Today, Enda Kenny resigns as Taoiseach after six years on the job. First elected to the Dáil in 1975, Enda Kenny became Taoiseach in March 2011 at a time of unprecedented national crisis. Ireland, in deep recession, had been bailed out by the Troika and the country had effectively lost economic sovereignty. As Kenny leaves office, Ireland is the fastest growing economy in Europe yet faces some severe social crises such as homelessness and child poverty. Kenny can count economic recovery and the gay marriage referendum as amongst the key achievements of his time in office. But there have also been some abject failures; most noticeably the attempt to introduce domestic water charges.
So how do we assess Kenny’s tenure as Taoiseach? Did his stewardship of the economy save us from national bankruptcy? Did he restore Ireland’s standing in the world? Or did the political choices his government made ensure that the type of economic recovery Ireland experienced was one that benefited the wealthy at the expense of the most vulnerable in society?
How one answers these questions ultimately comes down to political belief and ideology. If one believes that the free market is the most efficient way to ensure a rising quality of life for all, Kenny can be seen as a capable and successful leader. After all, the key indicators of a successful capitalist economy have markedly improved under his leadership. The country has experienced strong growth in GDP, a relatively low cost of borrowing and a trade surplus that now runs into billions of euro. On average, living standards have risen under Kenny’s leadership. True, the wealthy have benefited most but it is the wealthy who create the jobs that ensure we all advance with this rising tide of prosperity (or so the argument goes…). And it is the unemployment figures, which have fallen substantially under Kenny’s leadership, that are the key indicator of a successful government.
If one accepts economic orthodoxy, then Enda Kenny’s government has followed the correct course. Granted, there have been some painful decisions to make but given the situation Kenny inherited there was little choice but to scale back on public spending. If this has resulted in some hardship for some people, it has been in pursuit of the greater good of restoring the country’s economic fortunes. With his sensible management of the economy, Enda Kenny has made Ireland the “best small country in the world to do business” and has thus been a good Taoiseach.
The above viewpoint is basically that of mainstream politics the world over, i.e. that pro-business/pro-finance policies are the only way to run a country and any other route is one that leads to economic ruin and chaos. This is, of course, only one way of interpreting the performance of Kenny’s government but it is worth remembering that these are the beliefs of Fine Gael and it was for this approach that Kenny was elected. That being said, there are other ideological prisms through which we can assess Kenny’s performance as Taoiseach. If we don’t accept the centre-right premise that what’s good for business is good for all, Kenny’s legacy as Taoiseach looks less positive. He might have restored Ireland’s ability to borrow on international markets but the price to do so has been years of severe austerity. This has led to an underfunded health system with atrociously long waiting lists and some of the worst health outcomes in Europe. Kenny has also overseen an unprecedented crisis in housing and homelessness; all the more scandalous given the surplus of housing that existed when Kenny took over. Under a more left-wing analysis, Enda Kenny’s policies have been socially destructive and whilst it might be “the best small country in the world to do business” it is a shite small country in which to live if you’re poor.
Kenny’s government deliberately prioritised the welfare of the top strata of society who have enjoyed cuts to income tax and low tax on corporate profits, at the expense of a majority saddled with USC, property tax, septic tank charges and (albeit unsuccessfully) water charges. Enda Kenny leaves behind him a legacy of rising rents, debts and hospital waiting lists with a public service more diminished than when he took office. If one is of the view that a governments primary role is to provide public services and to protect the most vulnerable from the vagaries of the capitalist economy then Enda Kenny has been a very bad Taoiseach.
If our ideological preferences determine how we interpret Kenny’s leadership, there are nonetheless certain non-ideological criticisms that can be made of the man. Throughout his tenure as Taoiseach, I believe Enda Kenny has shown what can best be described as an attitude problem. When challenged, Kenny has displayed a contemptuous attitude; often smirking and acting smug. We saw it in the Dáil when he responded to Paul Murphy’s question about water charges with an instruction to “toddle along” and when he insisted on answering a question from Mick Wallace in Irish, knowing full well that Wallace wouldn’t understand.
We saw this smug attitude even more whenever he had the misfortune to be challenged by a member of the public. When he told one protestor “you could do with a day’s work” Kenny revealed his attitude to protestors and, to me, seemed to implicitly imply that he viewed the opinions of the unemployed as somehow less valid than those with jobs. His “you’re not from Galway at all” jibe to a Galway woman with an English accent again demonstrated the general smugness of his attitude and showed a shocking disregard for the nature of the Irish diaspora and for how forced emigration has meant that many Irish people do indeed have English accents. There are numerous other examples, such as labelling those who oppose him in Mayo as “whingers” or his smug evocations of men with pints.
It’s my belief that Enda Kenny has been a bad Taoiseach because it is my opinion that a government should have as its primary aim the protection and betterment of those at the bottom rungs of society. I believe the whole country would benefit economically and socially if these were the priorities followed but Enda Kenny’s policies have not been motivated by helping the less well off. Throughout his six years as Taoiseach, he has consistently proven himself to be more a friend to the banker than to the ordinary citizen. That being said, the electorate, unwittingly or not, chose a government who were always going to pursue an economically right-wing course. You can’t blame Kenny too much, as he has basically fulfilled the mandate with which he was elected. By his own parameters and by those who voted for him, Kenny can consider himself to have been a good Taoiseach. I can accept the policies he followed—politics wouldn’t be politics without differing opinions—but by god, the man’s smugness always irked me.
Leaving aside the good and the bad, he’s been one hell of a smugly Taoiseach.
The Zack Attack 