You can’t let Enda off the leash

COMMENT

Clare Fine Gael TD Pat Breen and all the other Fine Gael TDs who voted against Enda Kenny’s leadership of the party in June 2010 have now been vindicated.

You just cannot let Enda loose. You never know what he is going to say. Unless you keep a tight rein on the Mayo man, he is liable to let you down when you most need him to stand up for you.
His comment at Davos in Switzerland at the weekend was a case in point when he said we went mad borrowing. It was an off-the-cuff response and completely at odds with what he said in his state-of-the-nation address in December when he announced that we were not to blame for our economic woes.
The big difference was that his December address was a prepared one and a speech carefully vetted by those who are highly paid to keep their eyes and ears on Enda.
This time in Davos, he was off the leash and you know what happened. He let us all down in front of his lords and masters in Europe. The point at issue should not be so much about whether he was telling the truth at Davos but about where he said it.
You do not complain to the neighbours about a bad habit a member of your family has. You go and have it out with the family member and keep it within the family. Enda Kenny should have confronted us about our mad borrowing when he gave that state-of-the-nation speech before Christmas.
When he was speaking in Europe, he should have put most of the blame for the economic mess we are in on the German banks who gave us money at very cheap interest rates.
He was right in one thing though: we are mad. He, however, was talking about crazy mad. I am talking about angry mad. The people are furious. They are furious because this Government is no different to the one it replaced, the one that was kicked out of office so ignominiously less than a year ago.
They are furious because this Government is forcing them to pay for all the gambling debts left by some of the wealthiest people in Ireland and in Europe over the last decade.
They are going to be even more furious at a Government that doesn’t want them to have any say in our future in Europe.
While Enda Kenny may protest that he has “no worries, no concerns, no anxieties” about holding a referendum on the new European fiscal treaty, the Government has everything to be worried about. The treaty is just as likely to be rejected as accepted in a referendum here. We are never going to know if we are not going to be asked.
At this stage, I don’t know myself whether I am for or against the treaty. I am waiting for the debate to start when I hope to be better informed. In some respects, I am in favour of the treaty but am against it in others.
It will not make a blind bit of difference what I, or anybody else, thinks about the treaty if we are not allowed to vote on it. Despite what Enda Kenny says, the Government is afraid to hold a referendum. They have reason to be afraid. An opinion poll carried out by Red C and published in The Sunday Business Post last Sunday showed the people are fairly evenly divided on the treaty and almost three-quarters of them want a referendum on the issue.
European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said last Friday the treaty would result in a diminution of sovereignty over budgetary policy in participating countries. The pact will further reduce the Government’s room for manoeuvre in budgetary matters.
In other words, more power to Europe and less to our own elected Government in Dáil Éireann. At this stage, I am not arguing for or against this concept. What I am saying is that it is outrageous to even think of such an idea without putting it before the people. Any Government that ignores the will of the people does so at its own peril. The will of the people is clearly in favour of holding a referendum as we saw in that Sunday Business Post poll.
It doesn’t matter whether or not the treaty envisages any change in our constitution. The important thing is that the people be given a say in this matter of vital national interest. It is what democracy is all about. It is up to the Government to explain what the treaty is all about and to do its best to ensure it is carried. To deny the people the right to decide is an attack on democracy itself.
I am stressing my argument at this point is not about the treaty itself. It is solely about the right of the people themselves to decide.
I am glad to see that the Opposition parties are also in favour of holding a referendum. We don’t know whether or not they are playing with politics and merely out to embarrass the government. Fianna Fáil cannot allow Sinn Féin to have it all their own way on the opposition benches. They are still the biggest party in opposition but too often are allowing the other party to have all the running.
That Red C opinion poll showed both parties to be neck-and-neck with Fianna Fáil on 18% and Sinn Féin on 17%. A more worrying aspect of that from the Fianna Fáil point of view is that support for Sinn Féin has gone up from 10% – a rise of seven points – since last year’s General Election, while Fianna Fáil has moved only one point – from 17% at the election.
This is just not good enough for the main opposition party at a time when both Government parties are getting a lot of stick over the introduction of several new taxes and charges in recent months.
The poll shows there is more support for the Independents – at 21% – than for any of the opposition parties.
I accept an opinion poll at this time has little relevance, with no election on the horizon. But with support for Labour down from 19% at the General Election to a miserable 14% now, Eamon Gilmore will be very reluctant to fall out with Fine Gael on any issue within the forseeable future.