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Author: David Kenny
equation.
They havenât been helped by Taoiseachâs Questions. The format of this Dáil procedure requires them to put questions to the Taoiseach. Surrounded as the three opposition leaders are by advisers pushing the flawed notion of âstrong oppositionâ, this has meant that, week in, week out, the three of them get delivered into the nationâs sitting rooms, courtesy of TV soundbites, as boring, negative, eternally complaining whingers.
Inevitable? Not at all. Political leadership isnât just about inventing policies and keeping the troops motivated. Itâs about finding new ways to use â nay, re-invent â old procedures. During the Christmas break, the opposition party leaders would be well advised to figure out how to use the most frequently televised Dáil procedure in a way that doesnât continue to do them damage. Itâs a weekly opportunity to put the Obama Factor in play, and theyâd better get the hang of it, smartish.
The Obama Factor is quintessentially future tense. It assumes people prefer the wide blue yonder of tomorrow to the recycled sock-smell of yesterday. Simple? Obvious? Not to the powers-that-be in some of the opposition parties, one of which, this week, as the rest of us were scissoring ribbons into curly fronds and trying to conceal parcels with giveaway shapes, was demanding time for a Dáil debate on the Moriarty Report Vol I. This is a bit like putting down a motion demanding the right to serve semolina pudding on Christmas Day: why the hell would you want to?
The answer depends on which bit of the non-tree youâre barking up. If youâre barking up the Duty of the Opposition bit, you believe a report so significant should not be allowed to pass without your TDs hammering home the implications. If youâre barking up the Culture of Crookedness bit, you want yet another chance to point out to the plain people of Ireland that âHaughey didnât do this all on his own, you knowâ.
Never mind that the people of Ireland, or at least those represented in opinion polls, are bored rigid by that stuff. Not to mention those for whom the events recorded by the Moriarty Report are distant history, belonging to the bad old days before Ryanair, cappuccinos in cardboard beakers and pre-Christmas shopping in American outlet malls.
The old management adage applies. If you keep doing what youâve always done, youâll keep getting what youâve always got. And, for Labour, Fine Gael and the Greens, that ainât enough.
If they keep doing what theyâve always done in the past year, theyâll keep getting â post-election â what theyâve always got. Seats on the opposition benches.
Mr Haughey, youâll do whatever you decide. Iâm just telling you what you should do
20 January 2008
âM ister Haugheyâs on the phone, looking for Tom,â my assistant told me. âBut Tomâs not here. Will you talk to him?â
My heart did a bungee jump. Forget that cliché about hearts going into boots. Mine visited my extremities, then bounced back and hit my larynx. Not that Haughey was ever unpleasant to any of us. It was just that if he was ringing at 10 a.m., and looking for Tom Savage, then he had a problem unlikely to be solvable by me.
I figured the problem had to do with the Progressive Democrats. The new party was only a few weeks old at that point. But for a tiny newborn, it was creating one hell of a stir â mainly by inspired timing. A high-profile defection from a major political party would occupy the national attention for one week. Then there would be a lull, during which that party would convince itself that the departure wasnât a loss but a gain. At the same time, media and public would wonder if that was the end of it.
It never was. Just as the national pulse returned to normal, a press conference or photocall or mass meeting would be announced, and a high
They havenât been helped by Taoiseachâs Questions. The format of this Dáil procedure requires them to put questions to the Taoiseach. Surrounded as the three opposition leaders are by advisers pushing the flawed notion of âstrong oppositionâ, this has meant that, week in, week out, the three of them get delivered into the nationâs sitting rooms, courtesy of TV soundbites, as boring, negative, eternally complaining whingers.
Inevitable? Not at all. Political leadership isnât just about inventing policies and keeping the troops motivated. Itâs about finding new ways to use â nay, re-invent â old procedures. During the Christmas break, the opposition party leaders would be well advised to figure out how to use the most frequently televised Dáil procedure in a way that doesnât continue to do them damage. Itâs a weekly opportunity to put the Obama Factor in play, and theyâd better get the hang of it, smartish.
The Obama Factor is quintessentially future tense. It assumes people prefer the wide blue yonder of tomorrow to the recycled sock-smell of yesterday. Simple? Obvious? Not to the powers-that-be in some of the opposition parties, one of which, this week, as the rest of us were scissoring ribbons into curly fronds and trying to conceal parcels with giveaway shapes, was demanding time for a Dáil debate on the Moriarty Report Vol I. This is a bit like putting down a motion demanding the right to serve semolina pudding on Christmas Day: why the hell would you want to?
The answer depends on which bit of the non-tree youâre barking up. If youâre barking up the Duty of the Opposition bit, you believe a report so significant should not be allowed to pass without your TDs hammering home the implications. If youâre barking up the Culture of Crookedness bit, you want yet another chance to point out to the plain people of Ireland that âHaughey didnât do this all on his own, you knowâ.
Never mind that the people of Ireland, or at least those represented in opinion polls, are bored rigid by that stuff. Not to mention those for whom the events recorded by the Moriarty Report are distant history, belonging to the bad old days before Ryanair, cappuccinos in cardboard beakers and pre-Christmas shopping in American outlet malls.
The old management adage applies. If you keep doing what youâve always done, youâll keep getting what youâve always got. And, for Labour, Fine Gael and the Greens, that ainât enough.
If they keep doing what theyâve always done in the past year, theyâll keep getting â post-election â what theyâve always got. Seats on the opposition benches.
Mr Haughey, youâll do whatever you decide. Iâm just telling you what you should do
20 January 2008
âM ister Haugheyâs on the phone, looking for Tom,â my assistant told me. âBut Tomâs not here. Will you talk to him?â
My heart did a bungee jump. Forget that cliché about hearts going into boots. Mine visited my extremities, then bounced back and hit my larynx. Not that Haughey was ever unpleasant to any of us. It was just that if he was ringing at 10 a.m., and looking for Tom Savage, then he had a problem unlikely to be solvable by me.
I figured the problem had to do with the Progressive Democrats. The new party was only a few weeks old at that point. But for a tiny newborn, it was creating one hell of a stir â mainly by inspired timing. A high-profile defection from a major political party would occupy the national attention for one week. Then there would be a lull, during which that party would convince itself that the departure wasnât a loss but a gain. At the same time, media and public would wonder if that was the end of it.
It never was. Just as the national pulse returned to normal, a press conference or photocall or mass meeting would be announced, and a high
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