Enda Kenny has become Taoiseach. Election results and recent polls suggest that the vast majority of Irish citizens regard him as being more than up to the task. His handling of the first set of Leader’s Questions has received generally positive media coverage.

This is in sharp contrast to earlier perceptions of Enda Kenny as being unsuitable, including, as late as December 2010*, when a third of Fine Gael voters expressed a preference for Eamon Gilmore as Taoiseach. Only six months previously, nine members of the Fine Gael front bench didn’t have confidence in him to lead the party into the General Election. The generally held belief, by most media commentators, that Kenny was a “lame duck” leader was accentuated in Vincent Browne’s ill-advised suggestion involving a darkened room, a bottle of whiskey and a revolver.

Enda was accused, by those supporting Richard Bruton, that he didn’t “connect” with the electorate; that he was a poor media performer; that he wasn’t good on policy detail. Kenny’s political obituary has been written and re-written many times in recent years. Commentators have, more recently, damned him with faint praise as being “more Chairman, than Chief”.

Not only have the reports of Enda’s demise been greatly exaggerated, but it would appear that despite the misgivings of many, the public have already warmed to the notion, now reality, of Taoiseach Enda Kenny. Perhaps Enda has changed beyond recognition since he was written off as Taoiseach material, or perhaps the perception of Taoisigh is in the eye of the beholder?

*Red C poll 13-15 Dec 2010

While previous Irish budgets have been portrayed as one-armed-bandits, this budget may be far closer to that analogy than we would ever have imagined.
The role of independent Dáil Deputies would appear to be crucial in determining the final numbers for the vote on the budget and the subsequent Finance Bill. However, as has been the practice, independent deputies appear to be bargaining on behalf of their constituencies, regardless of clichéd “national interest”. Although Michael Lowry insists that his support is not dependent on Government support for the Tipperary Venue, including a revision of gambling legislation, news reports suggest that the report on gambling legislation is being fast-tracked through Cabinet. This is presumably so that any new Government will have the published report in their In-boxes.
Michael Lowry, like Jackie Healy-Rae, Finian McGrath and other independent Deputies, answer directly to their local constituents, but too often put local issues above the priority of national issues. A cursory examination of the distribution of the ill-fated decentralisation of Government departments demonstrates the local clientelism with which those departments were relocated. Similarly, the favouritism shown to parts of Kerry for sports and tourism grants during the Arts, Sport & Tourism Ministerial supervision of John O’Donohue
The Dail is a national parliament. We need a system which prioritises the national interest for all the members of that parliament. Until that happens, we have situations such as will happen tomorrow: the decision on the adoption of a national budget may ultimately depend on the whim of the proprietor of a one-armed-bandit emporium.