COMMENT: Politics dragged back into the gutter

IT WAS hard to know how to feel while watching RTÉ’s excellent ‘Prime Time Investigates’ programme last week.

At times it veered dangerously close to a hybrid of ‘Fr Ted’ and ‘Killinaskully’, featuring grotesque caricatures of politicians who might be inclined to use such lines as: “That money was just resting in my account.”

Of course, the sleeveenism exposed did a disservice to the majority of decent, law-abiding elected representatives in this country. But given the public interest at stake, RTÉ was fully justified in taking such a covert approach. 

Ultimately, it dragged us back, kicking and screaming, to the bad old days of planning corruption that sullied public life in the 1980s and ‘90s. This was ‘nod, nod, wink, wink’ politics of the worst kind; laid bare by some slick investigative journalism that represented public service broadcasting at its best.

It wasn’t even a case of hands fumbling in the greasy till – it was the sense of power that some of these councillors felt they had to influence others. Where did they get such inflated egos and sense of entitlement?

The failure of other public representatives to disclose all their interests was equally worrying, highlighting a systemic failure to drag politics out of the mire, despite years of tribunals and promises of reform. It’s been three years since the publication of the Mahon Tribunal Report, which examined certain allegations of planning corruption. Yet here we were again, a handful of councillors bringing local government into disrepute and tainting the good reputations of others in the process.

So where do we go from here? Is there a case for completely removing councillors from any involvement in the planning process, rezoning decisions or the drafting of development plans? Should every planning application go straight to a beefed-up, better resourced An Bord Pleanála and by-pass councils entirely? Moreover, is there a need at all for elected members on our local authorities?

Such knee-jerk reactions are to be expected in the immediate aftermath of a scandal and more measured heads than mine are needed to come up with a permanent solution.

But in the run up to next year’s general election, the RTÉ programme serves as a timely reminder that we get the public representatives we deserve. Cute hoorism is still alive and well – be very careful with your vote.