It is right that ethical concerns are raised about George Lee's entry into politics but the real ethical challenge may be for Dublin South voters, writes SARAH CAREY
SEÁN O’ROURKE is my favourite RTÉ radio presenter. He’s authoritative without being self-important, impatient without being rude and he challenges without being contrived. Therefore it was no surprise that he put it up to George Lee yesterday and asked all the tough questions our favourite economics editor will have to answer throughout this byelection campaign. George took umbrage at implications of unethical behaviour but Seán did him a favour. The harder he’s challenged now, the easier the rest of the campaign will be.
Later over on Newstalk, Eamon Keane had more questions for the ex-RTÉ economics editor. His style is more laid-back but it also gets results. The same two problems bothered both presenters. The main concern was that George’s dive into politics presents serious ethical questions about his journalism work. Was he finally exposing himself as a Blueshirt Sleeper in Montrose? Had he spent the last 17 years plugging away in RTÉ with the sole purpose of undermining Fianna Fáil so that he could launch a career in politics when the time was right?
Well, he did consistently criticise the insanity of Fianna Fáil’s economic policies but since they managed to get re-elected in 2002 and more astonishingly in 2007, whatever he might have surreptitiously tried to achieve clearly failed. Fianna Fáil is undermined now, but that’s because the entirely predictable disaster resulting from their lunatic version of macro-economic policy has occurred. The main factor harming poor Shay Brennan’s campaign in Dublin South is the 60 million chickens coming home to roost every day – the amount in euro we are said to be borrowing every day to pay the country’s bills.
Fianna Fáil will do their best and the cynics will insist George is up to no good. Please don’t listen to them. Lee is walking away from a secure job where he is popular, admired and where his intellectual ability found a way to flourish.
Sadly, intellectual has become a term of abuse and under the style of politics so successfully operated by Bertie Ahern, a disqualification for politics. Forget about national policy the people said – we want an ordinary guy. They got him, and look where it got us. These are extraordinary times so the day of the ordinary man should be over. Or is it? Let’s see what voters in Dublin South say.
Which brings me on to the second problem that concerned Messrs O’Rourke and Keane. O’Rourke asked if Lee would hold clinics. Keane objected to the fact that Lee had no interest in community issues in Dublin South.
If voters in Dublin South demand that George Lee wastes his time running clinics and attending residents’ meetings, then they are the only people with ethical questions to answer. Lee clearly has a brain. He understands economics and he has a gift for communicating complex theories to mutton-heads like myself. He’s an economist who has not been closeted away in a university but mixes daily with ordinary citizens and politicians. So there’ll be no shock to his system if he tries to turn theory into practice. Those are the factors people should consider on polling day.
If a voter disagrees with his proposed solution for economic recovery, don’t vote for him. If they disagree with Fine Gael’s policies, don’t vote for him.
But please, do not turn this into zoning for a GAA pitch. If Lee is required to open a single clinic it will demonstrate once and for all that the problem is not our politicians but our people. National representatives should be solving national problems.
I know the system doesn’t help.
Everyone agrees that the multi-seat constituency arrangement is a deeply corrosive factor in our politics. As Gemma Hussey argued on Monday in this paper: “The electoral system imposes a lifestyle on politicians which is directly inimical to good government and is a considerable deterrent to potential participants.” The system is wrong and should be changed, but the system doesn’t stop people voting for the right candidate.
We all know the problem. Voters consistently go for the good constituency worker. Now, that is their prerogative. If they want to vote for the guy who claims to have fixed the pothole on their road, or attended their father’s funeral or kept a Travellers’ halting site out of the constituency, then fine. But they don’t get to turn around and complain that TDs are not in the Dáil passing legislation. Or that they have to outsource policy formulation to quangos because they are incapable of originating anything other than a personal letter to a voter that promises everything and does nothing.
Our bureaucracy does create a need for an army of mini-ombudsmen to act as elected social workers to help people get their entitlements. But that is what county councillors are for.
We have a national crisis and a need for people with ability and talent who can contribute in a meaningful way to good government. Too many people have been turned off by many aspects of politics – the lifestyle, the difficulty in achieving anything constructive besides re-election and the fact that going public opens the door to ferocious personal criticism. We could change that in this election.
This is not about George Lee but about those many other figures, from business, academia and the voluntary sector who are waiting for a sign that parish-pump politics has finally come to an end. The only people who can give us that sign are the parishioners in Dublin South. Concerned residents of Dublin South – the country has its eye on you.