Martina Devlin: Why Bertie Ahern should stick to blowing bubbles
MANY people imagine Bertie Ahern has retreated to the backbenches, may even step down at the next general election, and no longer wields power in Irish life. It is convenient to believe his wings have been clipped, and his days as an influential politician are gone. But that isn't the case.
The Bert is a member of that Council of State we heard about this week -- a group of eminent figures charged with advising the President.
The council was convened on Tuesday to examine a pivotal new piece of legislation -- and the Bert, wrecker-in-chief of the economy, was entitled to take his place alongside former President Mary Robinson, the Attorney General and a brace of retired chief justices, among others.
A somewhat jarring role, surely, for a disgraced politician who persists in blaming external forces for the Apocalypse Now-landscape on which we scrabble for a toehold. Doesn't his membership bring the council into disrepute?
The council -- a mechanism for double checking that new legislation is constitutional -- was called on to consider the Credit Institutions (Stabilisation) Bill, covering the restructuring of the banking sector.
The council's role is particularly pertinent, when we have a Government which lacks popular support riding roughshod over the opposition; sections of the bill were guillotined in the Dail, stifling debate.
But wait, all is not lost. Among the few with a right to their say is the Bert: master builder of the most shoddily constructed boom in history, a chancer whose crypto-socialist policies resulted in tumbling living standards.
The Bert and his Cabinet's spectacular bungling are the reasons this legislation is being introduced. Yet he is deemed a suitable adviser to the President on the question of its constitutionality. How can that be possible in a genuine democracy? Clearly, his presence on the council holds our political system up to ridicule.
It is inappropriate for him to have a seat there. Precedent, as a former Taoiseach, is not reason enough for membership -- precedent should be overturned in the case of a self-serving public servant whose legacy is a debt-ridden people forced to watch their children emigrate.
During his 11 years in office, which came to an abrupt halt in 2008 amid unanswered questions about his personal finances, he was a pawn of the property developers.
His close association with the banking and property bubbles raises doubt over whether the Bert is fit to adjudicate on this issue. He socialised regularly with developers, his party became their political wing. And who did he invite to be one of his guests of honour, when he made death-rattle speeches gussied up as statesmanlike orations at Westminster and on Capitol Hill? None other than Sean Dunne, the NAMA-ed builder who has -- how peculiar -- relocated to the US. As Taoiseach, the Bert ranted against anyone who questioned the expansionism of developers, and cleared obstacles from their path. The bubble was dilated during his regime, with an extensive variety of tax incentives to invest in property -- even as growth in the construction sector reached unsustainable heights.
At one point his administration offered 20 different tax incentives to buy houses or apartments. These breaks encouraged developers to build, build, build. Meanwhile, the Bert used bulging revenues created under a false premise to court popularity with voters.
Yet this man sits on the Council of State.
Charlie McCreevy, his Finance Minister during the critical period between 1997 and 2004, gave away hundreds of millions of euro in subsidies or tax incentives to builders, speculators and investors. All done with the Bert's approval.
Our former leader lived for today, with no future-proofing against economic shock and unemployment, consistently choosing populist policies above fiscal caution. As for the banks, he allowed them to grow past the point of no return and failed to regulate the sector.
During Leaders' Questions in June 2006, the Bert was actually boasting about Ireland's turbocharged house-building programme. "We are producing new houses at a much faster rate than other countries. Home ownership is rising, and some 20 new homes are produced annually per 1,000 of population compared to five per 1,000 in the EU.
"Thankfully, unlike in large parts of the EU, people are buying houses."
Yes, they were buying. But anyone taking on a mortgage in 2006, when the Bert was hustler-in-chief for the property push, has no reason for gratitude.
When TD Joe Higgins criticised "this scandal of unbridled profiteering in the housing market" the Bert accused him of trying to return the country to the poverty-stricken days of the 1930s.
Ironically, Ireland was to be reduced to penury, but the cap fits the Bert better than Deputy Higgins.
And so, as an apocalyptic year draws to a close, too little seems to change. "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold," is how WB Yeats memorably puts it in 'The Second Coming'.
Things are, indeed, falling apart. Yet aspects of public life continue to operate with a veneer of normality.
In the dying days of the 30th Dail, amid the scramble to award juicy sinecures to party loyalists, it is an affront to see the Bert retain his seat on the council.
No one in their right mind could believe this to be a proper role for him.
AND while we're on the subject of people inappropriately holding on to positions, let's not forget bank directors.
Brian Lenihan has confirmed that 38pc of directors, in place at the time of the Government guarantee, remain on the boards of the six Irish financial institutions covered by it.
So much for a clean sweep. So much for confidence-building. So much for turning corners. So much for a new dawn.
Note to reformers in opposition (you do exist? I haven't muddled you with Santa Claus?): add the Council of State to institutions in urgent need of restructuring.
The list grows ever longer. Our patience grows ever thinner.
- Martina Devlin
Irish Independent
