W2E-006 Coalition - Conscience-0.txt
STRIKING BACK AGAINST THE REYNOLDS'FACTOR F.F. in disarray as 'Rainbow' looms.
YOU should never underestimate the ability of politicians to cock things up. Last week, I said that unless something extraordinary happened, we would have a Fianna F&/ail/Labour Party Government, with Mr. Bertie Ahern as Taoiseach.

Well, something extraordinary did happen and we have been living with the consequences since. We learned that the Taoiseach, Mr. Albert Reynolds, and his Fianna F&/ail Ministers were fully aware of the importance of the Duggan case on the Monday before the government fell, and that they kept this information from the D&/ail and from their Labour partners in government.

CONFIRMATION that they knew was forthcoming from the new Attorney-General, Mr. Eoghan Fitzsimons, who confirmed that he had been sent to demand Harry Whelehan's resignation because he had misled the Government.

SINCE then, we have been treated to the unedifying spectacle of Fianna F&/ail Ministers trying to pretend that black is white. And opposition deputies have bayed for blood as they displayed their own incompetence and the inadequacy of D&/ail systems to deal with modern demands.

BUT the most striking development of all was the manner in which the crisis rent the Fianna F&/ail parliamentary party asunder. Mr. Ray Burke, a former Minister for Justice, led the charge. The years on the backbenches have soured him and he was determined to put the boot into Mr. Reynolds, and into the Ministers who had displaced him and Mr. Gerry Collins in Cabinet.

HE came out like a roaring lion. Demanding that the cover-up should end. The people of the country and Fianna F&/ail supporters were fed up with it all, he thundered. He wanted the truth and he wanted it now.

IT was a vintage performance - on a par with Mr. Gerry Collins'plea to Mr. Albert Reynolds in 1991 not to "burst up the party." Mr. Burke was just the first of a line of ten deputies who said much the same thing - without the stridency - on radio, television and in the D&/ail. It was a major strike-back against Albert and his people.

THE truly amusing part of it all didn't happen until the following day on Morning Ireland, when Mr. David Hanley questioned the Minister of State, Mrs. Mary O'Rourke on Mr. Burke's performance. She didn't bat an eyelid. Ray Burke, she intoned, was expressing his anger and dismay over the way in which the opposition parties had made a hames of the D&/ail inquiry into the matter. It was their incompetence that was preventing the truth from coming out, and nothing to do with Ministers or with Mr. Reynolds. It was a gobsmacking performance for its sheer effrontery.

MRS. O'Rourke should really fly under her maiden name colours. For that performance was vintage Lenihan, and one that her brother, Brian, would be unable to better. And, as they say, "it wasn't from the wind she took it."

IT wasn't just that deputies in the party were gouging and kicking one another in the greatest free-for-all that the party has seen in years. Other scores were being settled too. And one of the top targets was Mr. Eoghan Fitzsimons.

PEOPLE at the top weren't going to sit quietly and wait for the new Attorney-General to shaft them by telling all he knew about the cover-up. No. They were going to get their retaliation in first by trying to discredit him and by tarring him with the same black brush that had been used on them. And so, two documents were "leaked" to the Irish Independent.

ONE of them involved a letter with a missing paragraph and the suggestion was that Mr. Fitzsimons had been responsible for the removal of this paragraph before the document was circulated to the D&/ail. But there was no proof of this. It was a case of dirty tricks. And perhaps a warning that if you play with the big boys, you can get badly hurt.

THE whole episode has thoroughly turned the public off politics and politicians. Perhaps the worst aspect of it was that the new Fianna F&/ail Leader, Mr. Bertie Ahern, was either unable or unwilling to do anything about it.

WHEN Ray Burke cut loose at Albert Reynolds and his men, Mr. Ahern issued a statement calling it "unhelpful." What a wishy-washy reponse! It was like calling a tornado a strong wind. And there was no suggestion Mr. Burke would be punished throught the removal of the party whip. That was, one Bertie source said: "at least two or three fences away."

ALBERT was furious. Not just at Mr. Burke, but at the new party leader. And although Bertie subsequently sent out word to his supporters to buttom their lips, the damage had been done; the seeds of internal war has been sown.

EVEN as Mr. Reynolds circulated a document to all Fianna F&/ail deputies on how to explain the cover-up and urging them to condemn the opposition parties for their D&/ail "Star Chamber"," the clock was ticking towards the formation of a rainbow coalition.

AND Mr. John Bruton, the man whose political career was in a shambles a week ago, stands at the altar with Labour and Democratic Left in expectation of becoming the next Taoiseach. It is been a hell of an about-turn in the fortunes of a man who nobody would throw a good word to in recent months. And it doesn't promise an easy beginning for a new government.

THE Fine Gael Leader may be honest and decent. But he is certainly not inspiring And as the country faces into crucial months involving the Northern Ireland peace process, Mr. Bruton's role will be absolutely central. There are signs that he has already begun to modify his views in order to take greater account of nationalist sentiment. And both he and Gerry Adams have spoken of working together. But it will take real talent to bury the suspicions and difficulties of the past, and to encourage the Provisional IRA to maintain its ceasefire.

THERE is no reason why Mr. Bruton should not grow into the job. After all, Liam Cosgrove was not a charismatic figure, but yet he led a solid coalition arrangement.

IN that regard, the negotiations underway between Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left will be critical in under-pinning the stability and cohesion of a future government. A solid, up-front, government programme is the only thing that will hold the parties together for 2.5 years. And it is the economy and Northern Ireland which will provide the highest hurdles for the parties to jump.
