ANALYSIS:The ideal Minister combines good public performance with solid departmental achievement, writes STEPHEN COLLINS
THE COALITION has been in power for a year and a half, Ministers are well settled into their portfolios and some assessment of their performance is possible.
Sometimes it can be difficult to assess how well a minister is doing in a department, as distinct from performing well in the cauldron of the Dáil chamber.
Ministers who are good in debate in the Dáil and in exchanges on television and radio are not necessarily the ones doing best in their departments.
Another pitfall in making a judgment is assessing the performance of those who have developed high media profiles through clever public relations.
Enda Kenny has clearly been the star performer of the Government through his display of leadership in a time of national crisis.
Assessing the performance of his Cabinet colleagues is not as easy.
In previous governments it was often the case that ministers with the best public relations were the least productive in terms of real achievement.
There is no precise measure of achievement. The ideal minister combines good public performance with solid departmental achievement but that combination can be difficult in the trying world of politics.
The 24-hour news cycle has imposed an extra pressure on ministers in the modern age compared with their predecessors.
The qualities that made for success in earlier decades can now be liabilities, at least in terms of perception.
It is difficult to image Seán Lemass, arguably the most successful taoiseach in the history of the State, getting to the top in the current age.
Lemass was direct and brusque and did not believe in engaging with the media, except on his own terms.
Coming up with instant reactions for the daily media doorsteps that became a feature of political life under Bertie Ahern would certainly not have suited his style.
Here, Irish Times political correspondents give their verdict on the performance of the Coalition.
ENDA KENNY
Taoiseach
If you counted all the negatives about Enda Kenny (and there are many), they still could not take away from the reality that he has been a very successful Taoiseach in his first 18 months or so of office.
Ireland has benefited from a fortuitous hop of the ball twice now at EU summits where little was expected but a bounty was delivered. Both of the breaks came from the misfortune of others (the second Greek bailout; and the deal to rescue the Spanish banks). On the principle of equivalence, the State may have benefited from lower interest rates and the opportunity to claw back some of the €64 billion poured by the State into banks.
Beyond that, though, he has been impressive on the whole. Before he became Taoiseach, his predecessor Brian Cowen was seen to have all the gifts and attributes needed for the role. Kenny was considered to have few or none (even by senior colleagues in his party). Yet Cowen tanked as taoiseach while Kenny has (again on the whole) thrived.
One of the reasons is that commentators became fixated on his weaknesses without considering his strengths (and there are many). He is vastly experienced and his political nous is often underrated. He is very decisive and can be ruthless. He is personable and very Bertie-like in his rapport with the public. His relationship with Tánaiste and Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore is good, as it is with most of those who mutinied against him in 2010. He has brought an energy, brio and can-do sense to the job that were wholly absent during Cowen’s time.
It can’t be forgotten that the State has not yet crawled free of the quicksand of recession, and the Government has been unable to stem rising unemployment, escape the straitjacket of the bailout programme or discontinue harsh measures. That said, Fine Gael’s support levels in opinion polls have rarely dipped since February 2011, an indicator of approval in the face of no significant improvement.
Like Gilmore, Kenny has been guilty of oversell and of occasional petulance and arrogance. He has come out with some cringingly maudlin lines. There are those who never rated his intellect or his grasp of detail who think that one day he's going to be found out. It might just happen but it hasn't yet. HARRY McGEE
MICHAEL NOONAN
Minister for Finance
Michael Noonan has been the Government’s star performer. You sense you don’t even have to argue this, despite the Department of Finance having been sheared into two to accommodate Brendan Howlin taking on the (substantial) public expenditure side of the Merrion Street operation.
The hegemony of Finance and its Minister was further diluted by the creation of the Economic Management Council. Nevertheless, he is viewed as the Minister with more authority and sway and, in any instance, it is he who conducts most political negotiations in Europe. His style reflects his huge experience and canniness. It is the antithesis of the hyperbolic and ramped-up rhetoric of which the Taoiseach and Tánaiste are sometimes guilty. Noonan’s preferred method is understatement, promising little short-term and a fair bit in the long run. He is always willing to share the general thrust of the strategy but not the details. He compensates for this with his knack for finding a colourful phrase.
At European level he has thrived, making good contacts, earning the respect of his peers and getting results. The next budget, which will be nasty, will be a huge test for him. HARRY McGEE
JOAN BURTON
Minister for Social Protection
The Labour Party’s deputy leader, unafraid to speak her mind when she feels the occasion demands, has been something of a loner within Cabinet.
