The Government has been telling us to trust it for two years now, but look where the trust has got us, writes SARAH CAREY
THERE ARE days when I sympathise with the Government. Recently they’ve been complaining that the press is not helping. I can see their side of the argument.
I was in Palo Alto a few weeks ago doing some consultancy work for a software company. I don't normally read the Wall Street Journalbut the hotel I stayed in gave complimentary copies to their guests. One morning there was a prominent piece by Quentin Fottrell about how Anglo-Irish Bank had become Ireland's "black hole". I winced and glanced surreptitiously around the breakfast room full of white, besuited, distinguished men studying their copies of the WSJ.Would they be calling their brokers straight after the eggs Benedict?
Then there are the famous bondholders and whether or not they should be “burned”. If Brian Lenihan said any time over the past two years that the Government would negotiate with bondholders, this could be classified as a “credit event” which would trigger the guarantee. He had to keep saying everyone would be paid even if a plan was being hatched to negotiate once the guarantee had expired. I think more journalists might have allowed for the restrictions he was under once the initial guarantee had been put in place.
I also accept that some of the arguments frequently made to default on bank or sovereign date aren’t burdened by the complexities of those decisions. So I understand why Brian Lenihan felt obliged to make that speech last week appealing – in a carefully qualified way – for journalists to give the Government a break.
I understand his frustration that he has to deal with a massive crisis in which perception is reality and prophecies are self-fulfilling. I know the situation is critical enough that calls on the Opposition or the press to lay off aren’t entirely without merit.
Life is complicated. I get that. We are where we are. I get that too. Sometimes, you need to shut up because the big picture is what counts. If the Taoiseach is being slagged off on American prime-time television, that’s not good for any of us.
I understand that at times like this we have to put our differences aside and act in the national interest. Fine. I’ll put on my Green Jersey and lie back and think of Ireland.
But the Government needs to understand a few things too. What they’ve been saying for two years is “Trust Us”. What a difference it would make if I could get up in the morning and do just that. Trust me. I want to believe. The problem is that Government isn’t religion and acts of blind faith are not the stuff of democracy. Evidence is necessary.
When the legislation on the guarantee was being put through the Dáil, Michael Noonan specifically asked Brian Lenihan if this was a liquidity or a solvency problem. He was assured it was a liquidity issue and on that basis Fine Gael, unlike Labour, supported the guarantee. They believed what they were told and acted in the national interest.
Look where trust got them. It was a solvency crisis. Now, at best we have an enormous bill to pay; at worst our sovereignty is on the line. Let me be clear: I don’t think Lenihan lied. The banks lied to him and they’ve been lying ever since. I believe he is just as appalled by the scale of the disaster as we are. But he was conned, and he has to accept that makes it difficult for us to greet hope-based job targets of 300,000 with anything more than disdain. The Government rubbished and attacked people like Morgan Kelly who turned out to be right, while they have been consistently proved wrong. We can’t ignore that.
That’s not to say Lenihan isn’t entitled to keep trying. As we approach the endgame of the gamble that was the guarantee, I think he has more cards to play. But this “responsibility” and “national interest” attitude cuts both ways.
Mary Coughlan’s trip illustrates that while the Government asks for respect, they have no idea how to show any. Even though the conference was arranged months ago, she left it to the last minute to tell Fine Gael that she wasn’t going to answer questions in the Dáil on Fás. Now, I read with a degree of scepticism that foreign students are worth a billion euro to the economy. By coincidence, that’s roughly what Fás costs us and it’s little more than a slush fund for the social partners. Ruairí Quinn himself has said it should be shut down.
As we brace ourselves for massive public spending cuts, the Minister has to tell the Dáil what’s going to be done with this monstrosity. Instead, she says demands that she treat the Dáil as something more than a minor irritant are unpatriotic. This is absurd. Go to the conference. Create the jobs. But start answering questions honestly. If you can’t, the Opposition, given proper notice, will reschedule as they do so regularly to facilitate Ministers’ trips.
If you can’t be bothered with the Dáil at all, then please don’t use “patriotism” to defend contempt for accountability. Patriots established the Dáil. Patriots would show up in it to tell Irish people the least they deserve – the truth. Otherwise, what was it all for?