Stephen Collins: The unsung virtues of Charlie Flanagan

Basic competence and the ability to stay out of trouble are among the unsung virtues of politics. They have become even more important in this age of attention-seeking politicians who can’t resist television or radio appearances and make fools of themselves on Twitter in the belief that publicity is an end in itself.

Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan is a case in point of a politician who does a difficult job well and avoids attracting unnecessary attention by foolish publicity stunts or rushing into comment about issues which have nothing to do with his brief.

He took over a department where his two predecessors were hounded from office in a whirlwind of negative publicity, most of it unfair but damaging nonetheless. He has managed to bring a level of calmness and stability to the position and get on with a massive and important workload.

Instructive lesson

An instructive lesson on the reality of government was brought home to this columnist many years ago during the lifetime of the first Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrat coalition.

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Sitting in the Dáil canteen where journalists, politicians, officials and ushers mingle freely I ended up at a table with Mary Harney and Bobby Molloy.

Harney, then a junior minister, remarked that the political scene at the time was very boring and her party’s TDs needed to do something to liven it up and generate some publicity for themselves.

At that Molloy, who had long experience of government as a Fianna Fáil minister and was then in the cabinet as one of the two PD ministers, exploded.

“Mary, you don’t understand the first thing about being in government. Excitement is all very fine when you are in Opposition but when you are in office you want it to be boring. That is when you get the real work done.”

Flanagan could not avoid being dragged into the tail end of controversy

As a wily politician who had himself been at the centre of many a political storm Molloy understood that the media naturally thrives on fanning the flames of every minor controversy in the hope that it will become a big news story. Once the process gets going it can be very hard to stop, no matter how trivial the issue is to begin with.

The Department of Justice when Flanagan took over in June 2017 was a case in point. He was plunged into the tail end of the Maurice McCabe saga which had cost the heads of two ministers, the secretary-general of the department and the confidential recipient. Along the way it generated a succession of tribunals, official reports and court cases.

All that was a thorny brief to be handed and Flanagan could not avoid being dragged into the tail end of the controversy. With the media pack in full cry in search of another victim on a story which had kept giving he had to weather a few rocky moments in his early months.

He managed to survive it by being his cautious public self, carefully explaining the intricacies of each development and as far as possible avoiding media comment on provocative claims and counter-claims. Ultimately the issue moved into the world of tribunals and court hearings and gradually faded as a political controversy.

Important and long-delayed legislation such as the Judicial Council Bill have been passed under his watch

Of course, the McCabe controversy was just one of a myriad of issues, many of them potential pitfalls, which have to be dealt with by a minister for justice on a daily basis. For instance, in recent weeks the decision to change the way people caught in possession of drugs are treated by the State could have been a political landmine.

The fundamental change which will involve people apprehended for their first two drug offences being treated by the health system rather than through the courts could well have prompted a backlash from traditional Fine Gael supporters who value the implementation of law and order. Handled badly it could also have been undermined by opposition from the gardaí.

In fact, criticism of the move came from the left, with a variety of politicians unhappy that it did not go nearly far enough and decriminalise drugs entirely.

That criticism actually served to generate support for Flanagan’s approach to what is an appalling social problem. Important and long-delayed legislation such as the Judicial Council Bill have been passed under his watch.

Constitutional amendments

His matter-of-fact approach was also instrumental in getting big majorities for the two constitutional amendments he managed to pilot through with little or no controversy in the referendums which took place on the same day as the European and local elections in May.

Support for the abolition of blasphemy and the significant easing of the divorce provisions never looked like engendering huge controversy but considering the way a number of proposals for constitutional change have been rejected by the electorate in the past there was always a danger that some spark could have set the issues alight and prompted a No vote.

Again it was Flanagan’s low-key approach to the two issues that convinced the overwhelming majority of people to support the change.

It is probably no accident that after more than 30 years in national politics Flanagan has been able to handle the pressures of office far better than publicity-hungry younger Cabinet colleagues who have been embroiled in one controversy after another.