Public Enterprise Driving force on the transport crisis

Minister for Public Enterprise, Mary O'Rourke

Track record

Mary O'Rourke learned in this Government that a booming economy can be just as testing as a recession. A politician to the marrow, her brief embraced transport, communications and energy. With the largest semi-State companies in her bailiwick, she also had to keep powerful trade unions on board.

It was O'Rourke who had to pick up the pieces when rapid growth in employment strained public transport to breaking point. After decades of under-investment, she secured funding for new buses and backed a multi-million investment in rail safety. The future of rail transport in the Republic would have been doubtful without that initiative, yet big over-runs on a new signalling system raised questions about the ability of CIE to manage large-scale investment. The results of that project will be seen during the next Government; only then will the Luas system begin running. No one claims public transport is exemplary, but it has improved.

On the minus side, O'Rourke was - infamously - taking a bath when she heard on a radio report that the CIE chairman, Brian Joyce, had resigned, in March 2000. It was the biggest shock of her political career.

Her tenure also saw the emergence of serious pressure on the highly constrained electricity system, threatening industrial growth in under-developed regions of the State. However, O'Rourke has been a keen supporter of the State's investment in high-tech communications networks.

Earlier in the Government, O'Rourke sold the Aer Lingus aircraft maintenance company, TEAM, to a Danish conglomerate, FLS, in what was a politically challenging process. Aer Lingus was brought to the brink of flotation last year, but the project faltered amid strikes and a damaging sexual harassment case against its then chief executive, Michael Foley. O'Rourke failed to secure the support of her Cabinet colleagues for the partial flotation of Aer Rianta. The company's expensive investment plans for the State's largest airports were rejected last year by a new regulator.

The Minister was the subject of a highly personalised advertising campaign by Ryanair after she rejected its demands for a bespoke terminal at Dublin Airport. O'Rourke's view was that a State asset should not be handed to Ryanair just because the company wanted it. But Ryanair's boss, Michael O'Leary, who disagreed, initiated a series of withering attacks on the Minister. New ground in Irish politics, it was certainly not the stuff that O'Rourke had been accustomed to as Minister for Education.

Biggest achievement

O'Rourke championed the flotation of Eircom on the stock exchange. The sale realised almost €6.25 million when the value of telecommunications assets were at their highest. Good timing from the State's perspective.

Biggest failure

For thousands of ordinary punters, the Eircom flotation was a disaster. Almost half a million small shareholders lost money when their investment in Eircom went sour soon after the flotation. The slump was general throughout the telecoms sector, but it was an experience O'Rourke would probably prefer to forget.

As a shrewd campaigner who relishes being at the centre of attention, she was happy to be the public face of the flotation. When the shares lost steam, she became the focus of grassroots anger. In addition, the exercise in public ownership of a utility ended with the sale of Eircom to Sir Anthony O'Reilly and a group of US venture capitalists.

Prospects

O'Rourke is deputy leader of Fianna Fáil, but the real axis of second-rung power in the party rests with her Cabinet colleagues, Brian Cowen, Micheál Martin and Charlie McCreevy. She is virtually certain to retain her seat in the Westmeath constituency. Aged 65, there is speculation that she will retire from the senior ranks of the Cabinet if Fianna Fáil returns to power. She is unlikely to be overlooked, however, when the sideline positions are divided out. Insiders suggest she may well be made Ceann Comhairle. Such a job would appear to suit her personality.

Arthur Beesley, Finance reporter

OPPOSITION PERFORMANCE

Fine Gael

Jim Higgins

He has been the party's best front-bench performer in the current Dáil. His contributions to private members' motions, in particular, are always well-researched and well-argued.

In different circumstances, he might well have been party leader by now. If Michael Noonan stands down, Higgins could be in the running to replace him.

Higgins's Dáil contribution on the Donegal Garda controversy - known as the McBrearty affair - won widespread praise.

Labour

Emmet Stagg

Tenacious and terrier-like, Stagg's aggressive style sometimes loses impact because of a tendency to overdo his outbursts of moral outrage. He has relentlessly pursued Mary O'Rourke on the inadequacies of the State's public transport system.

Last November, the party said that Stagg's call for the decriminalising of cannabis was "strictly a personal view".

M. O'R.