POWER POLITICS:The Minister for Finance and Taoiseach may be in the international financial spotlight, but behind the public power, who is working to keep our financial performance in check?
SHORTLY AFTER becoming Minister for Transport in late 1982, Fine Gael's Jim Mitchell, never a man shy of expressing a blunt opinion, brought his youthful private secretary into his office.
"Tell me, am I the Minister," Mitchell asked the official, who, still coming to terms with his new charge's ways and manner, realised that an answer would have to be given.
"Of course, Minister, you are the Minister," he replied, after a hesitation. Still not satisfied, Mitchell retorted firmly, "But are you sure I am the minister?"
His worried private secretary, again hesitantly, responded, "Of course, you are the minister."
"But are you sure that I am the Minister," asked Mitchell again, more firmly this time. "Yes, Minister. You are the Minister," said the private secretary. "Then why the hell doesn't anyone do what I tell them to do?," roared Mitchell. This exchange has become a classic in the private, rarely-revealed lore of Ireland's civil servants, uproariously told by old hands to more junior colleagues.
Politicians, even ones out of office, are rarely, if ever, prepared to talk in public about the relationship they had with their officials, even long after they have left office.
In part, the silence is based on respect; and partly on the truism that sensible politicians avoid making enemies with people who have the power to help or wound.
The relationship between different parties and the service varies. Fianna Fáil tends to see them as "our officials", largely because the party has been so often in power. Fine Gael tends to be a little more distrustful, though that fades quickly once the party has occupied high office for a while; while Labour has had a more stand-offish demeanour.
In today's world, an inquiry into the powerbrokers throws up one name again, and again: Dermot McCarthy, secretary general to both the Taoiseach and the Government. Regarded with little short of awe in many quarters, McCarthy is the key lynchpin in the State's administration, capable of a phenomenal workload, and endless patience.
"He has a world view, driven by corporatism. He wants consensus and everybody agreeing together," said one figure who has experience of seeing him at close quarters.
"If Dermot has a strong view about something not coming out of a department then it will not come out of a department. I would not like to cross him. He is the type to have a quiet word on the shoulder, but you know where you stand if you go against him," the source went on.
A lover of all things Italian, deeply committed to his Catholic faith, McCarthy served a full seven-year term in office, before accepting a three-year extension that expires in 2010.
Unknown, perhaps, to the vast majority of the public, McCarthy has been the key figure in ensuring social partnership deal after social partnership deal.
And he is hugely admired by ministers, officials, trade unions and business leaders. "There is an intellect there that you have to respect. He makes you feel that he is on your side. He has extraordinary patience," said another source.
In the past, two senior civil servants filled the roles that he now handles. Paddy Teahon served as secretary general to the Taoiseach, while the equally-effective Frank Murray served the Government.
"Teahon would not have tended to show the same degree of patience. You'd have to decide yourself which is the more effective. There are different ways of doing the same jobs," said one official.
"Under Dermot, things sometimes take longer to sort out but there is less division when they are sorted. Eventually, Teahon would run out of patience. With Dermot, it is the other parties who run out of patience. It is slightly different, but it tends to get the same results."
However, McCarthy has been able to play the patience game during good times, and his skills will now have to adapt to the changed economic times.
"I think Dermot can change his spots now that the times have changed. There have been many occasions when one would have needed a yes or no from him and we would get it," said one social partner.
McCarthy chairs a weekly meeting of secretaries general, which, though it seems obvious, is something that did not happen for the majority of the State's life.
Started by John Hurley, now the governor of the Central Bank, the idea of the weekly gathering of top officials was disliked intensely by Charles J Haughey, who feared the establishment of a new locus of power.
"Before that they only used to meet once a year. Hurley had to introduce some of the sec gens to each other . . . some of them really didn't know each other," said one official.
The power enjoyed by civil servants can wax and wane depending on the minister. "If the minister has strong views then the civil servants would be less influential - more there to implement the policy."
In many cases, however, ministers over the decades have spent more time struggling to win Cabinet office, rather than having a clear idea of what they wanted to do once they were there. The classic exception, of course, is Charlie McCreevy, who rarely did what anybody told him to do, including for many years, his political boss, Bertie Ahern.
"McCreevy had strong views. Time and time again he was told that he couldn't do things and then he went on and did them anyway. It depends on the personality of the minister.
"Civil servants, in general, are biased towards the status quo, but there are exceptions. Finance's agenda is always for the status quo, while other departments are always trying to get more resources," said one political figure.
Besides McCarthy, the next most influential secretary general is David Doyle, the brusque, highly-intelligent secretary general of the Department of Finance.
In a word, Doyle is tough. "Extremely powerful; the man with his hand in the purse strings. He is capable, super-bright, very tough - as one has to be in Finance - with an amazing grasp of policy," said a political figure.