Fine Gael figures have been taken aback by the relentlessness with which Joan Burton has pursued her proposal that employers should be required to provide sickness payments during the first four weeks of a claim. She is on a very public collision course with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton over the contentious issue.
She quickly overcame the humiliation of not getting the coveted finance portfolio and immersed herself in the minutiae of social welfare payments. She is widely viewed as having had a “good” budget last December, when the cuts imposed on her department were reduced to €475 million instead of the feared €700 million threatened just a week earlier. Tougher challenges loom, however.
Social protection is not the sort of department that will help a minister win hearts but Burton has escaped widespread opprobrium to date.
Some Cabinet colleagues are privately exasperated by her determined nature. Warnings to Ministers from the Taoiseach and Tánaiste not to make public statements about the options for next year's budget were widely interpreted as a rebuke to Burton. She retains the respect and admiration of the Labour rank and file, which is significant if she has leadership ambitions. MARY MINIHAN
BRENDAN HOWLIN
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Brendan Howlin is one of the busiest members of the Government. As well as holding a senior portfolio, he is part of the Economic Management Council – the “inner Cabinet” – with the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance. He was a key figure in the negotiations that ensured Labour hived off a section of the Department of Finance for itself and he ended up taking a key post as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, although it was expected to go to Joan Burton. As Minister he oversaw the retirement of almost 8,000 public servants in the first three months of this year but the pressure on numbers continues.
He was given oversight of the Croke Park deal on public sector pay and reform. He has succeeded in keeping the deal intact and preserving industrial peace, although opponents accuse him of failing to take more than superficial action. Critics would say his most damaging decision was to approve six breaches of the public sector pay ceiling by political advisers – three from each Coalition party. His reform agenda includes a register of lobbyists, although there has been some carping at his decision to confine this to paid professionals. DEAGLÁN de BRÉADÚN
ALAN SHATTER
Minister for Justice and Defence
With last October’s referendum on judges’ pay under his belt, Alan Shatter’s attention is now focused on personal insolvency legislation.
While this proposed law is passing through the Oireachtas, it will not take effect until autumn. The legislation will allow debtors to emerge from bankruptcy in three years rather than 12 and is therefore keenly awaited. Any delay in implementation would wound Mr Shatter. The Minister was hyperactive in opposition, having published more legislation in the form of Private Members’ Bills from the non-government side of the Dáil than any other deputy in the history of the State, and has brought this heightened work ethic to his new role.
The recently announced stimulus package, providing investment in some Garda divisional headquarters and courthouses, gave him a boost, and he has received kudos for his attention to citizenship ceremonies. He has put the kibosh on the charities Act for now, saying the full implementation of the proposed law requiring charities to make financial information public must be deferred for cost reasons. His enemies call him arrogant; and even his admirers say he can be aloof. He was first elected to the Dáil 31 years ago, and his siding with Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny in the failed heave of 2010 helped propel him towards Cabinet. As an experienced solicitor he was a natural fit for the justice portfolio, although those who frequent the Law Library may not share that view. MARY MINIHAN
JAMES REILLY
Minister for Health
This Minister has supersized plans matched by supersized problems in his department – and by dint of personality clashes. There has been a lot of dismantling. The Health Service Executive board got the heave-ho early on and the process of reversing control back to the Department of Health was completed last week when chief executive Cathal Magee announced his resignation. The National Treatment Purchase Fund was discontinued. A new special delivery unit was set up, which has had some success in reducing the trolley count, but there is controversy over the fees and tax arrangements for the UK-based consultants taken on.
Dozens of reforms and changes have been promised in the department but few have been delivered. The HSE has taken it on the nose for having a budget overrun of €280 million so far this year but three major cost-saving promises – legislative change to allow cheaper generic medicines, paying hospital insurers more for public hospital use and more effective cost-controls – have yet to materialise.
Then there has been his icy relationship with the two Ministers of State, Róisín Shortall in particular, and his recent listing as a debt defaulter in Stubbs Gazette. His Dáil comments on abortion legislation also ran into flak from Fine Gael colleagues. HARRY McGEE
EAMON GILMORE
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade
We have come a long way since the general election slogan of “Gilmore for Taoiseach”. It is a very different Labour Party leader who now performs the twin roles of deputy prime minister and foreign minister.
