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The Rugbyman Bows Out
Read more about: Dublin North, Fianna Fail 
It got lost in the focus on Fianna Fail’s good poll numbers last weekend, but governments are formed by TDs, not opinion polls, and in that regard the party suffered a blow with Jim Glennon’s decision not to run again in Dublin North.
As bad as the loss of a name candidate was, the more troublesome factor was that Glennon’s decision made clear that the backbench revolt during the summer, seemingly headed off at the pass by the party leadership, is still rumbling. As the Irish Times (subs req’d) explained:
“I said to the Taoiseach yesterday in our conversation that if he handed me the keys of a ministerial Merc while we were speaking, I would have passed them back to him and said ‘thanks, but no thanks’,” he told TV3′s The Political Party.
He said Fianna Fáil backbenchers were frequently frustrated by the failure of the parliamentary party to discuss burning political issues, such as the statutory rape case last May and the recent controversy surrounding Mr Ahern’s finances.
Last May, Mr. Glennon was one of a number of the party’s TDs to insist that the Supreme Court’s judgment in the “C” case had to be debated by TDs. This provoked a climbdown by the party leadership who agreed to a meeting of the parliamentary party’s justice committee within 24 hours.
Now maybe one can argue that Glennon is a special case because the sporting career probably gives him a big network of contacts that open up alternative opportunities, but he expresses a degree of frustration with the job that’s probably widespread:
“I saw the lifestyle of a lot of people of my own age. And I wondered how they could get three afternoons off a week to play golf when I hadn’t managed to hit a ball for three years,” he told The Irish Times.
“I’m not making myself out to be a martyr, but what I am saying is that most politicians are on call, maybe not quite 24 hours a day nowadays with modern communications, but they’re certainly on call seven days a week.”
So there’s endless clinic-related work on one hand, but little prospect of promotion, even with the current bloated range of ministerial positions. Unfortunately for FF, Glennon’s decision comes quite late in the day, and retaining their 2 seats with a late draftee will be a problem.
Interesting in the phoenix of Glennons reasons for leaving, he has been hanging around for years for a junior ministry and was convinced he was getting the job mary wallace got. He then went about organising the revolt group of backbenchers seeking to influence policy only to see the limelight taken from him by his co-conspirators.
He has apparantly been quite open in telling folk he is ‘disillusioned’ and ‘betrayed’ at the moment both by Bertie and his co rumblers in the backbenches.
An interesting example of how the lack of a strong committee system to keep ministers accountable to the Dail denies many backbenchers a decent role and involvement in policy. Say for example who has the most influence on finance policy at the moment? Someone that is mates with Brian Cowen, a FF backbencher or Michael McDowell.
I think the FF backbenchers missed the boat badly on having a real role this summer. And I personally, would encourage the formation of something similar in FG. Parties should use their membership and backbenchers to road test proposals before presenting them to the wider public. It makes reasonable sense to get as many people involved to draw strength from a diversity of opinions.
It is rare to see real debates at any party Ard Fheis these days, most of them are occasions for announcing policy not deciding it. YFG play a useful role in FG of getting some real debates going even if it is in part because some YFG members are policy anorak and for many senior members it may be on issues that they’d prefer to leave alone.
I’d wish Jim all the best in his future endeavours, and I wonder if this will impact the FF lineup in Dublin North East being finalised if there is now an opening for Deirdre Heney in North.