Two Ministers poles apart on policy Ð but linked through a shared lack of humility

Date Published: 26-Sep-2012

James Reilly and Brendan Howlin come from hugely contrasting political backgrounds, belong to different parties and have very different outlooks on the world. Yet in the past week, as both found themselves in the eye of political storms, each showed that they had one trait in common – a complete lack of humility.

That’s a diplomatic way of saying arrogant. And both gave breathtaking examples of it during the week when defending their decisions and their policies.

Health is the most difficult brief in Cabinet, with the possible exception of Finance. And like so many of his predecessors, James Reilly has learned why Brian Cowen called it Angola – with political landmines lurking everywhere.

Hardly a week has gone by of late when Reilly has not been in the eye of the storm. There was his failure to let others known HSE chief executive Cathal Magee was stepping down; his name being listed for a debt default in Stubb’s Gazette; his various property and business dealings; and the cackhanded way in which the HSE announced €160 million in stinging cuts.

But in the past week it has become personal with his fraught and tense relationship with Minister of State Roisin Shortall becoming centre stage. Not only did she refuse to name him in the course of a four minute speech during the ‘no confidence’ debate in the Dail. To be sure, she used the occasion to launch a Scud attack on his handling of the health services.

And there was a sting in the tail. She referred to a lack of transparency in the process to select primary care centres. A day later The Irish Times ran the story that Reilly had added two centres in his own constituency to the list.

And the back-story to Howlin’s little piece of bother is also telling. It was his Budget, or – to be more accurate – Estimates, speech last December in which he promised he would cut the allowances paid to workers in the public sector by a modest five per cent in 2012. That amounted to a target of €75m. Moreover, he promised a further €150m in cuts in 2013; and another €150m in 2014.

Well all of that unravelled last week, when Howlin announced the result of the exercise. What we got was a lot of bluster and no substance. Only €3.5m of the €75m savings had been achieved and only a solitary single allowance out of 1,100 was abolished.

There would be 180 allowances modified or reduced for new entrants in the future. They were allowances worth €475m, Howlin piously said, as if it was worth almost half a billion in savings. In fact, the saving was zero. The €475m will continue to be paid ad infinitum. And with an embargo, recruitment will be so low that savings will be next to zero.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.