This measured and cautious individual would be slow to utter such undiplomatic sentiments as “It’s Frankfurt’s way or Labour’s way.” Although both Labour and Fine Gael are responsible for Government policies, Labour is taking by far the biggest hit in the opinion polls. Gilmore’s critics would say he should have run a tighter ship and refused point-blank to condone breaches of the pay limit for special advisers by either party. His biggest achievement has been to maintain a stable relationship between the Coalition partners, as seen in his firm but low-key approach to Minister for Health James Reilly’s mishandling of Cathal Magee’s resignation from the Health Service Executive.
Gilmore has been a capable and engaged foreign minister and even detractors would concede his only glaring issue at Iveagh House was the closure of the embassy to the Vatican. He leads the biggest parliamentary Labour Party, with many ambitious but frustrated members who will be looking for an opening in the event of a reshuffle. Sinn Féin is hammering Labour in the polls and this may be reflected in the 2014 local and European elections. Gilmore's best hope has to be that Labour's co-operation with austerity policies will yield dividends if the economy turns the corner. DEAGLÁN de BRÉADÚN
JIMMY DEENIHAN
Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
Once a leading Gaelic footballer with Kerry, Jimmy Deenihan won five senior all-Ireland medals and then swept into Dáil Éireann on the first count in 1987. Following 24 long years as a TD, he finally got to the Cabinet table and is making the most of it. His efforts to reorganise the State’s cultural institutions, including a possible merger of the National Library with the National Archives and Irish Manuscripts Commission, have aroused anger among the intelligentsia. A further proposal is to combine the National Gallery, Irish Museum of Modern Art and Crawford gallery, and to review Culture Ireland. It could all become an issue between the Coalition parties, as Labour has always had an “in” with the arts sector.
Deenihan was also given the job of implementing an EU directive imposing restrictions on turf cutting due to environmental damage. The turf-cutters have organised a vocal campaign but they may have met their match in the formidable Kerry football player. DEAGLÁN de BRÉADÚN
PHIL HOGAN
Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government
Phil Hogan is the limping embodiment of the fickle nature of the world of politics. From June 2010, when he masterminded Enda Kenny’s strategy to resist a Fine Gael mutiny, to February 2011, when he spearheaded the party’s election campaign, he could not put a foot wrong. He was rewarded with the portfolio he sought: environment and local government. Since becoming Minister, however, he has sometimes soared like a turkey. There’s an image of Hogan as the archetypal reactionary Fine Gaeler, the “Big Phil” legend that Mattie McGrath has painted.
But Hogan has been forward-thinking in surprising ways, especially on political reform. It was he who introduced the new quota for women candidates. He also moved early to abolish local authorities and reduce Dáil numbers. It was the unexpected increase in population last year that put paid to the numbers being cut by 20. But the eight TDs who will go next time around will mostly be Government TDs.
Elsewhere, there have been big setbacks. He partly backed down in the face of a campaign against septic tanks. The uptake by householders on the new property charges was embarrassing, despite the spin. The introduction of water charges is going to provide another mammoth political headache. HARRY McGEE
FRANCES FITZGERALD
Minister for Children
The former Seanad leader is widely seen as having been rewarded for her loyal support of Enda Kenny but she remains somewhat anonymous in the eyes of the public. That will change come the autumn. Rarely has a minister’s fate been so tied up in one issue. Frances Fitzgerald’s success or failure as Minister for Children will be determined by the outcome of the long-awaited referendum on children’s rights.
Fitzgerald has rightly identified two challenges for the Government as the vote approaches. The first is agreeing a wording that will bring about a “quiet revolution” in child protection without creating constitutional hostages to fortune. The second challenge will be one of communication: most voters are not familiar with the detail of childcare and child protection issues, and she may struggle to ensure they are not sidetracked by clever campaigners.
Meanwhile, it will be difficult for her to avoid becoming embroiled in the debate on abortion. MARY MINIHAN
SIMON COVENEY
Minister for Agriculture and the Marine
The Corkman had a very good fiscal treaty referendum campaign. As Fine Gael's director of elections, Simon Coveney quashed his image as hesitant and mild-mannered to become a firm and clear communicator. Generally seen to be on top of his brief, he has neither appeased nor alienated the farming lobby. He firmly ruled out a compensation scheme for farmers affected by the recent poor weather. Yet he has robustly advised the Minister for Communications against a proposal to prohibit advertisements for certain cheeses during children's television shows. He has been busy internationally, pressing the US to resume Irish beef imports and leading a food and agriculture trade mission to China. He was first elected to the Dáil 14 years ago but has just turned 40. He survived the reshuffle that followed the abortive heave against Enda Kenny, despite having backed Richard Bruton. He could be a future party leader. MARY MINIHAN
RUAIRÍ QUINN
Minister for Education and Skills
Few Ministers have had more faux pas or have had to face down more controversies in government than Ruairí Quinn. Yet he is still one of the Cabinet’s best and most solid performers.
