Sometimes you just want to grab politicians and shake them until they stop blabbering and start showing some skill.
Fine Gael TD Leo Varadkar did himself no favours this morning on RTE One’s Morning Ireland, where Cathal MacCoille rightly eviscerated Varadkar over his call for Mary Harney’s resignation over a hairdo as part of the wider Fásgate scandal. The scandal has already seen Rody Molloy resign, and rightly so. Harney, then acting as minister for trade, enterprise and employment, confessed that she may have accounted for part of a bill at a beauty salon, when she got a cut & blow dry before appearing on behalf of the state in 2004.
MacCoille tried valiantly to point out to Varadkar that in the greater scheme of things, her part in a €400 bill for a haircut was perhaps not the big issue in this, and that it was, in fact, trivial in the extreme, making his call for her resignation seem, well, rather silly. Like a dog with a bone, Varadkar refused to back down, and MacCoille’s tone became more and more mocking.
After some analysis, the Fine Gael TD’s comments, and the fact that no-one in their PR machine reined him in before he could expand on them on national radio, could be used to show they lack an appreciation of what is important in business, and the importance of timing in communications. The message that comes across is that Fine Gael do not understand that impressions are important, that the perception of professionalism and the presentation that goes with that is not really important. Although I didn’t vote for her or her cabinet colleagues, I would prefer that Mary Harney went into meetings with potential investors in Ireland Inc looking smart and professional. Were I doing her accounts, I would sign off on that receipt as a legitimate expense given her reason for travelling.
But rather than retraining their gaze on the more pertinent issues, i.e., the other €642,600 on the bill (or the remaining 99.94% of it), Fine Gael have tried to squeeze some tenuous political capital out of a fine print issue, a childish exercise in grasping straws. Kenny’s call yesterday, that Molloy’s entitlement to any severance pay or final payment should be withheld until investigations are complete, was a rare moment of clarity from the Fine Gael leader. But Varadkar balanced things back out this morning with his petulant squabbling. It’s pretty obvious he’s keen to promote himself and his image with this matter – his profile page has already been updated to include mention of his key role in Fásgate. No time lost there.
Damien reckons that Fine Gael should be milking this for all it’s worth. Perhaps, but should they not be doing it more 
sensibly? Asking for Ms Harney to turn in her piece and badge over this so early, and indeed, asking for her head over every infraction, no matter how tiny*, reduces politics to a game of Mallett’s Mallet, where you mustn’t pause, mustn’t hesitate, or you get a bash on the head like this. Fine Gael, for their part, are Timmy.
Premature, self-serving bickering over the minutiae means time lost that could be best used trying to take care of the big picture and probe deeper. Ms Harney’s share of a €400 bill for haircare is a relative trifle.
More investigation of the bill might shed further light on the expenses, and then allow the opposition to use even greater leverage on the government in this regard, but firing off half-baked missives ranting about 0.04% of a total bill, and calling for the head of a senior minister based on those premature assertions, makes Fine Gael look like a transition year project in politics. In poker terms, it’s going all in on just two cards. In filmic terms, it’s akin to William Wallace exposing his spears too early. The advice I’d give to Fine Gael: HOOOOOLD.
It’s another case of the opposition rashly playing the man instead of the ball. They have had innumerable opportunities to pull the rug out from under the current government, and have squandered every one of them by going off on tangents like this. If they get in, I’d seriously consider leaving the country. I’d rather have Louis Walsh preside over selection of the next Taoiseach via a public phone-in than have Enda Kenny warm the chair at the cabinet table.
*Harney has, let’s be clear, been responsible for some WHOPPERS, but this isn’t one of them.
