Enda Kenny Ready and Waiting for Election
Read more about: Fine Gael 
Harry McGee has a sit down with Enda Kenny, Fine Gael leader in today’s Irish Times. It is unsurprising that Kenny expects an early election, though by my reckoning it only happens if the Green Party pull the plug I doubt Fianna Fail TDs would be clambering to campaign preferring to “wait and see”, and moreover expects to win it. They will announce later this month a policy of national insurance model of health care to be implemented if they get into power.
I have been interested in the trajectory of Kenny’s leadership of Fine Gael, the dog on the street knows that Richard Bruton is given free reign on the economy – a reign that has been used to dent considerably the governments credibility. Kenny’s own performances can be ponderous and a little stilted, even wooden. I am unsure if the public sees him as a taoiseach in waiting, however recently I have begun to wonder if they have to.
He has sufficient decent people on his front bench to be able to delegate away from the “big idea” to a knowledgable spokseperson. Bruton personifies this but so too do Hayes, O’Reilly, O’Dowd and a few others (whatver you think of their politics) that have made good ground in at least suggesting they are able to do a job.
My style of leadership is not one of suppression, it’s one of encouragement. It is one of putting people out front and picking a team of your best talents, adjusting them as the case might be.
My effort has been to team build and let all these people who have ambition and talent and energy, let them vent that politically so that we can win the trust of the people and form the next government.
It might work, but it is a tough sell – the elections are becoming more and more presidentail and the leader who leads as chairman often loses out to the one who looks like a chief. The challenge for Kenny is to fit the mantle of the latter while displaying all the traits of the former. If he pulls it off then it may be possible to win the seats, the jury is out for me.
“who leads as chairman often loses out to the one who looks like a chief”
…surely Brian Cowen looks like anything but a chief? I think an ‘09 election would be a vote on the lesser of two lesser men.
Cian, I’ve been banging on for years that the media and much of the public have forgotten that we have a parliamentary democracy and government by a cabinet not a presidential system. It may well be easier for some of the commentariat to bemoan the absence of Obama’s and such like in Irish politics but we have different system that both includes and excludes differ types of people and styles from the electoral arena. Our system has positives and negatives compared to other systems and I’ll all for debating those and making changes, but the comments from the likes of Vincent Browne amongst others (that Kenny hasn’t a sufficient grasp of the nuances of economics to be Taoiseach). The job of Taoiseach is about outlining a goal, a destination if you will, not charting out the exact course, or manning the engine room himself. He picks the heads of departments but is secure enough in himself to let them get on with the job once they have been appointed and to decisively kick them to touch if they can’t be team players (Yes, John Deasy, I’m talking about you).
Enda Kenny is in the role of player/captain-manager in what is a team effort not a soloist like golf or tennis. It might have passed people’s notice but Kerry don’t have their best player as captain – the honour goes to the player from the county champions or their nominee should one of their players not be in the team/squad.
I agree Dan, there is no prospect of the Obama style campaign here becuase of the system we have in place – and that is both a good and a bad thing. The difficulty is that the electorate have to make the decision between potential ‘chairmen’ or potential ‘chiefs’ as Brian Farrell laid it out.
The difficulty for Enda is that he isnt a chief (and I take JL’s point that Brian cowen has hardly done much in that frame himself – a difference between crisis management and management of a crisis). The more i think about it the less i think it prevents him winning but it makes him dependent on this front bench to share the burden and it also means he has to be very focussed as spreading/communicating the overall position and direction. By comparison, Cowen doesn’t do it (yet or ever?) and Bertie didnt have to – he went the other way of cultivating a popular persona that circumvented the whole mess of policy positions.
If it comes down to an election it is as much what the electorate prioritise (leadership versus a competent front bench) and that is probably a function of election timing.