Circus politics

Following a 13-week break, the Dáil returns to a circus of trivia and posturing, while major issues remain ignored

On Wednesday, 28 September the Dáil resumed its business after a 13-week break. The main feature of Dáil business was "Leader's Questions", questions that leaders of parties may put to the Taoiseach, without notice, on what they consider the pressing issues of the day.

Predictably, the first issue to be raised had to do with the Rossport Five, then still in jail. Enda Kenny wanted Bertie Ahern to "lift the phone" to Shell and ask them to apply to the High Court for the lifting of the injunction imposed at their initiative. It was a courteous exchange, with Bertie Ahern complimenting the Fine Gael leader on his "constructive approach".

Pat Rabbitte raised the Irish Ferries issue, its proposals to make 530 Irish workers redundant and have them replaced by low-paid foreign workers. It gave Bertie Ahern an opportunity to question the legality of what Irish Ferries were proposing. Again a polite exchange. All agreed on the iniquity of the Irish Ferries initiative.

Bertie Ahern took questions during the scheduled "ordinary" question time. Enda Kenny wanted to know of his plans to hold cabinet meetings in locations around the country. Then several questions on who the Taoiseach had met over the summer and what had transpired. It gave Bertie an opportunity to talk of his visit to the new Pope. He was able to reveal to the Dáil: "From my discussions with this Pontiff I would state he will not make too many trips (abroad)".

Back in the Dáil the following Tuesday (4 October), the Department of Health and Children's computerised payment system was the dominant issue. Little to disturb the consensus that has solidified on all the major issues: taxation, welfare, health, education, foreign policy.

Apart from two interventions.

One by Liz McManus, who intervened tellingly on the health issue and on Mary Harney's failure to meet commitments (see Eoin O Murchú page 13).

The other by Joe Higgins, who sharpened the Irish Ferries issue by asking Bertie Ahern how was his protestation the previous Wednesday over the action of Irish Ferries in getting rid of its Irish workers not just "lip service", since the Government "gave millions of euro to 150 workers on the MV Normandy", also owned by Irish Ferries – these workers were treated similarly to the workers now being targeted. Joe Higgins's point was that the Government facilitated Irish Ferries doing this before, so how can it complain when Irish Ferries does it again?

Bertie Ahern didn't deal with the point.

The Health Department's computerised payment system arose again on Wednesday morning (5 October). The relevance of this is the claim, now being made by the Opposition parties, that what distinguishes them from the Government parties is their ability to manage public expenditure efficiently. No disagreement on policy, merely a claim that Fine Gael and Labour would be better able to run the country than Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats.

The 13-week Dáil break was punctuated by periodic meetings of Oireachtas Committees. Ruairi Quinn protested two years ago, when the Dáil was about to take its three-month summer sojourn, that it was merely the "plenary sessions" of the Dáil that were being suspended, while committees would continue to do their work. His interpretation was welcomed by the other party leaders.

But in fact, as revealed in Village last week, 15 of the 26 committees, far from meeting throughout the summer, or even through July and September, met, on average, for less than six hours each during the 13-week recess. The most any committee met was for a total of 15 hours and 25 minutes through the entire three months of the summer. None of the committees conducted hearings of any substantial significance and no reports were produced.

Of the 143 TDs on these committees, less than half (58) attended the few meetings of the committees of which they are a member, while 28 TDs attended no committee meetings at all.

Eddie Hobbs was on television during the summer for longer than most TDs were attending to Dáil business. And Eddie Hobbs had far greater impact, drawing attention to the vast wastage of public funds and the failure of the political class to address some of the most pressing issues – notably the vast cartels and vested interests.

With almost two years to go before a scheduled general election, politics is already dominated by that electoral prospect. Parties jockeying for pole position in the Formula One of public opinion, all seeking to divine the public's mind on issues, the raw nerves of public concern. None seeking to persuade anybody, other than to vote for them.

There is now almost no discernible difference between the main parties on any of the core issues. All are agreed taxation cannot be increased – Pat Rabbitte has equivocated on the issue of wealth tax but that will be retracted well before a scheduled election. With consensus on the division of national wealth and income, there is little room for divergence, aside from claims to superior managerial aptitude.

Ducking and diving

The issues on which the political parties refuse to engage include the following:

• The issue of illiteracy – 22.6 per cent of the population are identified as being functionally illiterate. This arises in the main from general disadvantage and especially from early drop-out rates in primary and secondary education. The issue can be addressed only by comprehensive action to deal with disadvantage generally and this is entirely off the political agenda.
• Expenditure on health care. Reference is made repeatedly to how we have "thrown money" at the health system in the past decade, without results. However, the reality is that we spend a smaller proportion of our GDP on public health care than most other developed countries. We spend 4.9 per cent, as compared with 6.2 per cent in the US, 8.1 per cent in Germany, 7.5 per cent in Sweden and 7.3 per cent in France. Differences in our demographic structure do not explain these discrepancies and yet no political party is committed to spending more on health.
• There are huge disparities in health welfare as between social classes in Ireland that underline the scale of inequality here generally and in relation to the health system as well. For instance, between 1989 and 1998, the rates for all causes of premature death were over three times higher in the lowest occupational class than in the highest. The premature death rates for all cancers among the lowest occupational class is more than twice as high as it is for the highest class; it is nearly three times higher for strokes, four times higher for lung cancer, and six times higher for accidents. The report "Inequalities in Mortality", published by the Institute of Public Health, has never been debated in the Dáil.
• The deficit in social protection expenditure in Ireland as compared with other EU countries (Ireland spends less than 18 per cent of its GNP on health, disability, old age, children, unemployment and social inclusion initiatives as compared with more than 27 per cent in the UK, 31 per cent in Sweden and similar levels in other EU countries.
• The extraordinary decision to facilitate, through a secret arrangement, a bid by Tony O'Reilly's Valentia consortium for Eircom, through a commitment to change the tax arrangements for worker shareholdings, although it was (or should have been) appreciated that the manner in which that consortium was proposing to take over Eircom would lead to the degradation of the telecommunications infrastructure, has never been examined by the Dáil (it is this deal which led directly to the deficits in broadband).
• The 50,000 waiting list for socially affordable housing, a list that grows by the year.
• The continued huge incidence of tax evasion and the failure to institute a credible level of prosecutions as a consequence.
• The failure to address the incidence of other corporate crime, including the incidence of insider trading in shares, which amounts to more substantial fraud than that perpetrated by "ordinary" criminals.