Killeen facing a tough task

NEWLY appointed Minister for Defence, Tony Killeen has already made contact with Mid-West Task Force chairman, Denis Brosnan to obtain a briefing on how best to deal with the economic crisis in the region.

Furthermore, the Minister told The Clare Champion this week that he is confident that having a Clare man in a senior ministerial position will be beneficial to the county.
“I think that some of that expectation is reasonable. It has to be an advantage to have somebody who is familiar with the circumstances in the county putting forward the case and the concerns that might otherwise not be put. And there’s also a regional dimension in relation to issues like Shannon, like the Mid-West Task Force and a whole lot of other areas where the regional dimension is important,” he explained on Wednesday.
Although the economy is not part of his brief in the defence department, Minister Killeen, who was elected to Dáil Éireann in 1992, says that he has already taken proactive steps locally.
“Letters have gone out from me this morning (Wednesday) to Denis Brosnan (Mid-West Task Force chairman) and a number of other key players in the region, including Shannon Development, indicating that I’d be happy to meet with them and get a briefing on what they feel are the key issues. And I’d be more than happy to bring them to my colleagues in Cabinet,” he stated.
Minister Killeen was told verbally on Tuesday morning that he would be joining the Cabinet but his role was not confirmed until later that afternoon. Asked if he shared the surprise of several commentators relating to the appointment of just two new ministers, Minister Killeen said that too much upheaval would have been counter-productive.
“I’d have been astounded if the Taoiseach made sweeping changes in view of the kind of challenges that the country is facing and trying to address. Very difficult decisions have to be made and I think all the evidence, particularly from international commentators, is that the actions that have been taken have moved us in the right direction. And I can understand why he’d want to continue in that vein and instead keep the stability and continuity to the greatest extent possible. I would have been really surprised had he done otherwise,” he said.
Minister Killeen, who has served as a junior minister in four departments, suggested that parties or organisations opposed to Government economic policy had few substantive ideas of their own.
“Of course, there are sectional interests and various people who think that things should be done differently. Unfortunately, when they are challenged to come forward with ideas and those ideas are measured against best international benchmarks, they come up very short.
“The consensus among the kind of bodies that one would take any notice of is that the actions taken by the Government are necessary in order to rectify the difficulties that beset our economy. It is very infrequently the case that what is necessary is popular. It’s not really a question of being popular. It’s a question of doing what needs to be done,” he asserted.
Minister Killeen is confident that he is in touch with people’s concerns regarding the state of the economy.
“I spend at least half the week talking to people in Clare and elsewhere around the country. I get a very strong sense, particularly over the early part of this year, that people in Ireland are beginning to realise that the economic difficulties are very similar to the ones that beset a lot of other countries. There is gradually an understanding that the kind of taxation revenue that was available two years ago isn’t currently available and that we can’t go on borrowing €400m a week indefinitely without taking some action to address it,” he maintained.
Minister Killeen is adamant that he would be ready to contest an election at any stage if the Government fell. However, he believes that an election wouldn’t benefit the country.
“I wouldn’t have any fears of an election in personal terms but I think the programme that the Government has set out has to be completed and it won’t be completed this year. It’ll be progressed next year and over the following couple of years. The instability that an election would bring, regardless of the outcome, would be very destabilising for what needs to be achieved in terms of the national finances,” he said.
As for his role in his new department, Minister Killeen has already been cramming on defence-related information.
“A crash course very intensively for the first couple of days,” is how he described his opening hours in office.
“I’ve been reading up all the stuff, meeting departmental people and getting a briefing on all the issues, which usually have attendant complications that aren’t necessarily apparent on the outside.”

“There’s a perception that defence is very straightforward but after four or five hours of briefing, that impression has been quickly dispelled, I’m afraid,” he added.
Minister Killeen acknowledged that his new job incorporates national and international dimensions.
“It has a huge international dimension. Ireland has a very positive standing, partly because of our role in UN peacekeeping but for other reasons as well. As for the national dimension, I was very familiar with the part to do with the naval service, fishing and waters. In my role on the marine front, more than the fisheries front, I had become very familiar with work that the navy do in surveillance of various kinds,” he said.
Speaking about his promotion, Minister Killeen said, “It’s a great honour. Ultimately, the Cabinet is the group of people who are the board of directors of the country. They sit around and make the important decisions and it’s a great honour to be part of that. It’s a great responsibility as well, of course. But I do think I’ve picked up a lot of experience in the 17 years I’ve been in the Dáil and particularly in the four departments I’ve been in. So, hopefully, I’ll be able to make a constructive contribution,” Minister Killeen added.
Having been diagnosed with cancer more than a year ago, Tony Killeen has made a steady recovery following intensive chemotherapy, although he is not yet in perfect health.
“It’s generally said by medical people that the effects of a very severe course of chemotherapy, like I had, would take somewhere between two and five years to wear off. Happily, for the last couple of months, I felt much better than I did previously. I have some long-term side effects but I’m barely six months past the end of chemotherapy so it’d be extraordinary if I had completely recovered. But I’m making the kind of progress that the medical people are happy with,” he explained.
On a broader political level, Minister Killeen says that political advancement never motivated him during his time as a county councillor, TD or backbencher.
“I don’t ever remember having any major ambition to be anything in particular in terms of political office. It isn’t the way I look at the world. My experience has been in virtually everything you do, it’s 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration,” he said.
Now that he is in Cabinet, though, Minister Killeen stresses that he will seek to represent the interests of the county that has elected him, while also fulfilling his role as Minister for Defence.
“Obviously I’ll have an opportunity to bring matters to the Cabinet table that couldn’t and wouldn’t be brought if there wasn’t a Clare minister. I think that’s an important aspect of it. But I’ll also continue to represent people the way I’ve always done. Already I’ve had people from Limerick and indeed from Clare on to me looking for meetings to give them an opportunity to brief me on what they feel are the key issues and what they see as the kind of actions that would bring beneficial results to the region,” he concluded.