The Grade So Far on Cowen

Ireland Calling with John Spain

The Grade So Far on Cowen

May 29, 2008

By John Spain

OUR new Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen and his team have now settled in, and it’s time for his first school report. Of course it’s early days yet. It’s only a few weeks since he gave Bertie Ahern the heave-ho and took over as leader. But it’s long enough to get some impression of how different the Cowen era will be from the Ahern era.

It’s also long enough for Ahern to get a taste of what life is like when suddenly you’re no longer taoiseach. He went to see his beloved Manchester United beating Chelsea in the Champions League final in Moscow last week and he had to fly in an ordinary plane in an ordinary seat with his knees in his mouth like everyone else. Ah, the memories of the government jet!

When you’re out you’re out, and all the trappings of power vanish the instant you resign. Meanwhile last weekend, Cowen was able to fly in the comfort of the government jet to Cardiff in Wales to see Munster’s magnificent victory over Toulouse in the Heineken Cup.

That’s it, neatly summed up. Ahern is now just Sean Citizen like the rest of us and Cowen is the boss. So how is he doing?

Well, it’s been a shaky, bad-tempered start, particularly for someone with a reputation for being so sure-footed and single-minded. It came to a head in the Dail (Parliament) last week when the Cowen was heard to use the F-word during an intense barrage of questions from the opposition. It was an indication of just how much pressure he is under already.

What sparked this was a dispute about prices and the cost of living. Specifically, it was the fact that although the euro has climbed in value against the pound sterling (as it has against the dollar) the prices of the vast amount of goods we import from Britain have not fallen in shops here.

Retailers have been very fast in the past to put up prices here when sterling was strong against the euro. But now when it’s the other way around the prices seem to be stuck.

What’s happening, of course, is that the retailers (including the big multinational supermarket and store chains) have increased their profit margins to soak up the currency difference. To put it bluntly, they’re screwing the Irish consumer.

It’s just one indication of the new economic reality facing Cowen and his new government. But it’s a particularly sensitive one, because it hits people where it hurts every week when they do their shopping, and it’s something they feel the government should be tackling.

Recognizing a weak point, the opposition piled on the pressure last week, demanding to know what the government was doing. The answer is very little.

We do have a Competition Authority and there are rules about cartels and price-fixing. But knowing the retailers are screwing the consumer and proving it are two very different things.

Since we don’t have price control here, the truth is there’s not much the government can do. But we do have a state organization called the National Consumer Agency that is supposed to keep an eye on these things.

This falls within the area of responsibility of Mary Coughlan who, as well as being the new tanaiste (deputy prime minister), is also the new minister for enterprise.

Under intense questioning from the opposition and having no real answer to the situation, Cowen leaned over to Coughlan who was sitting beside him in the Dail and growled, “Ring those people and get a handle on it will you ... bring in all those f***ers.”

Now this was a private aside, made when Cowen thought his microphone was switched off. But the mikes were still, on and some time later when it was realized how unparliamentary his language had been it became a national story. The taoiseach uses the F-word in the Dail!

Initially the main opposition party Fine Gael thought Cowen was referring to them, which shows how paranoid party leader Enda Kenny is getting. But then it became clear that he was referring to civil servants dealing with the matter and probably to the Consumer Agency. This seemed to be confirmed later when it was learned that Coughlan had immediately hauled in the agency chiefs for some straight talking.

All this was a bit of a storm in a tea cup, in spite of the media’s attempt to be shocked and appalled while at the same time printing lots of cartoons showing Cowen telling people to eff off. One paper even managed to dig up a picture of him giving someone the two fingers to go with the F-word speech bubble.

It was all a bit of a giggle. But it did add to the impression that Cowen was finding the going tough in his first couple of weeks as taoiseach.

He was not helped by the emergence of yet another scandal in the health service, this time in the north east, where hundreds of scans and X-rays are being rechecked because of a doubt about their initial analysis. Cowen has continued to back Mary Harney as minister for health and has been criticized widely for doing so, not just by the opposition.

Again, as on economic matters, the impression being given is that behind his aggressive performances in the Dail and in the media, he is no more in control than his predecessor was.

Cowen was quick to apologize for his use of the F-word in a “private conversation” with his deputy leader. But apart from the word, what he said seemed to be an admission that the government did not have a “handle” on the prices issue.

Also the blunt way he talked to Coughlan seemed to suggest that he was impatient with her for not being on top of the situation, which is part of her new brief.

To be certain that no one had any doubt that he was sorry for using the language Cowen apologized in person on the TV news. “Ta bron orm. Ni raibh se oiriunach e sin a ra.” Which in Irish means “I’m sorry. That was not a suitable thing to say.”

He then repeated what he had to say in English, saying that it had been a “private comment” to Coughlan. “It wasn’t appropriate whether it’s inside or outside the Dail. I apologize for it. I put my hand up. I think it’s the manly thing to do,” he said.

Opinion was divided on how much all this mattered and what it indicated. Some commentators said it showed that Cowen was waking up to the depressing economic vista that lies before him and was bad tempered as a result.

But many ordinary people who reacted said that it simply showed that Cowen is direct and forceful. What you get is what you see, they said, seemingly pleased at Cowen’s use of a profanity because it proved he was a man of the people, the way Ahern was.

Cowen has a different way of wielding power than Ahern, who always tried to stay one of the lads, conciliatory and almost apologetic for having to tell people what to do.

Cowen is much more direct and is not afraid of exerting his authority. His new chief whip has already warned Fianna Fail backbenchers that if they miss any votes in the Dail without his permission they will be in serious trouble.

His ministers also know that any sign of incompetence or laziness will not be tolerated. It’s shape up or ship out time.

Coughlan has already got herself into difficulty because of her tendency to wing it instead of doing her homework. In two debates in the last few weeks about the EU Lisbon Treaty she has shown a shaky grasp of the minutiae of European affairs.

Even on the main facts she was hazy. She didn’t even know the number of European commissioners that each country in the union is entitled to, which is not good enough for a government minister.

Apart from the F-word and the ongoing problems in the Health Service, Cowen faces real challenges on the economic front. The main one is going to be convincing people to tighten their belts for a year or two until the world economy picks up again. Whether his abrasive style is suited to this task of persuasion remains to be seen.

He is making some changes in Fianna Fail that will help to foster a new cleaner image, notably getting rid of the Fianna Fail tent at the Galway Races where the movers and shakers used to rub shoulders with senior politicians, and large cash donations were pledged to the party.

Some cynical commentators here point out that since construction is at a standstill now, the builders have no money to donate anyway. But it is a welcome development.

Cowen has inherited a different economic reality than the one Ahern enjoyed. There are already signs that it’s going to be very rough as people adjust to this new reality (and the current train driver’s strike here is just one example).

Cowen is tough enough to take the criticism, but it is hardly likely to improve his humor. There are likely to be lots of F-word moments with ministers in the future, but you can be sure the mikes will be off.

In a way the Lisbon Treaty debate here (our referendum on approving the changes to the way the European Union is run is on June 12) has provided Cowen with a welcome distraction from the domestic challenges that lie ahead. Once that is out of the way in a couple of weeks, he will be solely confronted with the day-to-day challenges facing the economy — the prices, the lost jobs, the squeeze on state spending and so on. And losing his temper won’t help him or us.

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