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“We need a reshuffle urgently”
Read more about: Irish Politics 
Toying with a deckchairs and titanic comment and it is hard not to when you hear that Cowen plans to modernise Fianna Fail in time for that 2012 general election we keep hearing about. They will get a shock, once they dig into their members list and realise many of them are, like names on the electoral register, not fully with us.
Anyway, the idea of the cabinet reshuffle is taking hold among the backbenchers and the heads of ministers may be required to satisfy a building pressure.
“We need a reshuffle urgently,” said one deputy. “There are at least three ministers there who have been there too long and are doing nothing. They are effectively bed-blockers. The Taoiseach needs to be bold and promote some of the newer and younger TDs.
“Brian [Cowen] also needs to get his act together. He needs a vast improvement in his performance.” The sentiment was shared by several other TDs who blamed poor communication, a lack of consistency and what one described as “basic blunders” for the poor election results.
Briefing behind closed doors is all well and good, as is the delusion that a reshuffle is what will save the party. The December budget will look for 5% GDP in cuts and savings. That is a lot more welfare, education and health cuts as well as a carbon and property tax for land owners (a chance to further enrage urban dwellers and alienate rural farmers). Modernising FF is the least of Cowen’s worries – he has a country to run and I doubt the electorate will welcome naval gazing on such a level while Rome burns.
The backbenchers will make life very very messy. Fine Gael and Labour won’t help and the Greens and a reshuffle will add to the hall of disaffected after its loss of Pat ‘the cope’ to Europe. There is no sense in demoting Coughlan even though her performance is palpably awful – they need to compete in the Dongeal by-election. So who are the three ministers and where do they go? And will Cowen do any of this? Or outsource reform to the likes of Sean Dorgan and leave a reshuffle until post-summer?
Cowen will carry the day on the motion of confidence and then face two days of a debate on the most apalling litany of abuse and depravity we have seen in this country. This spintastic week about ‘tough decisions’ (no mention of them being wrong, necessitated by shite economic management in the past 10 years), moving on and the impending reshuffle are to take pol corrs mind from the fact that FF lost its own expectations game.
Also – a side point – this nonsense about Fine Gael and Labour agreeing some sort of joint policy effort as a requirement for credibility at the next election is a horrible mess. Taken as gospel by ‘informed insiders’ the idea of two parties effectively merging (out of fairness to government, you cant be appealling to everybody!) is an affront to the idea of PR and a complete pile of steaming nonsense. The parties tried it in 2007 and it didn’t work. Voters can choose as they see fit between policies – that is their prerogative and like in 2007 the parties work out what happens next. The idea of a united opposition – one party by the sounds of it – is awful anti-democratic guff.
What is needed is surgery – not, as you rightly say, a redistribution of the deckchairs.
Small; efficient; effective decision-taking Government.
Clearcut Ministries, without overlap.
Justice;
Finance;
Communications;
Natural Resources;
Human Resources
And a floating Foreign Minister who would act as Chief Minister/Chairman.
A dedicated back Up of Professionals to deal with the details:-
Agriculture; Industry; Exports; Energy Conservation; Water Desalination; Mineral/River Resources etc;
Language & Skills Training; Management; Cost Control; Pensioners Health and Welfare etc…
Road; Rail & Sea; Wireless-Telegraphy; Broadband expansion etc.
Law & Order; Defence; Security…
Cash Management and Control…
Europe & Abroad.
Keep it simple: Keep it Small.
SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL.
Ireland is Small.
QED.
Cian, with respect to your last paragraph, I would suggest that you have it the wrong way around.
For example, I do not see how it can be contrary to representational democracy for two parties to say that they will unite behind a common manifesto and fight an election on that basis? Anyone who votes for them on the basis of that manifesto knows exactly what sort of government that they are voting for.
On the other hand, it is this notion of “the parties work out what happens next” that I consider to be an appalling misuse of my vote. Which parts of the manifesto that I supported will be sacrificed, which parts of the other party’s manifesto will be adopted? How contrary will all of this end up being to the manner in which I expressed my democratic wish?
Now, if you are suggesting that it makes no sense for a generally progressive party like Labour to be binding itself in advance to a generally conservative party like Fine Gael, then I have a great deal sympathy for that argument. However, I would draw a clear distinction between this contention and what is democratic or not.
Look, our whole system of politics is a particularly weak form of representative democracy, as many voters are left feeling quite disenfranchised. Ironically, something like the Mullingar Pact was actually an attempt at allowing voters to focus on policies and not parties and personalities. The fact that it did not succeed that time is, of course, a whole other story.
Indeed I am in agreement longman Oz. Many people voted for the Green Party believing that they would not go in with Fianna Fail. Also while it didn’t work in 2007 it worked in 1973
@sos: There’s a constitutional requirement for a minimum of seven ministers which your suggested ‘small government’ fails to satisfy. Other elements of your suggested ‘small government’ are also unconstitutional. There’s also an existing constitutional term for your ‘Chief Minister/Chairman’, and that’s ‘Taoiseach’, and Defence and Justice are two ministries that should *never* be be counted as one portfolio, regardless of any apparent overlap. Also, your suggested ‘Communications’ ministry would be better termed ‘Infrastructure’.
herald garda columnist thinks coughlan is going to be given justice? wtf
http://www.herald.ie/opinion/columnists/gerry-ocarroll/gardai-will-not-be-sorry-to-see-back-of-ahern-1768190.html
Brian Cowen, following the publication of the Ryan Report, said that when asked to demand further compensation from the Religious, his advice had been that it was not legally possible.
To which the consensus reply was “Change the Law”
If Government is sincere in its desire to reduce waste & cut costs –
“Change the Constitution”
- to reflect the needs of 21st Century government Representation -
- to 1 TD per 100,000 of population.