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Global Irish Economic Forum: Diaspora baby steps on offer from Cowen when great leap forward is so overdue
By Michael Hennigan, Founder and Editor of Finfacts
Apr 29, 2009 - 6:10:12 AM
Time Magazine cover of July 12, 1963, following the State visit of US President John F. Kennedy to Ireland - - Sean Lemass, Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) 1959-1966 who together with T.K. Whitaker and former Minister for Finance Gerard Sweetman (1954-1957), were the architects of the modern Irish economy. Lemass stood up to business interests who opposed reduction of their protections and was a moderniser - - a rare specie in the conservative Irish political system. A year ago, current Taoiseach Brian Cowen said that Lemass was his model. By that measure, he has failed miserably.
Global Irish Economic Forum: Taoiseach Brian Cowen plans to ask international business individuals from the Irish Diaspora, to help generate ideas on an economic recovery in Ireland at a major economic forum planned for Dublin next September. Many baby steps can have some potential significance but as the Taoiseach approaches the first anniversary of his elevation to the office, without evidence of any significant reform of the unfit for purpose governance and public service systems, coupled with an abject cowardice to take on vested interests, he will continue to flounder at the expense of the economy.
Cowen plans to "personally invite" 150 business individuals, who have Irish links or connections, to take part in the economic forum which will be held at Farmleigh House in Dublin.
“The Government and the global Irish community have in the past worked closely together on issues such as the peace process in Northern Ireland and the rewards of such co-operation have been considerable,” said Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin.
It will be a polite affair with multimillionaires such as Peter Sutherland, chairman of the international unit of US investment bank Goldman Sachs, avoiding direct home truths with the individuals who were ignorant cheerleaders of the property boom.
Put simply, I would guess that most of the Irish Diaspora, who maintain an interest in Ireland, would have zero confidence in the likes of Cowen and Martin.
Last Monday, the Irish Independent reported that the Minister for Foreign Affairs, remains a teacher after being 20 years on leave. Nevertheless, he is building up credits on 3 public sector pensions, while the majority of his working constituents in Cork, do not even have a basic occupational pension.
This is just one illustration of the state of denial at a political level among people who left the Irish economy so unprepared for a global recession.
The Irish Examiner says in an editorial today:"In almost a year, our Taoiseach has snarled and blustered and made one passable speech that was hailed as almost Churchillian because it was such a rarity. It is difficult to remember an encouraging phrase let alone an uplifting and inspired intervention from Mr Cowen. Energising he is not. Even his own backbenchers and dismissed junior ministers can no longer suppress their calls for the kind of vision and leadership that offers the prospect of confronting these tremendous challenges.
Leadership is about vision and credibility — the vision to imagine solutions and the credibility that provides the opportunity to make that vision real.
Mr Cowen has shown neither, and in the face of the ESRI predictions, that is an indulgence we can no longer afford.
Ireland needs a change in attitude or personnel."
Cowen has failed to articulate any vision of reform to provide hope that the second period of monumental Irish economic mismanagement in a generation, will not be repeated.
The sacred cows remain well protected and there is no desire to change the status quo.
A year ago this week, the OECD report on public service reform was published and despite the promises, nothing of substance has changed.
Last week, when revised public spending estimates were published, Fine Gael's Richard Bruton said there was no pressure to deliver efficiencies and there were “no consequences for Ministers who fail”. Ministers reported in their annual output statements last year that over 40% of targets had not been achieved, yet “not one Minister blushed, let alone tendered their resignation”.
Richard Bruton said that the Budget was “not fit for running a corner shop” and the Government was “still relying on an absolutely arcane and archaic system of budgeting” and the book of estimates did not have “a single target.”
Little has changed in decades and the public procurement system remains as opaque as it was in the 1930's with Insiders in control while lip-service is given to start-ups and the so-called"Smart Economy."
Last November, I wrote that Taoiseach Brian Cowen increasingly resembled the Depression era US President Herbert Hoover, as he failed to show leadership at a time of economic peril.
Herbert Hoover came to office, having served as Secretary of Commerce in a boom period. His response to the post-Wall Street crash as president, was too little and too late. The final entry for the diary of Hoover's Chief of Staff Theodore Joslin, is March 3, 1933, the day before Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn into office. The final line quotes the President (described by Joslin as “angry and depressed,” ) saying “'We are at the end of our string.’”
Cowen may not yet be at the end of his string but in this time of slump following the end of the Celtic Tiger boom, there is a yearning for bold, determined leadership and the Taoiseach has absolutely failed to provide it.
On March 4, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt as the new president of a country in crisis said: "This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today."
These were the opening words of a presidency of resolution and consequence. The route to such leadership is not via taskforces and review groups.
In conservative Ireland, how worse do economic conditions have to descend to for the political class to provide change?
A big problem with the current Irish crisis is that the political leadership cannot be honest about such issues as sham benchmarking and their part in destroying the economy. So blather on the global crisis rather than addressing core problems at home, is the official default.
There would however, have been some redemption, if there had been evidence of leadership at this time of great peril.
A year ago yesterday, April 28, 2008, Minister for Finance and Taoiseach-elect Brian Cowen, promised a review of the huge growth in State agencies over the past decade, at the launch of the OECD report on the public service. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, also speaking at the launch, said there were now some 800 agencies and this represented "too many by half".
A report is pending a year later.
The quango that is surely a metaphor for what is so wrong with the Irish system of governance is the National Consumer Agency, which was established in response to public concerns about what became known as the "Rip-off Republic" but is now part of a rip-off of the Irish taxpayer.
Eddie Hobbs who became a national figure with a TV programme on the issue of rip-offs, joined the 13-person board of the NCA along with the former girlfriend of then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
Last year, the chief executive of the NCA earned more than the chairman of the US Federal Reserve!
The organisation does not even have a basic online price comparison service. but can issue a €200,000 contract to a PR firm to handle the issue of press releases. Even then, the NCA generally only focuses on an issue, when it is raised elsewhere.
Last Friday, NSAI (National Standards Authority of Ireland), the State agency vested with the responsibility to manage the policy instruments of standards, announced that a number of actions were being taken in response to safety concerns with regard to loop cords used on window blinds and the threat they pose to children.
On Monday this week, the National Consumer Agency issued a press release urging "parents, guardians and carers of young children to take all necessary measures to protect young children from the possibility of being injured or strangled by window-blind cords."
The NCA staff/board numbers ratio is less than 2:1 and the task is to ensure the Irish consumer gets value for money!!
So a gabfest in Farmleigh House next September, will be of little consequence if the Irish crisis continues to be primarily viewed as a public relations problem, rather than one crying out for serious reform.
