Cowen gives the best of speeches at the worst of times
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EARLY in his speech Brian Cowen asked: "How did we get here?" He did not give an answer, not entirely. International events, apparently, was how we got here. "Right across the globe there are people in the same situation," he said
It is not strictly true. They are hurting elsewhere too, but Germany is offering to bail us out and most of old Europe is keeping a close eye on us. They are not in the "same situation".
Towards the end of his speech, of Fianna Fail, he said: "We don't always get it right." This was, perhaps, the closest the Taoiseach will ever come to accepting his share of responsibility for the crisis we are in.
The blame game has become tiresome, though, and at this stage, perhaps a little predictable. New thinking, as Brian Cowen would say, is what is required now.
It is easy to look at the governments of which he was part and tick the boxes marked 'mistake': stamp duty, tax breaks, benchmarking, asleep at the wheel. But that will get us nowhere.
In his speech last night the Taoiseach tried to move us on from that, to what now needs to be done. It is right that we should do so. In that regard, then, I think his speech was a success.
It was uplifting too, in many ways. "We are a beautiful, complex people," he said, none more complex than Cowen himself, or more beautiful, too, in his own way. He is looking well again, as is his family. He has been looking well for a while. I think he has turned a corner.
It was also a fiercely direct speech. He did not pull his punches. He laid it on the line, which, I suppose, is why it was uplifting. It was typically Cowen -- dogged, serious, no bullshit. It was, in fact, just what we needed to hear right now.
For too long, his Government has been living in delusion. Last week, the Tanaiste still seemed to be there. She said Ireland's finances were under control. The reality, as Brian Cowen said, is that there is a gap of at least €18bn in the day-to-day running of the country.
There will be spending cuts and tax rises. More than that, our tax system will need to change, whatever that means. It will be "painful for all" he warned, living standards will fall, we will need to adjust. Services will suffer short term.
He also gave the banks a kicking. There was, he said, "huge anger and disgust" at them. What they did was wrong and selfish. Their salaries would be capped, an announcement which drew the night's greatest applause.
It would have been easy, and popular for him to dwell on that. But he didn't. He wants us all to move on, to deal with what we have to deal with, and to leave the banks to the fraud squad and corporate enforcer.
He had a few other announcements too, along the lines predicted by the Sunday Independent a few weeks ago: The establishment of a central banking commission, incorporating a new head of banking regulation; the creation of a new financial services consumer agency; the setting up of an enterprise stabilisation fund to support export companies; the creation of 50,000 extra training places for the newly unemployed, job placement schemes to get graduates work, 'back to education' courses for those who need them.
They are welcome announcements and they will help many. It was time they were made. But whether they will be enough now to rescue us from the inevitable, onward, downward spiral is doubtful.
But I don't want to be cynical now. It is, as he said, too easy to be cynical. This was the best speech I have ever heard at a Fianna Fail Ard Fheis, and I have heard a few. The best of speeches at the worst of times.
Let us, as the Taoiseach said, hold onto the best and shed the rest.
- JODY CORCORAN