He rarely spends time making friends and influencing people, as can be judged by his appearances before Oireachtas committees when he tends not to adopt the faux-sincere manner of some of his counterparts.
In truth, McCarthy and Doyle's predominance reflects the reality of power within the system: the two key departments are Taoiseach and Finance. Foreign Affairs is third. The others follow.
"There is absolutely no doubt that if you want something done and if you are not getting it by going through the parent department, then you will go to Taoiseach's.
"They are small, but they have extraordinary sway and they use it very effectively. There is no question of things being done in any other way than the way that they want them to be done," said one social partner.
The relationship between the two departments can vary with the political occupant of the Taoiseach's office, and the economic climate: the tougher the times, the more powerful will be Finance.
"Finance would now be arguing that we told you so, and want everybody to stop spending completely. The days of plenty are over," said one political source who has viewed both closely.
Though both departments need to work together, there is a need, too, to have a healthy tension between the Department of the Taoiseach and Finance. "The first has to have a developmental, strategic role, looking at the middle to longer-term and prepared to take risks. Finance loves going into defensive mode," said one official.
The rules of the system are designed to copper-fasten the control of Taoiseach and Finance, even down to the orchestration of the agenda of the weekly Cabinet agenda meeting.
Every other department must circulate its proposals in advance, allowing time for opposition to gather steam within the system.
Taoiseach and Finance can add items without notice. The best-known example of this was the proposal to decentralise 10,000 civil servants in McCreevy's 2004 budget - a decision which has been roundly condemned by many civil servants ever since.
Predictably, the merits of decentralisation were not sufficient to entice either Taoiseach or Finance to include themselves in the package, particularly since any dispersal would further emphasise their influence.
Besides McCarthy and Doyle, one of the other more influential figures in public administration is Dermot Gallagher, the secretary general of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Known as "DAG", Gallagher previously served in the 1990s as secretary general to the Taoiseach before moving back to his parent department in Iveagh House.
With an extraordinary career already behind him, Gallagher will once again be central to the Government's efforts next year to cope with the result of the Lisbon Treaty referendum.
In more recent years, senior Finance officials have begun to migrate to the top posts in other departments, notably Michael Scanlan in Health and Children and Brigid McManus in Education and Science.
More recently, Aidan Dunning, a key official in the drafting of the National Development Plan, has taken over in Eamon Ryan's Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.
The development, perhaps, mirrors what has happened in private industry in recent years, where chief executive positions have, more and more, been filled by ex-finance directors.
Besides the most senior secretaries general, there are others within the system who wield considerable power: Kevin Cardiff and Ciaran Connolly in Finance, for example.
In the Department of the Taoiseach, officials such as Mary Doyle, in charge of social policy, and Philip Kelly, John Callinan and Philip Hammell are highly-regarded.
"Dermot McCarthy would give each of them significant latitude, but he eventually calls the shots. They are all very level-headed, very calm," said another social partner.
Usually in a discussion about politics, the role of special advisers - sometimes highly misunderstood - quickly comes to the surface which often exaggerates their influence.
In one of his first acts in office last May, Taoiseach Brian Cowen ordered that special advisers should no longer attend Cabinet sub-committee meetings alongside their ministers. Instead, ministers should be joined by their secretary general, he ruled. "Fianna Fáil, particularly, always believe that special advisers do exactly that: advise, not decide," said one veteran.
However, some are highly significant: Joe Lennon, though a civil servant, serves as Brian Cowen's adviser, while economics adviser Peter Clinch was visible during the banking crisis.
The standing of a special adviser depends entirely on their relationship with the minister. "If they have the ear of the minister, and if they are seen to have an influence on policy, they will be taken seriously by the system and treated with respect. If the adviser is not heeded by the minister and if the minister keeps his distance from them then they will be ignored," said a source.
Though studiously apolitical, the civil service is not without its own agenda and priorities, as many a reform-minded minister has found to their cost.
However, the civil service is apolitical. "I can't say that I ever saw an example where it wasn't. But officials don't respond to provocation. Ultimately, they know that you will disappear," said a source.
And caution is the by-word, with radical officials rare in the extreme. "The culture creates a risk-averse culture. You won't be rewarded for innovative actions, but you will be punished for dropping the ball," said one official.
In addition, there are too many generalists. "They are not specialists. They lack finance experience. Every small firm would have an accountant, but the civil service doesn't in so many places."
The lack of spending control is most evident in the week before Christmas when supplementary estimate after supplementary estimate appears on the Dáil order paper.
"The Health Service Executive gets baled out, or it has done for years, if they over-spend. The supplementaries come in in late December when the politicians are getting ready to go home for Christmas. If you were a private firm you would be trading recklessly," the official said.
