Timing is everything.

Sean Lemass is rightly regarded as Ireland's greatest ever Taoiseach.  However, he was deprived of the leadership role by the unwillingness of his predecessor to relinquish leadership of the party. Nonetheless, he benefited from only being the sheriff for a short period of time.  It is forgotten that he was deputy during the toughest years of the 1950s.  This can be contrasted to the perceptions of Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern.

I strongly wonder what the general public's view would be of their respective Prime Ministers if they had not held on to power for so long. Tony Blair will remain in a good light with the majority of people in the Republic of Ireland due to his influence in the Peace Process.  However, the perceived poor judgement with regards to the war in Iraq and his slowness to hand over power to Gordon Brown will forever taint his legacy.  Bertie Ahern has suffered a similar fate due to his longevity, inability to explain his financial dealings and poor decision making after leaving office (drinking tea in a cupboard in order to advertise a cheap English tabloid).

Therefore, we must now look at the current government and ask the question as to when they should have handed the seals into the President with their ministerial Mercedes.  Indeed, should they not make the call now?  The hunger from the current government to hold onto power has probably been more damaging to their prospect of regaining seats around the Cabinet table after the next government runs its course.  Brian Cowen could have benefited more from an early election in his reign in order to rebuild the party.  We now have a situation in which Fianna Fáil is at it’s lowest ratings since the foundation of the State.  The rebuilding process will take many years and will take place with a complete reconstruction of the party starting with each cumman.  Ironically, it may invigorate the party as new young blood will have to be found and it may not be found from the traditional nepotistic constituencies.   However, my main concerns relate to the rebuilding of the Irish economy and not the internal workings of the Fianna Fail parliamentary party. 

We need the certainty of a long term government with a mandate to follow through with the necessary pain over the next four to five years.  The painful readjustments must be made by a government that is not looking over it’s shoulder thinking about damage limitation. Minister Lenihan has clearly not done when he has made tough calls but the pressure of backbenchers worried about theirs seats will not help his case in arguing for the necessary cuts when the backbenchers will argue for their vested interests.  

I have no doubt that Fianna Fail can regroup under the leadership of a new leader.  However, the country needs to make a total of €15bn in cuts and it may be time for a strong government with a long term mandate to make these calls?