Charlie McCreevey: An End To Political Hedonism
Our politicians have propelled us towards economic and social calamity in the last decade. Wild irresponsible election promises and commitments, reckless public expenditure schemes, uncontrolled deficit budgeting and an unprecedented falsification of budget figures have coalesced to create the' worst serious economic crisis the State ever known. by Vincent Browne
One politician has spoken out against this drift in natioonal politics, Charlie McCreevy, and because he has done so outside the cosy confines of his party rooms he is being chastised.
The McCreevy affair raises many issues of critical imporrtance to Irish politics. Central among these is the drift of public expenditure, which has got us into this economic crisis. That phenomenon is explained in some detail in the following article. Another issue it raises is the extent to which democratic open debate here is effectively stiffled by the party political process. Although the issues he has raised are of the most serious public importance, Fianna Fail is attempting to confine McCreevy's contributions to this deebate to its party rooms.
Charles McCreevy was born 32 years ago in Sallins, Co. Kildare. His father, who was a cattle dealer and a lock keeper on the Grand Canal (the McCreevy family operated the 14th lock at Sallins since the canal was opened in 1770), died four years later, leaving a family of three boys.
He went to the local national school, to CBS, Naas and then to UCD where he did a degree in commerce prior to becoming a chartered accountant. He joined Fianna Fail in the early seventies and was elected secretary of the local Kill Fianna Fail cum ann at a meeting which he didn't attend. He stood in the 1974 local elections but was beaten and later that year he was elected secretary of the Comhairle Dail Ceanntair in Kildare, the position from which he was able to command a nomination for the general election in 1977.
In securing that nomination he tread on many toes, esspecially those of the local councillors who wanted the nomination for themselves or for better established party colleagues. There was a huge swing to Fianna Fail in the Kildare constituency in 1977 (8.6%) largely because offarrmer dissatisfaction with the Coalition Government. McCreevy was elected on the transfers of Paddy Power, having got just 4,624 first preference votes to Power's 11 ,621.
He made his maiden speech in the Dail on the legislation to establish the Department of Economic Planning and Deevelopment, headed by Martin O'Donoghue. Later on he spoke at budget debates and on economic issues but he was by no means one of the most ardent attenders at or particiipants in Dail debates. Neither did he devote much time to his party's economic policy committee of which he was a member. In spite of that, the general drift of what he has come to represent was emerging. In fact he had been talking about profligacy in the nation's finances since he first joinned Fianna Fail but nobody paid much attention.
Nobody paid any attention either to a speech he made on January 11, 1980. This, ironically, was delivered at a dinner in Newbridge given by the Kildare constituency party of Fianna Fail to comemmorate Paddy Power's eleevation to the cabinet. He began that speech by remarking that Paddy Power was a man who spoke his mind and that other politicians should emulate his likes. He went on to say: "general elections seem to be developing into an auction in promises. We are so hell bent in assuming power that we are prepared to do anything for it".
He went on to condemn the soaring budget deficit, which was £520 million in 1979, and said that we just could not go on paying ourselves incomes which we just didn't earn.
This speech aroused no controversy and no interest, allthough it was delivered to all the newspapers and RTE. Perrhaps the reason for this was that McCreevy seemed to be repeating the sentiments expressed by Charles Haughey in his address to the nation on television three nights previoussly.
McCreevy had been one of Haughey's most ardent suppporters for the Fianna Fail leadership in December 1979. He was not part of the coterie that plotted and planned Haughey's election, partly because he was new to the Dail and partly because he didn't stay overnight in Dublin in one of the hotels where the plans were made.
His closest political ally was Sile de Valera. The associaation is peculiar for Ms. de Valera has hardly ever expressed an interest in economic affairs, which have been McCreevy's primary concern. However McCreevy shares her strong views on the Northern Ireland issue.
Disillusionment with Charles Haughey set in long before the defeat in the 1981 general election. Even in the summer of 1980, just seven months after his election as Taoiseach, former close associates of Haughey were expressing dismay with his lack of decisiveness and his propensity for absurd publicity gimmicks. McCreevy's disillusionment set in around that time when he saw Haughey abandoning the line of fiscal rectitude and allowing public sector pay to get enntirely out of hand.
Then on April 27, 1981 he made a statement which this time was to capture the headlines. He said then: "the Fianna Fail manifesto in 1977 fuelled people's expectations to unrealistic levels and contributed, in my opinion, to some of our present problems. But yet we appear full bent in giving the Irish electorate more of the same in the forthhcoming election ... We need strong Government to take unpopular decisions in the short-term and to place the longgterm overall good before short-term expediency. If political parties continue to disgrace themselves, then democracy itself is at risk".
The sentiments were very much the same as those he exxpressed in January of the previous year, but there was one major difference. In January 1980 Charles Haughey believved in those sentiments, or said on television that he did. By April 1981 Haughey had abandoned all pretences at ecoonomic responsibility and the country was headed towards a £900 million current budget deficit, as compared with the £525 million which he (Haughey) decried 16 months preeviously. McCreevy was called into the Taoiseach's office and issued a statement saying that he fully supported the Government's economic policy - a statement which should have done a lot to damage his credibility, but it didn't.
That speech stirred Paddy Power into action. Power had applauded McCreevy in January 1980 for saying more or less the same things but there was clearly an implicit criticism in McCreevy's April '81 remarks of the Governnment of which McCreevy was a member.
