ANALYSIS:The success of promised reforms will depend on a good working relationship between Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin
ONE OF the key issues in the formation of this Government was always going to be who would get the Department of Finance. There was some surprise in the past when Labour garnered the position for Ruairí Quinn in the rainbow coalition of 1994-97. In the event, he came to be seen as a prudent and competent holder of the portfolio.
On this occasion the job has been effectively split into two, with Fine Gael’s Michael Noonan retaining the title of Minister for Finance as Labour’s Brendan Howlin becomes Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.
Although there are other important changes in ministerial designations, this is the most important.
Never has a Government come to power in this State with a more vociferous commitment to reform in a whole variety of areas – and Howlin will now have to deliver, with the support of his colleagues.
Inadequacies in our public administration are seen as having contributed in large measure to the crisis in the public finances and one of the new Minister’s first tasks, with his colleague Michael Noonan, will be to get the proposed fiscal advisory council up and running.
This body will be expected to provide better forecasts of our economic prospects and stricter supervision of our overall financial situation: no more property bubbles and an end to short-sighted alterations in taxation that come back to haunt us when boom turns to bust.
Howlin and Noonan are former ministers for health, so they know what it is like to be walking through a political minefield.
They are committed in the Programme for Government to opening up the budget process to the full glare of public scrutiny so that they can expose and cut “failing programmes and pork-barrel politics”.
A good working relationship between the two Ministers will be essential to ensure the effectiveness of the promised comprehensive spending review which “will examine the number, range and activities of bodies funded significantly from the public purse, including at local government level and reduce numbers where appropriate”.
This could be the proverbial bonfire of the quangos. The Ministers are also committed to ensuring that no new agencies can be established unless it is proven that their proposed functions cannot be carried out within the existing framework.
The old title, minister for labour, does not feature in the Cabinet list announced by Taoiseach Enda Kenny yesterday but Howlin’s new job will surely subsume the functions formerly associated with the labour portfolio.
In particular, he will have a role in the implementation of the Croke Park deal on public sector pay and reform. No doubt the unions will be happier to be dealing with a Labour Party Minister rather than one from Fine Gael, but they will also be conscious that the Croke Park process must start yielding results soon if it is to retain credibility.
There should be some lively discussions between Noonan and Howlin on the road to carrying out the new Government’s commitment to reducing public sector numbers by 25,000 within four years, all this on a voluntary basis and without affecting frontline services.
Howlin, in particular, will have direct responsibility for putting in place the appropriate mechanisms to fulfil the programme’s commitments on public sector reform, improving performance and minimising bureaucracy.
Here the changes will impinge directly on the role of Kenny himself, since there is an undertaking to reduce the size of the Department of the Taoiseach, transforming it into the equivalent of the cabinet office in the UK, with responsibility for overseeing the delivery of the Programme for Government.
Tánaiste and Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore will have responsibility for integrating the trade function, previously associated with the Department of Enterprise, into the new surroundings of Iveagh House.
Already, our embassies abroad have been taking a close interest in trade matters and, in some ways, the new designation is a recognition of a trend that developed some years back.
Richard Bruton has lost the trade element of his portfolio and will henceforth be known as Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation. But it is difficult to see how he can encourage the creation of new jobs without boosting imports and exports, so he will undoubtedly have to work closely with Gilmore in this respect.
One of Kenny’s staunchest Fine Gael allies, Frances Fitzgerald, has been given the children’s portfolio. This is the first time the job has been awarded full Cabinet status and the first major challenge will be to follow through on the new Government’s promise to hold a constitutional referendum on children’s rights.
The other alterations in ministerial designations do not appear quite so significant.
Alan Shatter has been given the justice portfolio, with responsibility for equality returning to his department after a brief period elsewhere. He has also been given responsibility for the Defence Forces.
The heritage brief has gone from the Department of the Environment to become one of Fine Gael TD Jimmy Deenihan’s responsibilities, along with Arts and the Gaeltacht.
Tourism and Sport were previously tied in with culture and the arts, but they now go to Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar along with responsibility for transport.
The preamble to the five-year programme stresses the challenge facing the new Government and adds: “There isn’t a moment to be lost”.
This is a sentiment all Ministers will have to take to heart if the new Coalition is to be successful.
