What's Bugging Charles Haughey
Charlie Haughey has gone broke and has been forced to sell Kinsealy. He was unable to pay a bill for the hire of a Helicopter in the last year. He is badly in hock to a merchant bank. He is involved in an affair with a well known television personality (female)jwith a well known journalist (also female). It is perhaps a tribute to the pervasiveness of his personality that Charlie Haughey rumours, such as the above, dominate much oj the social gossip of Dublin. Haughey himself used to be mildly amused by such stories - he once said one should believe every rumour one hears. But he has reason to feel aggrieved nowadays about the torrent of rumour that surrounds him. They are not just grist to his mill any longer. They now inflict real political harm.
It is in this context that the alleegations or rather insinuations of teleephone bugging must be 'evaluated. To anybody who has ever known Haughey such insinuations are simply incredible. It is not that he wouldn't be morally incapable of listening in to other people's telephone converrsations, rather that he just couldn't be bothered. His boredom threshold is low, he simply wouldn't have the patience to listen in long enough to hear anything worthwhile. But the revelations of the override capacity on the telephone system that he had installed on becoming Taoiseach are certain to do him further harm, unnless the Committee of Procedures and Privileges entirely exonerate him and condemn Jim Mitchell and Fine Gael for the insinuations which they perpetra ted.
Public estimation of Haughey is so low that almost anything would be believed of him. Of course he has contributed much himself to this poor public estimation but he hasn't been entirely to blame and therefore it is only fair to attempt some kind of objective balance sheet on the most controversial politician Ireland has known since the civil war.
First of all the case against Haughey.
1. He has made a considerable perrsonal fortune while holding ministerial office and has stead fastly refused to divulge any information on how he came by such wealth,
2. He did not tell the truth in the course of the 1970 arms trial and the line of his defence jeopardised the case of his co-defendants.
3. On becoming Taoiseach in December 1979 he lost his nerve, having clearly identiified what needed to be done with the Irish economy and allowed public expenditure to get seriously out of control in 1980.
4. He was primarily to blame for the deliberate unnderestimation of the 1981 public expenditure estimates.
5. In the six month run up to the 1981 general elecction he allowed the public finances to get badly out of control.
6. His record as leader of the Opposition from June 1981 to February 1982 was characterised by indecision, notably on the appointment of his frontbench which he repeatedly postponed.
7. He ran a bad campaign in the 1982 election and had to be reined in by his poliitical colleagues following his first disastrous press conferrence of the campaign.
8. The opinion polls durring the 1982 campaign showwed he was a liability to his party.
9. He participated . with Martin O'Donoghue in the production of "the magic budget" proposal prior to the 1982 election which effecctively evaded the hard choices that needed to be made on economic policy.
10. He signed the Gregory deal which added considerrably to public expenditure when it was economically not possible to implement such a package without either severe public expenditure cuts or further taxation, both of which options he studioussly avoide d,
11. He has been guilty of further vacillation on the ecoonomic front, especially on the PRSI issue but also in his concession of further commmitments on public expendiiture during the course of the Dublin West by-election.
12. He has adopted an enntirely opportunist stance on the reform of the southern state to create a pluralist society which would faciliitate progress towards a settleement of the Northern Ireland conflict.
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The case for Haughey:
1. He was grossly maligned in the 1970 arms crisis and was more sinned against than sinning in that episode.
2. He suffered greatly and unfairly at the hands of the media, which entirely bought
the establishment version of the arms crisis and on Northhern policy. This media antiipathy has persisted ever since, although it has found new immpetus since he became Taoisseach.
3. Throughout his minissterial career Haughey proved himself a formidable politician. This was especially true in Justice and in Health.
4. In the past decade he, almost alone of the senior politicians in any of the major parties, has perceived the impossibility of reformming the Northern state and has pressed for the only posssible solution a united Ireland on terms acceptable to the Northern Protestants.
5. His instincts on social arid economic policy have been usually progressive.
6. He was unfairly and cheaply maligned by Garret FitzGerald in the Dail on his nomination as Taoiseach in December 1979.
7. His position as Taoisseach was eroded from the very beginning by George Colley's protestations of qualiified loyalty. He has never been able to command the wholehearted support of his party colleagues.
8. He was hamstrung in the 1981 election by having to fight it with a divided parrty - George Colley took no part in the campaign for instance. In spite of that he rescued the party from the electoral annihilation which threatened it in 1979 and seecured a percentage vote which on four previous o.ccasions was sufficient to restore Fiannna Fail to office.
9. His position as leader of the Opposition was weakened by the McCreevy attack.
10. He again fought the 1982 election with a divided party. In spite of that the Fianna Fail first preference percentage vote was higher than at any time since 1957, with the exceptions of 1965 and 1977.
11. Immediately after that commendable result his posiition as leader was threatened by the dissident faction withhin the party, this time headed by Des O'Malley.
12. He did manage to do the necessary deals to restore his party to Government after the 1982 election - rememmber Garret FitzGerald commpromised his party's position in his attempted deals more than did Haughey Fianna Fail's position.
13. He took a strong resooiute and principled line on the Falklands/Malvinas issue.
14. His position was weakkened unfairly by the result "f the Dublin West bytion, where the party's posiitio n was by no means as stron.: as he himself and his colleagues -. and the media - believed it to be.
15. He has been unfairly the victim of the worst kind of rumour-mongering that has been known in Irish political life, certainly since DeValera left party politics.
16. Insinuations have been made about his involvement in telephone eavesdropping which are quite unsustained by any available evidence xJim Mitchell has claimed that he made no insinuations against Haughey but his statement did include the phrase "there was no appropriate opportunity up to now to raise this matter in a non-electoral context." If all that was being sugggested was that security indiscretions had been committed, then there would have been no inhibition about raising the issue in an electoral context. Clearly , much more was implied.
17. Since his return to office civil servants not usually sympathetic to him have said that he has been very much more decisive on this occasion than previously.
18. He has been castigated by George Colley, among others, for inndulging in the politics of promise, while Colley's own record on such issues is very much in question and Colley was apparently prepared to participate in a Government led by Haughey on the sole proviso that he be Tanaiste.
19. He has hac! a distinguished reecord in Government as a supporter of the Arts.
The case against Haughey is not at all as black and white.as is often portrayed. When he became Taoiseach, many, including this reporter believed that he had enormous potential to take the hard decisions and give the direction which this society required. It is certainly true that he has disapppointed those expectations but his faillure to live up to them hasn't been enntirely of his own doing and it is only fair that this should be acknowledged.