Get Garret to knock some heads together

What we need in this country now is somebody who will knock heads together. A national consensus on how to get us out of the economic mess we are in is vital.
All we got over the past week was more political sniping and play-acting.
With all due respects to him, Green Party leader John Gormley is not the man to knock heads together. He is one of the heads. Anything he suggests will be looked on suspiciously by the other heads.
The party leaders do not trust each other. What we need is somebody outside the present political party set-up to get the ball rolling. I would suggest somebody like Dr Garret FitzGerald. It need not be Garret but somebody like him who is respected, I think, by all sides. Even Fianna Fáil people acknowledge that Garret FitzGerald is a man of great integrity who will put the good of this country above all other interests.
He would be an ideal chairman of some kind of all-party political forum, which would devise budgetary strategy for the next four years. He could have as deputy chairman somebody such as Ray MacSharry, the former minister for finance who led us out of the last economic crisis in the late 1980s.
There are other people, of course, who have never been involved in politics and who might be the ideal people to get this thing moving. While the former head of the University of Limerick, Ed Walsh, has called for a national government over the past week, I would not think he would be the man to create any kind of a national consensus.  Having listened to him on the radio at the weekend, he struck me as somebody who would be too divisive for such a role. Put him in charge and within seconds the political heads would be at each other’s throats.
Perhaps we should go outside the country for a chairman. I am thinking of somebody like George Mitchell, who brought peace to the North. But he is too busy trying to do the same thing for the Middle-East.
Perhaps former US President Bill Clinton might be able to suspend his busy schedule and turn his attention to getting the parties here united in trying to sort out our problems. He genuinely loves Ireland and wants to see us succeed.
Anybody who managed to get Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness laughing at each other’s jokes should have no problem in getting Brian Cowen and Enda Kenny to sit down and work out a common approach to economic strategy. This matter is far too serious to be left to Fianna Fáil and the Greens alone to sort out, or to Fine Gael and Labour alone for that matter.
If we were under attack by a foreign army, all parties would join together in a national government in order to repel the enemy. Party considerations would be put aside for the duration of the war and the people of the country would be willing to make whatever sacrifices were necessary to defeat the enemy.
The fact is we are under attack. The freedom and independence that our forefathers fought for is at stake. Ireland will no longer be a sovereign and independent state if we cannot solve this problem ourselves. Time is running out and we will not solve the problem unless we are united in trying to do so.
I believe John Gormley was motivated by the best of intentions in calling for a national consensus during the week. But in doing so he left himself open to Opposition taunts that this was nothing but a cynical last-ditch attempt by the Greens to keep themselves and Fianna Fáil in power.
While it was disheartening to see so many political leaders falling over themselves to reject the idea of a national consensus, it was also somewhat understandable.
Both Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore have been convinced for the past two years that it is only a matter of time before they take over the reins of power in this country. They are afraid that this idea of an agreed budget might frustrate their expectations.
At least Enda Kenny was honest. He admitted that while a national consensus might be good for Ireland it would not be good for Fine Gael.
Eamon Gilmore accused those who are calling for a united approach to the economy of plotting to keep Fianna Fáil in power. Does he really believe that Garret FitzGerald wants Fianna Fáil to run the country?
Brian Cowen’s swift rejection of John Gormley’s call for a national consensus was also disappointing, even though it was also understandable. If Cowen put the stamp of approval on Gormley’s call he would immediately be accused of trying to stay on as Taoiseach. He couldn’t win.
It appears that if we are going to have some form of national consensus all the party leaders – with the honourable exception of John Gormley – will have to be dragged screaming into it. They surely realise however, that such a consensus is the only way to keep the international money vultures at bay.
I am no johnny-come-lately to the idea of a national government or a national consensus. I have been calling for some such unity since the economic crisis manifested itself two years ago. However, it is one thing to be agreed on the broad parameters of what needs to be done but another thing to agree on the nitty-gritty.
For example, if the present Government decides to introduce a property tax in the next budget, that decision will be attacked on all sides of the Opposition, even though the Opposition will have to do so themselves some time. The same with water charges. Or increases in income tax or further cut-backs in social welfare. Or in public service salaries or pensions.
They all agree that we are borrowing too much and that cutbacks need to be implemented and revenue increased. But under the present party set-up they will not agree on the detail.
So no government – neither the present coalition nor a future Fine Gael/Labour one, can have the confidence to take the unpopular decisions that need to be taken without all-party agreement.That is the reality. They know it but they do not have the courage nor the patriotism to do it.
It is now up to the people of the country to demand it. We may have to march to the gates of Leinster House to enforce that demand.