Noonan uses his legendary political nous to smooth over all the cracks

Date Published: 05-Dec-2012

When Michael Noonan rose to speak in the Budget debate yesterday it was the thirteenth speech he had given either as Minister for Finance or as the main opposition spokesman. And it was a toss-up as to whether yesterday’s speech or the one last year were the least memorable of the lot.

For when it comes to set-pieces on the most important day in the Dail calendar, it is the bounden duty of the Minister for Finance to deliver all the detail in the most tedious manner possible. That more often than not involves bad news and lots of necessary but boring detail.

The best you can hope for is a bit of a rhetorical flourish at the end, or the rare announcement (almost extinct these days) that translates into good news for the TDs to bring back to their constituents. Mostly though it is dismal stuff – we are going to tell you exactly how we are going to make you poorer and more miserable.

On the other hand, when you are in Opposition you are not spancilled to any formal niceties. You are free to say what you want and no opposition spokesman has been freer or funnier in his day at delivering memorable lines and colourful metaphors than Noonan at his best.

Anyway besides Charlie McCreevy’s decentralisation bombshell back in 2003, Budgets these days tend to be pre announced several times before they are actually announced. There are several important strategic reasons for that.

It allows a Government to fly a kite and see if a measure will be more unpopular with the public than they had imagined.

It also allows them to distract. Put something out there that is away harsher than the measure actually planned and the grateful and gullible public will accept the slightly more palatable castor oil that you eventually dole out.

Some Ministers went to town on it last year and so it was all kept tighter than usual this time round. Until the last week when it all came gushing out. Sure, there were some details yesterday that we didn’t know about.

But mansion tax? Check.

The €10 reduction in children’s allowance? Check.

The abolition in the €127 per week PRSI exemption? Check.

The hefty hike in motor tax and VRT? Check.

It’s not to say that Noonan as Minister for Finance has suddenly become a humour-free zone. At a press conference earlier this year when asked by a reporter what his minimum request would be to the ECB when it came to reducing Ireland’s debt burden, he replied with a reflex reaction to the reporter: "You have never been to the Fair of Glin or sold a calf! Sure, if I told you what my minimum would be that’s what they would give me!"

The veteran Limerick politician has revelled in the role as minister and I just can’t see him being prepared to give way when the reshuffle happens towards the end of 2013 or in 2014. Three years ago, Noonan seemed a spent force, a politician who had had his shot at being leader and failed, whose future was now behind him.

But serendipity in the shape of the challenge to Enda Kenny’s leadership played into his hands. When Richard Bruton’s challenge failed, Kenny turned to him and offered him a chance to return from the wilderness.

Noonan has been one of the great successes of this Government. What’s remarkable is that he has been very successful without achieving very much. The Government is pinned down by the Troika and its bailout programme.

When drawing up budgets the Government is given the same choice that Henry Ford gave purchasers of his Model T: "You can have any colour you want as long as it’s black".

Noonan’s main role has been to try and negotiate down Ireland’s massive State burden derived from carrying bank debt, both through recapitalisation and the provision of the Anglo promissory note.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.