Brian Cowen must remember his ministers have to perform well in five separate ways, writes NOEL WHELAN
THE CLASSIC British political comedy Yes Ministeris 30 years old this week. One of the best clips available on YouTube is entitled Reshuffle Rumours – a scene which depicts a fretting Jim Hacker sitting at home driven to distraction, wondering whether he was "up or down or in or out".
Similar worries will be occupying many senior and middle-ranking members of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party this weekend, and it seems for a few weekends to come.
The media is speculating on who will be the focus of Cowen’s shuffling up or down. There will be enough time for that. At the outset of this process it is worth focusing on the criteria that should apply to the appointments and to the configuration of Cabinet positions.
To be effective, ministers should be able to perform in five separate places: at their departmental desk; at the cabinet table; in parliament; at the media microphone; and in the party.
The first of these is obviously the most important. Despite popular misconceptions, ministers do not run their departments day to day. That is the function of secretaries general and assistant secretaries. A minister’s job involves leading the department by making hundreds of decisions a week: what should be included in proposed legislation; what is to be Ireland’s negotiating position at a European Council; where money is to be spent; and who should be appointed to positions in the department and its agencies. A minister who gets decisions about policy, expenditure and people right will be a good minister.
Above all else, therefore, Cowen needs to keep or appoint people who can make good quality decisions.
The second most important aspect of a minister’s job is to contribute to collective government at the cabinet table. Cowen should assess ministers for their capacity to be effective not only when their own issues are on the agenda, but when it comes to wider decision-making.
At this time, those who can best contribute to discussions on economic affairs and general political management should be retained or promoted. The need for Fianna Fáil ministers who can better relate to colleagues, especially Green Party colleagues, should also shape his view.
The parliamentary aspect to the ministerial function is one which is sadly neglected. Too many of the current Ministers confine themselves to regurgitating speeches or briefing notes drafted by civil servants. Those who cannot work effectively in the Dáil, whether on the floor of the chamber or in committee, need to go.
Fourthly, ministers need to be good media performers. It is a reality nowadays – a depressing reality at times – that a minister’s capacity to be effective in their department, in cabinet or in the Dáil is determined more than ever by their ability to communicate through the media.
Cowen should resist any notion of his line having to be shaped by support levels in radio text-polls or in the political correspondents’ popularity stakes. He must, however, appreciate that this accident-prone Government needs stronger media performers. Those in contention already appreciate this if the number of Ministers of State emerging to audition on Morning Ireland and other programmes in the last two weeks is anything to go by.
Fifthly, ministers need to be able to make a substantial contribution to party matters. The full transformation in Fianna Fáil’s organisation, finances and campaigning capacity now required will probably only be possible in opposition, but if the party is to avoid complete meltdown it will have to undertake a radical overhaul in the next 12 to 18 months. This must ultimately be led by senior ministers, especially those in less demanding departments.
Many too easily dismiss the need for a regional spread in ministerial appointments. Just as the electorate want Ireland to have its own European commissioner, they want their area to have a voice at cabinet. At this time, however, we don’t have such luxury. Ability rather than geography should be the key determinant.
Above all, there is a particular need for this Government, including the Taoiseach, to alter the tone of its performance in all five theatres of activity. Ministers need to be less abrasive, less partisan and less macho.
When it comes to configuring departments, Cowen should free himself from assumptions that because some departments have always existed or had a minister at the cabinet table, they should continue to do so. He should open his mind to more radical advice available within and especially without the Civil Service.
His deliberations can be informed in part by the McCarthy report, which recommended dismantling Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and Arts, Sport and Tourism, but his thinking should be even wider than that. One could question why a minister needs to be assigned solely to the Department of Defence at a time when we are unlikely to find ourselves at war, or to the Department of Agriculture, when most of that sector is now run from Brussels.
Cowen’s Cabinet reconfiguration should focus on reshaping the line-up of economic, education and welfare departments. He needs to look further than the cabinet systems in Belfast, where education has been split by putting third level with training and research, or London, which has separate business and works/pensions ministries.
The Taoiseach should also look at overhauling the cabinet committee system to create a greater focus and co-ordination on economic policy.