Abusing power to keep power

"Not an abuse of anything", "he does not feel that this is a resigning matter", "nothing unusual about the provision of additional funding". These are three statements concerning the actions of the coalition government over the last month.

Bertie Ahern does not feel that using Foreign Affairs diplomatic bags to distribute Fianna Fáil election literature is an abuse of power, even though Brian Cowen, Foreign Affairs Minister, has now initiated a review of the practice. No other political parties were invited to use the service for distributing their election literature.

Tom Parlon, Progressive Democrats Minister at the Office of Public Works, declared in early May that he shouldn't have to resign, even though a Price Waterhouse Coopers report showed that EU and government procurement guidelines were broken in contracts for special services needed for official events linked to Ireland's presidency of the EU. Ironically, one of the breaches involved the hiring of a marquee for an event hosted in Punchestown by Charlie McCreevy.

Apart from the controversy over how government funding was provided for the Punchestown centre in the first place, there is now the added issue of €1.5 million provided by the Minister for St Patrick's College Maynooth, which, like the Punchestown centre, is also in his Leinster House constituency.

No records were kept of the meeting or the application for funds. No civil servants were present and the OPW does not even know the date of the meeting when an "oral representation" was made for the money.

A spokesperson for McCreevy said there was no departure from procedures and that there was "nothing unusual" about the provision of additional funding.

It seems that, despite all the corruption uncovered in recent years, the ongoing tribunals, voter apathy and disillusionment with establishment politics, nothing has changed in how mainstream politics happens in Ireland today.

In the past weeks of electioneering, voters have listened to the heightening hysteria of Michael McDowell, who has been as silent on the issues discussed here as he was about the preparation of election material in the Department of Education for Fianna Fáil local election candidates.

Throughout the government, the months running up to the election have seen one sleight of hand after another, the latest of which is delaying the Aer Rianta debate until after the election.

Then there was the new planning bill to push aside the issue of one-off housing and the selective shelving of the Hanly report to kick hospital issues into touch until after the polls close.

All of these things could be, to quote Bertie Ahern, "not an abuse of anything", but the point that he and his cabinet are missing is that this is not good government; it is not efficient or just.

What it is and what was shown once again this week is the exercise of power to keep power, nothing more nothing less.