Questions but few answers

On Questions and Answers on Monday week last (January 8th) Pat Rabbitte did gyrations to avoid answering a straight question from John Bowman: "When the figures [ election results] come in, you may be placed in an awful dilemma. Would you do the statesmanlike thing and save the country from Sinn Féin by adding Labour's votes [ seats] to Fianna Fáil."

In answer, Pat Rabbitte said it was his intention of replacing not just one of the two parties in government but both of them. John Bowman persisted: "That's your purpose, but if it didn't happen what would your choice be?"

John Bowman was seeking to make the distinction between what Pat Rabbitte's intention might be and what he would actually do in particular circumstances.

Lots of waffle about what people "out there" wanted. People getting up at half-six in the morning to pay their taxes (yes he said that) and on and on. Dermot Ahern, who was also on the programme, intervened and asked a diversionary question. Pat Rabbitte grasped on it. John Bowman wrestled to get his question back on the agenda. He asked: "If the electorate does not return either coalition and Fianna Fáil; and Labour have the numbers, would you accept the democratic will of the Labour Party at conference, which is what will happen, to join Fianna Fáil in government."

The reply was that the Labour Party could not possibly do that, for it would take a motion tabled by the leader and he wouldn't do that.

"If you think for one moment that a Labour Party conference is going to rush to defeat a recommendation from the leader of the Labour Party to put Fianna Fáil back in government you are living in cloud cuckoo land."

Finally he got around to answering the question: "I will not put Fianna Fáil back in government. Now is there any part of that you don't understand." Fairly clear then. Even after the earlier equivocation.

Then on Sunday last (six days later) he was on the This Week radio programme. He was asked a similar question by Gerald Barry.

"Is it your position that you will not recommend, under any circumstances, to a Labour Party conference that it should consider going into coalition with Fianna Fáil, even if at that stage the numbers don't add up to any other alternative government being capable of being formed and sustained." Simple question, which could have been answered by the words that John Bowman had extracted from him the previous Monday evening. Instead, several minutes of excruciating evasion.

More about the taxpayers rising at six-thirty very aggrieved at how their taxpayer euro were being spent. Quite good stuff about how Irish Ferries were being afforded special treatment in being given €4.5 million to make Irish workers redundant and have them replaced by cheaper foreign workers. But no answer to the question. Eventually the following: "The Labour Party can't decide after an election to go into government without a motion to annual conference from the leader, and I have no intention of putting such a motion, unless I think the circumstances are right." It took us quite a while to get to this point. No longer the cryptic "I will not put Fianna Fáil back in government", now talk about the circumstances being right.

Later he was interviewed by the Irish Independent. According to its political correspondent, Fionnan Sheehan, "Pat Rabbitte refused to categorically rule out the possibility of entering government with Fianna Fáil."

On the Labour Party website on Monday a list of questions submitted by the Irish Independent were published along with the answers. These were:

Question 1: "Will Pat Rabbitte recommend to a Labour special conference after the next election that the party should enter coalition with Fianna Fáil if no rainbow alternative is available?"

Answer: "I believe that when people come to focus on electing a government an alternative to Fianna Fáil and the PDs will be elected. As I have repeatedly said, I have no intention of convening a special conference to recommend going into government with Fianna Fáil."

Question 2: "Would he not have an obligation to do so, in the national interest, if the likely outcome otherwise was an early general election?"

Answer: "Of course I will take into account the national interest as Labour has always done. It is the very nature of politics that there can be disagreement on what constitutes the national interest at any particular juncture. It is my conviction that the national interest is best served at this time by replacing Fianna Fáil and the PDs in government."

Question 3: "In the event of a Labour special conference endorsing coalition with Fianna Fáil, will Mr Rabbitte resign as leader?"

Answer: "As the party constitution provides, a proposal to enter government can only be put to a special conference by me as party leader and I have set out my position at (1) above."

Question 4: "Would Mr Rabbitte serve as a minister in such a government in the circumstances outlined in Question 3?"

Answer: "This does not arise."

Wouldn't it do your head in?