So much for transparency Ð because this Coalition may be the most secretive of all

Date Published: 28-Nov-2012

It’s been a strange November from a politics perspective. Usually, even during the good years, political discourse was dominated by budget speculation during November. Arguments abounded about taxes and cuts or whether or not the Minister for Finance would apply the scalpel to the "auld reliables" of alcohol and tobacco.

But this year, the run-up has been very subdued compared to other years, especially last year. This has to do, partly, with the manner in which the Savita Hapallanavar case has predominiated. But it also stems from the decision of those at the top of the Cabinet to stop a repeat of last year’s leak-fest. That decision to keep things tight seems, to me at least, to be intrinsically anti-democratic in its nature.

Let’s cast our eyes back to last year. From late October, first leaks, and then deluges, of pre-Budget information started to seep out of Government departments, mostly Health and Social Protection. It seemed like every social gain and welfare stance of the past fifty years was going to be ditched from child benefit to pensions to medical cards.

But in the last few days the flotilla of kites were hauled in and the Budget that materialised seemed very reasonable indeed compared to the scary stuff. Having said that, the Coalition shipped a lot of collateral damage for this serial leaking.

And the solution this year? Well, obviously no leaking.

And how does that happen? Well one of the tactics has been to make sure that none of the Ministers have anything to leak to the wider world.

So how did they do that?

Well, a Cabinet meeting is not exactly a beacon of openness to begin with. The principle of Cabinet confidentiality means you hear less verbiage after the meetings on Tuesday than you will hear in a Poor Clare convent.

Every week in Leinster House, political correspondents are ‘briefed’ on what happened at that week’s meeting of Ministers. Briefed is a very generous term in that context. For besides being told what army officers or Gardaí have been promoted and what ambassador has presented his or her credentials, you will get maybe one line – two if you are lucky – about what happened during the remaining two or three hours.

Often, a matter of national importance has been decided at Cabinet but a decision has been taken not to let people know. That information may come to light weeks later. Reporters tend to speak to individual ministers or those close to them to find out what is really going on.

So what has happened this year that’s different? Well, it seems the decision about drafting the Budget has been taken out of the Cabinet and given to the Government’s own star chamber, that is its economic management council. That is made up of the Taoiseach, the Tanaiste, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and their senior officials and political advisers.

Increasingly, when it comes to the country’s finances it is this group of four which is deciding everything. And increasingly, the role of the wider Cabinet is to rubber-stamp what has already been decided.

And so this year, it seems that most Ministers have been kept in the dark about what the Budget will hold until the very last moment, besides the bilateral meetings they hold on an individual basis with the Minister for Public Expenditure.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.