BEING in Government is never easy. Even at the best of times you find yourself as the natural enemy and target of so many groups and individuals. However, there are some things that will only compound the situation and there are some that can make your life a little easier.

The Fine Gael/Labour coalition government still enjoy strong enough popularity, but they need to realise that it can be a fickle thing. In the first few months of this government, before the summer break, a number of Fine Gael Ministers went on solo runs. This led to Enda Kenny playing the role of sweeper and clearing up the confusion, soothing over any early tensions with Labour. This can be expected but it was an early warning that a certain amount of control needed to be exerted. A government is bigger than any one minister, their proposals or their ego. Each and every minister must know where the buck stops.

The run up to the recent referendum campaigns was equally disjointed. It would appear that rather than using the summer break to get their troops in order the government instead used it as a holiday. Certainly Gay Mitchell disappeared for most of the summer and his presidential campaign was evidence of that. At the outset the government was always disorganised, we were told there would be two referendums on the same day as the presidency but it took quite some time before the got around to telling everybody what the second referendum would even be on.

The defeat of the referendum on Oireachtas Committee investigations is a shot across the bow of the government. Now, of course they are not going to admit that. It is their job to keep confidence up. But one important tool in government is the ability to dismiss the seriousness of a situation while privately taking all of its implications on board. Towards the end of their reign Fianna Fail had lost the capacity to do this. They believed their own hype and excuses. Fine Gael and Labour need to avoid making the same mistake so early. The referendum was poorly judged, without any doubt it was hoped that it would not be seen as a serious issue and that with government popularity quite high the people would trust them on it. Therefore the less explanation of a complex issue the better.

What they did not appreciate was that the electorate were not necessarily afraid of our current crop of politicians abusing the new laws, but they were very aware that the change could in fact spell trouble in the future. What did not help was Minister Shatter’s arrogant dismissal of the opinion of the former Attorneys General. He made no effort to tackle their arguments. In fact, quite shockingly he stated that some of them might have something to fear from investigations. For anyone watching this was the stuff of nightmares. The Minister was actually using these powerful investigative committees as a threat to silence dissenting voices before the proposal had even been voted on. This is an error that Enda Kenny needs to take on board very seriously. He must now set an example, and while we may never hear it said in public, behind closed doors a stern yellow card needs to be issued.

Minister Brendan Howlin then followed up the referendum defeat with a criticism of the referendum commission. He later had to apologise for this. However it was evidence that the government was not prepared for the defeat, they had no agreed line and simply trotted out the first thing that entered their minds. It is a lesson that there must always be a plan B. Prepare for all eventualities.

The referendum will no doubt be considered and put to the people again at a later stage after some changes are made. However, the government now know that they cannot take referendum victories for granted; in fact winning them can be a very difficult task. For a government that has been promising us referendums left, right and centre this may not be a good omen. It is not a crippling blow it is a mere scratch in the face of much bigger decisions yet to be taken. The key thing is for Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore to sit their respective Ministers down, tell them the honeymoon is over and errors like this cannot be allowed to continue. There must be more discussion before replies are given and more responsibility taken for the reputation of the government as a whole. We can expect them to dismiss the problem in public, but the real test will be for their leaders to ensure that they do not really believe these excuses and blame everyone else. Any warning from the electorate is ignored at your peril, if they don’t believe that then they should talk to their predecessors.

JOHNNY FALLON is a political consultant