End of term brings contrasting report cards for country’s political leaders

It’s now official – we are into silly season. The Dáil is in recess until September and the politicians, if they have any sense, are abroad on holidays…with their mobile phones turned off.

So who has had a good political year? And who has had a bad political year?

We might as well start at the top this week, looking at the leaders and the wanabee leaders in each party.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has, in the round, done relatively well. He has at times being petulant and blasé in his remarks during leaders’ questions in the Dáil (but that is ultimately not of any great import). Some of his pronouncements seem a little glib and shallow, verging on jingoistic.

However, overall, he has performed well above expectations and shown real political acumen and the kind of steel that is a prerequisite of leadership.

He made a mess of his response to the Magdalen enquiry early in the year but recovered magnificently three weeks later with one of the best speeches he has given during his career. The emotional pitch of that speech, as well as the sense he was speaking for everybody, reflected the overriding public sentiments on that particular matter, though some considered it maudlin.

He also displayed the ruthlessness that’s another essential trait of a political leader (even Garret ‘the Good’ FitzGerald possessed it!) when he made good on his threat to remove the whip from any TD who voted against the abortion legislation.

The steeliness of Kenny was in marked contrast to his Fianna Fáil counterpart Micheál Martin. Although his political reputation is tainted by dint of the fact he was a Minister in the last few Fianna Fáil governments, his party has done well under his leadership, and he has also done well generally as leader.

However, Martin’s weakness as a leader was exposed during the abortion debate. Instead of imposing a whip, he took the easy option of allowing a free vote. It looked very bad for a party that was trying to present a modern image that the vast majority of its members in the Dáil and in the Seanad voted against its own leader.

It also looked bad for him. He has worked hard to negate his image as a Minister who dithered a bit and vacillated – commissioning reports rather than taking hard decisions. Since becoming Fianna Fáil leader he seemed to have confronted this perception very well – his disciplining of Eamon Ó Cuív over the fiscal treaty referendum was a case in point.

For Eamon Gilmore and Labour, after a dismal 2012 and a bad start to 2013 (a rake of defections from the parliamentary party and a disastrous by-election in Meath East, it has not turned out to be at all bad.

After a series of false starts and misfires, some of the policies identified with the party have finally materialised.

Sinn Fein has also been on a bit of a comeback trail in the past few months. The early advantage they enjoyed in the wake of the 2011 election seemed to have been eviscerated by a resurgent Fianna Fáil in the latter half of 2012 and the early stages of this year.

The view among elected representatives of other parties is that Gerry Adams just doesn’t cut it as leader in the Dáil and either misses the point or is out-manoeuvred by other leaders.

And yet Adams is a brand and has a purchase with the wider public that is sometimes not appreciated within the beltway.

For a complete report see this week’s Tribune here.