LOW EXPECTATIONS were set for Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s Cabinet reshuffle, and they have been broadly met. The minor changes he made in ministerial personnel and the reconfiguration of their administrative responsibilities were less about reinvigorating Government before an election by 2012.
They were more about minimising dissent within Fianna Fáil and reducing friction between the Coalition partners. They reflected Mr Cowen’s concern to fill existing ministerial vacancies, but without making major Cabinet changes.
Such moves clearly risked destabilising a Government that enjoys a narrow voting majority in the Dáil. There, Fianna Fáil is facing three byelections, which the party seems likely to lose. Mr Cowen was clearly operating from a position of political weakness, given his own and his Government’s current low poll ratings. His ministerial choices match his conservative instincts.
Few will quibble with his selection of Tony Killeen as Minister for Defence or Pat Carey as Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs. Both have performed well as junior ministers. And both deserved their promotion to Cabinet rank. However, Mr Cowen’s most significant move was his elevation of Batt O’Keeffe to a senior economic ministry, a renamed Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation. His appointment is well merited and follows an impressive performance as Minister for Education and Science.
One of his key concerns will be oversight of the implementation of the recent Taskforce on Innovation report. The taskforce has claimed that some 117,000 jobs can be created in the next decade, if its advice is followed. And, as Mr Cowen explained yesterday, a major focus of his reshuffle was employment, and therefore with establishing conditions for sustainable job creation. Mr O’Keeffe’s former department, with a name change to the Department of Education and Skills, has become the responsibility of Mary Coughlan. She retains the title of Tánaiste, but with some diminution of her ministerial status.
Yesterday’s reshuffle – where, remarkably, no incumbent was dropped from Cabinet – has instead involved some Ministers swapping portfolios and the reconfiguration of their departmental responsibilities. There has been no major administrative change. One surprise, however, was Mary Hanafin’s move from the Department of Social and Family Affairs, where she had advanced the pensions reform agenda, to the less demanding challenge presented by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport.
For the Green Party, the reshuffle has seen its representation at government level increased, with the appointment of two new junior ministers; one to fill the vacancy caused by Trevor Sargent’s resignation; the other, to honour a secret commitment made in 2007 to give them an extra junior ministry at a later date. For the Greens, who contested the last election on a platform to reduce the number of senior and junior ministers by one-fifth, this represents a remarkable change of attitude in power.