained.

Finian McGrath held out until there was movement on a number of promises which were contained in his agreement with the Taoiseach. Though there was already some agreement on this one, government agreed to set aside increased funding for Cystic Fibrosis in Beaumont hospital.

Mr McGrath had threatened to vote against the Government, following pressure from a substantial section of his constituency organisation.

However, following the intervention of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, €2.5 million was allocated in additional funding for cystic fibrosis services at Beaumont hospital.

McGrath suggested that 30% of his organisation didn’t want to support Harney in the motion, which is no surprise. Neither is the fact that McGrath ultimately did support her but it raises the question of what exactly those deals with independents are designed to do. One would have thought that upon signing up to support the government for five years, McGrath and the others had pledged to vote with government in return for a return over five years.

In political terms it is to McGrath’s credit that he managed to exact the maximum return for a move he would have to take anyway. He played Bertie’s own desire for as much consensus as possible alongside his own (no doubt genuinely felt) angst over which path to take. There seems to me little chance he would have opted not to support Harney on this motion, he couldn’t possibly have done so so closely after the election. He had exacted five years worth of projects that, like Tony Gregory, could ensure perpetual re-election and whatever political position he prefers.

The funding was already agreed to but McGrath managed to fast-track it. Yet the story raises the eternal conundrum of principle versus power. McGrath has played this division cunningly by securing valuable local services in return for support which the government, strictly speaking, didn’t need. The 70/30 split seems to reflect a wider social division between those who see politics as local delivery and answering to constituents-securing your share of the pie or pork barrel, whether its fair or not- and those who see politics as the pursuit/defence of principle and justice in social policy.

I don’t think McGrath has done anything immoral here in a strict sense, he signed up to do things like this a long time ago and his support should not come as a surprise, however his ability to exact a greater payment for doing what he had signed up to do does say something about the nature of political delivery and the man who sits at the top of government. Bertie has continually shown his priority for keeping as many as possible onside.

The decision to further sweeten McGrath to support Mary Harney only suggests that the old circle of Irish political life remains intact-we go from small numbers of independents to large ones and back again. The small numbers allows independents to exact big rewards for their support and the electorate respond by sending more in. Large numbers makes them unwieldy and impossible to deal with and thus they are culled from the Dail and replaced by party figures.

Ahern cares not for any of this, his aim was to lose as few as possible in the vote on Harney. McGrath has underlined that independents continue to generate a far better return from the back benches than many party figures.

He, and the other Independents who have drawn up a deal with the Government, Michael Lowry in Tipperary North, and Jackie Healy-Rae in Kerry South, meet with Government chief whip Tom Kitt on Tuesdays when the Dáil is sitting to discuss various issues.

A civil servant in the Department of the Taoiseach has also been assigned to liaise with these Independents.

Many backbenchers sitting out their time will feel surly at such special attention for a select few, as well as the ability to milk local ‘delivery’ ahead of local party figures. It is unlikely that any damage will accrue long term to McGrath for his support of Harney if he continues to turn up the goods and tell the locals about it.

Rule 1: secure tenure.