There was another consideration as well. Power felt threatened electorally by McCreevy in the newly expanded constituency. It was not unreasonable for someone to callculate that Fianna Fail might be in difficulty in taking two seats from the Naas area in the Kildare constituency - the other Fianna Fail seat should have come from the Mayynooth area where Gerry Brady was standing, while Power and McCreevy come from within four miles of each other.
Power, who was again present when McCreevy delivered his April speech at a meeting of the Kildare Dail Ceanntair, summoned a meeting of the local party hierarchy on the following Sunday in Newbridge and did so again the followwing Tuesday. McCreevy produced copies of speeches he had made in a similar vein previously without rebuke.
In the June 1981 general election, Mcf'reevy's vote went up from 4,624 in 1977 to 7,053, while Power's vote declinned from 11,621 in 1977 to 9,768. A more meaningful commentary on Power's performance is: his vote slipped from 35.1 per cent in 1977 to 20.7 per cent in 1981 - a drop of 41 per cent.
It was probably an appreciation of this slide that promppted Power to react vigorously when, following the July 1981 Coalition budget, McCreevy signalled his approval of . it by saying it restored some reality to national life. At the . Fianna Fail Parliamentary Party meeting subsequently noobody raised the issue until at the very end Power intervened
and demanded that action be taken against McCreevy. Haughey had previously referred to the matter privately but simply said to McCreevy "we'll play the matter by ear." There was nobody in favour of taking any action at the Parrliarnentary Party meeting - those who intervened, includdding Senator Gordon Lambert, said there should be less innfighting within constituencies. Haughey ended that discuss'sion by saying that Fianna Fail TDs were not a troupe of boy scouts.
Power was not to be put off however. At a meeting in Newbridge last October he tried to have McCreevy disciplined for his remarks on the budget. He proposed that McCreevy be expelled from the party and that a convenntion be held immediately to choose candidates for the next general election - he indicated he had a man in mind to reeplace McCreevy. It didn't work.
Power himself is a former teacher and was elected to the Dail for the first time in 1969. He has been a thoroughly conscientious TD throughout his Dail career, making thoughtful contributions on a wide variety of issues but most notably on agriculture and education. He is deeply orthodox and would be genuinely offended by what he would regard as McCreevy's disloyalty to the party.
McCreevy was only one of many within the Fianna Fail Parliamentary Party who has been deeply unnhappy with the drift of Fianna Fail in opposition and in particular with the insipid leadership of Charles Haughey. Many of these also believe that Haughey's record as Taoiiseach is nothing short of disastrous and they believe that he is now a liability electorally.
Chief among these is Albert Reynolds, who was one of the foremost supporters of Haughey in December 1979. He concluded early on in Haughey's tenure as Taoiseach that Haughey was a disappointment and although he vigorously supported the party line during the general election cammpaign and since, he privately agrees that there has to be a complete change of course. There are indications that at one stage during the last few months Reynolds actually canvassed support for himself as leader - but he denies this now.
Whether discontent with Haughey would now represent itself in terms of support for an alternative leader is doubttful at present, although this could well emerge if the party loses the Cavan-Monaghan by-election.
There certainly is now a solid core within the party disillusioned with Haughey and these include the followwing: Liam Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny), Sean McCarthy (South Tipperary), Jackie Fahey (Waterford), Michael Smith (North Tipperary), Ray Burke (North Dublin), Brian Lenihan (Dublin West), Mary Harney (Dublin South West), Tom Fitzpatrick (Dublin South Central), Brendan Crinion (Meath), Padraigh Faulkner (Louth), Hugh Conaghan (Donegal North West), Clem Coghlan (Donegal South East), Sylvester Barrett (Clare), Peadar Clohessy (Limerick East), Michael Noonan (Limerick West), Denis Foley (Kerry North), Pearse Wyse (Cork South Central), Sean French (Cork North Central), Hugh Byrne (Wexford), Ciaran Murphy (Wicklow), Albert Reynolds (Longfordmeath), and Charlie McCreevy (Kildare).
Added to this list of 22 is the Colley faction compriising of George Colley (Dublin Central), Dessie O'Malley (Limerick East), Seamus Brennan (Dublin South), Martin O'Donoghue (Dun Laoghaire), William Kenneally (Waterrford), Bobby Molloy (Galway West), and David Andrews (Dun Laoghaire). This represents a total of29 and although not all of these would vote against Haughey in a vote of nooconfidence they do represent a strong element within the Parliamentary Party which is unhappy with his performance both in Government and in Opposition.
McCreevy's outburst in The Sunday Tribune in an interview with Geraldine Kennedy was to a large extent inevitable. His unhappiness with the performance of Fianna Fail had led him to think in terms of another speech in his constituency. He was persuaded by Geraldine Kennedy to have his say in The Sunday Tribune and this he did. The only new aspect to this interview was the insinuation that Charles Haughey was not the kind of leader the Irish people required at this time.
McCreevy's vulnerability now stems solely from the fact that he has made this criticism outside the party confines. But so too did other Fianna Fail TDs of other Fianna Fail leaders. Remember how in October 1970 one Charles' Haughey said Jack Lynch should now "take the only honourable course that is open to him", by which he clearly meant that Jack Lynch should resign. No disciplinnary measures were taken against Haughey on that account.
The McCreevy affair represents only the tip of the iceeberg of discontent within Fianna Fail. Whatever the outtcome from the Parliamentary Party, the issues raised and particularly the question of Haughey's credibility as leader, will remain in contention. •