The paradox is explained by three factors: a massive reform agenda, his zeal to get it done and his acceptance that he is Minister for Education, not Minister for Just About Everything (like some of his loquacious colleagues).
Within weeks of becoming Minister he reneged on a pledge to reverse increases in student fees. He took a hammering for it and also a few other bruisings in the first few months: over his funding cuts for Deis (disadvantaged) schools (he subsequently reversed it); pay cuts to young teachers; and threats to smaller rural schools. On a personal level he was forced to explain high mileage claims.
His reforming instincts have been evident. The process to divest Catholic patronage from a substantial number of schools is under way. He gave a reality check to vaunted assessments of Irish education by describing it as "manure" recently. He has big plans to reform teacher training, the Leaving Certificate, and primary education. Third-level funding remains a headache. HARRY McGEE
LEO VARADKAR
Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport
The Cabinet's youngest Minister has been tempted many times to comment on matters outside his remit. His outspokenness on issues that divide the Coalition partners, such as the Croke Park Agreement, is welcomed by many in Fine Gael. Taoiseach Enda Kenny quickly welcomed him back to the front bench and awarded him a senior Cabinet position, despite siding with Richard Bruton in the 2010 heave. But is the department his natural home? The perception is responsibility for tourism and sport has been largely delegated to Minister of State Michael Ring, while economic constraints have meant developments in the transport sector have moved at a snail's pace. However, Mr Varadkar was the big winner from the €2.25 billion stimulus package, and some road schemes he was forced to shelve last year have got the green light. A commanding media performer with an unusual penchant for answering questions directly, Mr Varadkar's future is bright. MARY MINIHAN
RICHARD BRUTON
Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
It was an act of generous diplomacy on Enda Kenny’s part to appoint his erstwhile leadership challenger to Cabinet. But the position he gave Richard Bruton is something of a poisoned chalice: generating employment in the middle of an economic crisis. No one can accuse the former taoiseach’s younger brother of lacking energy: he has been involved in a litany of trade and investment missions, including six to the US as well as others to China, India and Saudi Arabia. Back home he has promoted the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs, while his Industrial Relations Bill overhauls wage-setting mechanisms in several areas and removes the power of joint labour committees to set Sunday premiums in key sectors. Labour backbenchers were initially very uneasy about this.
Supporters of the Fine Gael status quo will be hoping all this activity will damp down Bruton's leadership ambitions, but he hasn't gone away, you know – except when on trade missions. DEAGLÁN de BRÉADÚN
PAT RABBITTE
Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
If Ministers were judged on their performances generally (without being lumbered with their portfolios) Pat Rabbitte would be the Cabinet equivalent of Spanish midfield supremo Xavi. He’s the most accessible of all the Ministers (to Labour backbenchers and to everybody else). He is mesmerisingly articulate. He’s a safe pair of hands when defending the Government but isn’t afraid to put the boot in, as he did recently when confronting head-on the criticisms made by Public Accounts Committee chair John McGuinness of his Labour colleague Brendan Howlin.
If only he did not have the added responsibility of dealing with communications, energy and natural resources! You sense Rabbitte doesn’t lose too much sleep worrying whether his windmill strategy is right for Ireland (as his predecessor, policy wonk Eamon Ryan undoubtedly did). As Minister, Rabbitte has been competent, decisive and sensible (he put to bed any notion, for example, of easy pots of gold from offshore oil drilling). Those dealing with him have been impressed by his grasp. He took the initiative with the Broadcasting Authority on the Fr Kevin Reynolds case.
Otherwise, he has been implementing established policy and hasn't been an innovator. The strategies on postcodes and broadband have been slow in coming, as has media merger legislation. It will be 2014 before the national home insulation policy Pay as You Save gets going. From a Labour perspective he has been vital in protecting key State energy assets from disposal. HARRY McGEE