I am in politics to get things done and I joined Fianna Fáil as it was always the party that got things done. That spirit shaped the vision of those women and men who gathered to establish the party in May 1926.
It drove the mass slum clearance and home building drive of the 1930s. It fostered the investment in free second level education in the 1960s and the expansion of further and higher education from that decade on that underpins our economic success today.
It made us determined to join and influence the development of what is now the European Union and our commitment to Ireland playing an active part in a rules based global order in pursuit of peace, co-operation and free and fair trade. It made the party determined to secure a peace process for this island and to build reconciliation through co-operation of our people.
But our centenary next year cannot be just about marching in graveyards and recalling past achievements.
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Leadership is about more than management. It is about identifying a goal, bringing the public with you and delivering on it. Micheál Martin famously did it with the smoking ban and during the last government, steering the country through Covid. The latter was treated as an emergency and all hands were on deck to tackle the crisis.
We have an amazing country with incredibly talented people. We have a strong economy that should not be taken for granted. But, as a State, we are not being ambitious enough to achieve the transformations necessary for our citizens and our communities. As the largest political party and being in Government, we have to take responsibility for that.
I am a believer in the State taking action to make a difference and that it can and does
The anger at the slow pace of delivery are leading voters to the easy slogans of the hard left or the far right or to giving up on the “system”. Fianna Fáil needs to show once again that as the party of the political centre, we can be radical and we can get things done.
This is about much more than one individual but the Taoiseach needs to be front and centre in addressing this challenge. The presidential election debacle will soon fade into a historical footnote, but not delivering urgently on matters that really impact on people’s lives will not.
The Irish political system is designed so that elected representatives are in constant contact with our communities.
I know and care about the people who have worked hard, gone to college or got an apprenticeship, saved and made sacrifices, and yet cannot find somewhere affordable to rent or buy; those with a disability or health issue and their families who, at times, have to fight to even get heard, let alone access services; the worker facing the long commute or rising early on the farm who is struggling to balance all their responsibilities.
These are my friends, family, and people that I love and respect. They are also the “ordinary decent people”, who for generations have been the backbone of Fianna Fáil, working to make lives better for themselves, their families and their communities.
Yet right now, it is almost as if the State is determined to frustrate their aspirations. As their representative, I have to call that out. And if Fianna Fáil is to continue to deserve their support and that of the centre ground, we need to stop accepting excuses from those standing in the way.
If the first question in the mind of every relevant government minister, departmental secretary general or State agency chief executive every morning is not “How am I helping to provide more homes today?” then they are not focused on our country’s most critical policy objective.
The size of the State has boomed in the last decade. I agreed with much of John Collison’s argument in The Irish Times about the growth in the number of agencies and bureaucracy.
I have submitted parliamentary questions over the last few months that revealed that the number of civil servants has grown by 50 per cent over the past decade, the number of staff in the HSE is up by 38 per cent in the same period, the number of national strategies and plans in operation across all Government departments now numbers in excess of 1,500.
I am a believer in the State taking action to make a difference and that it can and does. If we need additional resources or personnel in an area where we can improve outcomes then we should invest. But as politicians, we have simply allowed the State to grow (and public expenditure to increase by 90 per cent since 2015) and things are not getting done.
For many of us in the centre ground of Fianna Fáil, we worry that there is not a necessary sense of urgency on housing, infrastructure, disability services and so on. We fear that there has been capture by State agencies and others who lack ambition and are not focused on what they can do to reach national goals.
When the secretary general of a government department states that we may need to choose between digital infrastructure and housing when it comes to our energy resources, I wonder why they haven’t been planning to ensure that we have enough energy and the infrastructure to do both – which we need to do – rather than to resign the country to underachievement.
There are huge challenges and opportunities that we are also now facing: geopolitical uncertainty and war (unlike every other parliament in Europe, ours has not debated Russia’s growing aggression and the threats to our democracies since the Summer recess); the climate and biodiversity crises; the unprecedented disruption of artificial intelligence and other technologies; our ageing demographics. We need a government and State that is ambitious.
I am not part of any gang seeking to start a heave. Indeed, a remark was attributed in this paper to a Minister last week describing me as a “loose horse”.
But I am reflecting a wider discussion in our party about our desire to be more ambitious for our people – and we were always the party who represented the ones who get up early in the morning (as well as go to bed late at night) – and a longing to be back as the party that gets things done.
Malcolm Byrne is a Fianna Fáil TD for Wicklow-Wexford
