The Kenny plan: party before nation

ENDA Kenny let the cat out of the bag on Friday last when he admitted that the Tallaght Strategy might be good for the country but not for Fine Gael. So he was having none of it.

The Fine Gael leader was responding to a call from businessman Denis O’Brien for a united front between the political parties in order to get us out of the economic mess we are in.
Enda Kenny is not Alan Dukes, the architect of the original Tallaght Strategy, who, as leader of Fine Gael in the late 1980s, supported the tough budgetary measures then taken by Charles Haughey and Ray MacSharry.
While the Tallaght Strategy was “wonderful from the national perspective”, Fine Gael suffered at the polls as a consequence, he said.
So there you have it. Fine Gael, under Enda Kenny, is not going to put the national interest before party interest. Former Fine Gael leaders such as Dick Mulcahy, Liam Cosgrave, John A Costello or Garrett FitzGerald would put the country first. But Enda Kenny is not going to do it. 
I always suspected that but now Mr Kenny himself has confirmed that suspicion. The country is in a state of emergency; we are on the verge of bankruptcy but Fine Gael, under Enda Kenny, will not help if there is any danger of losing votes as a consequence.
Now it has to be stated that Fine Gael under Alan Dukes had little or no influence over Fianna Fáil economic policy between 1987 and 1989. It might be naive to accept that the Opposition would support Government economic policy today without any power to change it. 
But that’s the key to the whole problem. Fine Gael should not give the Government a blank cheque.  What is needed is a unified approach. Let the leaders of Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Féin, if necessary, have access to the books. Let them know as much as Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan about the state of the economy – if they don’t know it already – and let them take it from there.
There is not such a huge difference between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour that they cannot work out a strategy between them. I cannot hear any clamour from any of them for such a unified approach and now Enda Kenny has definitely ruled it out.
It is not a question of letting Fianna Fáil off the hook. The day of reckoning for Fianna Fáil is less than two years away, one way or another but we need to show the world that we are going to take the necessary steps to reduce our debts. We need to show the world now.
We will not be able to do that unless all the major parties are in agreement. Party differences have to be put aside at least until the general election and then the Opposition can tear strips off Fianna Fáil if that is what they want to do.
The situation is far too serious for political play-acting now. We are, as it were, at war and there is an urgent need for national solidarity in order to fight that war.
If Enda Kenny does not understand that he should be removed from office and replaced by Richard Bruton or somebody else who does understand it. 
I have no doubt there are plenty of people in Fine Gael who will put country before party. Last week in the Seanad, two Fine Gael senators, Paul Bradford and Paschal Donohue, displayed some of the courageous patriotism needed when they called for a truce and co-operation between the parties in order to get the next budget passed.
Was their leader listening to them? His only reaction was to reject Tallaght Mark Two. Was Eamon Gilmore listening? Was Brian Cowen or Brian Lenihan?
The Government is going to find it extremely difficult to get the savage cuts in spending and the big increases in taxation that are needed through the Dáil. The cuts in public spending and the extra taxes are vital if we are going to get out of this mess. 
Fine Gael and Labour are basically in agreement with that. Fianna Fáil cannot depend on all its own backbenchers or on the Independent TDs who have backed them up to now. People like Mattie McGrath and Noel Grealish are more interested in local issues than in the national question. 
Some of the most unpopular decisions are going to have to be taken in the national interest. Fine Gael and Labour know that. So wouldn’t it be great if they went a step further and did as Paul Bradford suggested they do and that is vote the budget through.
When we are talking about unpopular decisions, let us spell out here what we are actually talking about. We are talking about issues like reducing the old-age pension, cutting back on children’s allowances, introducing a tax on every house in the state, making people pay for the water they use, not go ahead with the building of that new school that has been promised for decades. Those are only some of the unpopular decisions we can expect in the national interest over the next four or more years.
We all agree that the coming budget has to be savage but none of us will agree on the detail because we all want to look after our own little patch. It’s ok to rob Peter to pay Paul but don’t rob me or make me pay.
That’s why it is vital to have a unified approach to the coming budget, especially now that budgetary strategy for the next four years is to be mapped out next month. It would be wrong for the present Government to tie the Opposition to a strategy that Fine Gael and Labour are going to have to implement in 2012, 2013 and 2014 but which they had neither hand, act nor part in framing. So the parties in Government now and the parties expected to be in Government in the near future should sit down together now and plan the future between them.
I still believe an early general election would be a mistake. It would divide us further than ever at a time when we need unity more than ever. A general election would no doubt give a strong mandate to a new Government but we would have the same political play-acting from the Fianna Fáil Opposition that we are getting today from Enda Kenny.
Let all the parties co-operate now and postpone the political point scoring for at least two years. As Paul Bradford said, let’s have the truce now.