Noonan's fighting spirit may be just what Fine Gael needs
Thursday July 29 2010
RICHARD Bruton was known to be a fan of 'Sex and the City'. But Michael Noonan, his replacement as Fine Gael finance spokesman, watches 'Wallander'. That's a series about a grumpy, humourless detective investigating murders in Sweden.
So their television viewing habits are very different. But there is an emerging view that Noonan, with his streetfighting style, may be able to turn a minus into a positive for Fine Gael.
The minus is clearly the loss of Bruton from the party's most important portfolio after his disastrous heave against Enda Kenny.
He had spent the last eight years developing a credible financial message for Fine Gael after its reckless promises in the 2002 general election to compensate Eircom shareholders and deregulated taxi drivers.
But the positive is that Noonan has hit the ground running since his appointment -- which is what you would expect from someone who held the finance portfolio between 1997 and 2001.
He is comfortable speaking about euro bailouts, government bonds and capital spending programmes.
And he has a way of using real examples to make his points, which draw people in.
An example is his famous promise that he could find the €150,000 needed to keep open a respite centre run by the Brothers of Charity in his native Limerick city in five minutes. That worked on a local level (by raising a key issue for his own voters) and on a national level (by portraying himself as someone who would take decisive action).
His colleagues in Fine Gael say they are quite impressed with his command of the finance brief so far. He was prominent during the release of documents about the run-up to the state banking guarantee and has linked the Government to Anglo Irish Bank at every turn.
Bruton also knew that it made sense to try to bring up such a tarnished institution but he often got bogged down talking about Anglo's "bondholders" and whether it was "systemically important".
That was based on his extensive policy work and his legendary collection of files -- often to be seen tucked under his arm as he rushed in and out of Leinster House.
Noonan is rarely seen with a load of papers under his arm -- he tends to work off scraps of paper instead. That means there is a real risk that, unlike Bruton, he will be caught out on detail. Or he could make slip ups like he did two weeks ago with his criticism of his party's 100,000 jobs promise in its NewEra document.
But Fine Gael defence spokesman David Stanton recalled yesterday how Noonan had single-handedly taken on former Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy and an array of civil servants at a finance committee meeting 10 years ago. He was still able to keep them under pressure about various changes to the Finance Act using his scraps of paper and his command of detail.
Noonan is far more outspoken than Bruton and his public spat with Justice Minister Dermot Ahern is just the latest example of his no-holds barred approach.
It is impossible to think of Richard Bruton calling somebody a "nasty little man". He was saintly even when being sinned against by another former justice minister, Michael McDowell, who likened him to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
Noonan, on the other hand, justified his rather extreme reaction using Munster rugby -- which will again do him no harm with voters in his sport-mad county of Limerick. He explained that he had let go a few barbs from Ahern, who was in typical combative form.
"And, you know, at some point in the conversation the rules of Munster rugby apply. If somebody is consistently fouling you don't consistently foul them back, you just take them out with one belt," he said.
No doubt Munster rugby legends like Peter Clohessy would approve.
But in politics, like in rugby, there is a danger that your reaction will get you into trouble.
Noonan was in the wars in the Dail a few months ago after calling Junior Minister for Europe Dick Roche a "jackass". That was in defence of his colleague, Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan, who had been called an "ass" by Roche for repeatedly interrupting him. But even the best street-fighters know that it's not clever to pick fights all the time.
The next fight Noonan does face is his first "Ministers' Questions" session with Finance Minister Brian Lenihan. It's fair to say that this is a contest that is eagerly awaited -- within Leinster House at least.
He has already had a few preliminary skirmishes in the Dail with Lenihan -- who is also a very able communicator (he explained recently that he had stopped using the word "liquidity" in relation to banks because it made people think about water).
Noonan accused Lenihan of reading from the script during a recent debate on the banking system -- and asked for a copy of it. Lenihan said he wasn't -- he was just reading from material. "It looks like a script," said Noonan. "If it quacks like a duck..."
So perhaps Fine Gael will have the best of both worlds -- a finance spokesman (Noonan) who can seriously wound the Government with cutting remarks backed up by an enterprise spokesman (Bruton) who knows his brief inside out. And Noonan is seen in the party as someone willing to listen to any suggestions that Bruton might have.
But even if they turn out to be an unlikely "dream team", they will still be running out on to a deeply divided pitch.
Even a turbo-charged Noonan playing like Paul O'Connell won't be able to drag Fine Gael across the line if the rest of the Fine Gael team are fighting with each other.
That's something the party itself has to sort out.
mbrennan@independent.ie
- Michael Brennan
Irish Independent
