Published: Saturday, 24th May, 2008 12:00am

New Cabinet faces testing times

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With the celebrations in both Government Buildings and Offaly last week, you`d be forgiven for thinking that politics in Ireland has, for the last two years, been consumed by “Bertiegate” and other such trifles.

Whatever one`s feelings are about Bertie Ahern, many strident Fianna Fáilers will now feel that the hangover has been cured, and that all talk of dodgy deals, mystery bank lodgments and planning tribunals will be a thing of the past.

But if the new Fianna Fáil (and lest we forget, the Greens) government régime hoped for a post-Bertie honeymoon, it looks like they`re not going to get it, and already the knives are out for the chief players of the fledgling Cowen era.

Let`s face it, times are not as rich as they used to be, so it`s time to think of both the national and local interest. How does Cowen and his new Cabinet measure up?

Firstly, from a local point of view, the appointment of a Midlands Taoiseach will be interpreted as fantastic news for the Midlands Gateway triumvirate of Mullingar, Tullamore and Athlone.

Whether it will be good for the gateway in the long term remains to be seen, but it`s worth holding fire on the Taoiseach - who spent his first day in office at an investment conference - to see what jobs he can create in his region of birth.

The second key appointment affecting locals is a change of leadership at the Department of Agriculture. Last week, the Westmeath Examiner ran a story about the local IFA`s appeal for support to Westmeath County Council, as EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson appears poised to sign away Irish agriculture at the behest of the World Trade Organisation.

As agriculture plays a far more prominent role than industry in terms of sustenance, it will be interesting to see how the new Minister, Brendan Smith, deals with the bureaucratic heavyweights of the EU Commission and the WTO.

His task is not to massage the egos of these unelected careerists, but to protect the future of farmers in Westmeath, Ireland and indeed the rest of Europe. Again, this remains to be seen.

So, on a local level, Westmeath and the Midlands as a whole have a strong hand to play in what has been described as a rural revolution in a Cabinet once dominated by a liberal, jet-setting urban clique.

Commentator and economist David McWilliams recently remarked that he hoped the Cowen era would flesh out its rural roots, eliminating from its ranks the “ice bar aficionados” who rose to prominence during the reign of Charles Haughey and Bertie Ahern.

Such a proposition would involve a root and branch reform of Fianna Fáil, which for many people has in recent years become synonymous with big business and the high-flyers of the property industry.

If the current Taoiseach is the one to steer the country through what everyone now agrees is an intensifying downturn in the economy, then he will have to take his party, as far as possible, back to its core values. The days of the high-rollers are very much a thing of the past.

Quoting Seán Lemass at his recent homecoming do in Clara, Brian Cowen called for “an upsurge in patriotism” and “idealism”, setting forth his plan to turn “consumers” into “citizens”, while attempting to recreate the innocent, festive atmosphere of old Ireland.

It`s a remarkable vision, and a huge commitment in a world which frequently views human beings as economic units, rather than living, breathing individuals.

But it`s also a contradictory statement, as the Taoiseach stubbornly set out his stall on the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, saying that the country would be “destroyed” if it did not fall in line with Brussels.

In this respect, Mr. Cowen needs to truly divorce himself from the Ahern era, and really deliver on his promise by supporting a Europe of the nations - one of citizens and cultures - or the United States of Europe as envisioned by the Lisbon Treaty, one of consumers, markets and the death of national boundaries.

On Tuesday of this week, the Irish Independent reported that the Taoiseach wa

s about to swing the axe on any opponents to the Treaty within his party. In the Irish Daily Mail, on the same day, it was claimed that Mr. Cowen said he had never read the document.

So if the head of Government has not read the treaty, why is he telling the country that there are no problems with it? Why the doom-laden talk over non-ratification, when there were no consequences for the French and the Dutch, who rejected what is practically the same document?

If heightened patriotism and social justice are what this new look Cabinet has in mind, then it will need to review some of these fixations.