Twenty-First Century Populism: The Spectre of Western European ...

208 Twenty-First Century Populism
might find itself mining a rich and growing seam. Indeed, in the future,
rather than Irish neutrality being compromised, it is likely only to be when
membership of the EU can be convincingly portrayed as compromising the
Irish economy that the Eurosceptic genie will really emerge from the bottle
in Ireland. Thus, as the country becomes a net contributor and the EU eventually
tackles the very generous tax system for companies in Ireland, Europe
may well become a central and contentious issue in Irish politics, with
obvious opportunities for a populist party.
Corruption
A major element in Irish political life over the last fifteen years has been the
uncovering of widespread political corruption through a series of Tribunals
of Inquiry. However, while in countries such as France and Italy, corruption
scandals have provided extremely fertile terrain for populists seeking to
portray the professional political class as beholden to vested interests, in
Ireland their exposure seems to have had little effect so far on the newlyprosperous
electorate. Despite the fact that many of the scandals involving
high-ranking FF members (including the party’s former leader, Charles
Haughey) broke during the late 1990s, the incumbent FF/PD government
was returned with an increased majority in 2002. Put simply, the ‘feel-good’
factors of, first and foremost, the booming economy and, secondly, the
Northern Ireland peace process, were far more important. Indeed, according
to Stephen Collins, although the FG leadership contemplated making corruption
a higher-profile issue in its 2002 campaign, they decided that ‘the
voters were just not interested and that raising the issue could be counterproductive’.
This was probably a wise decision as ‘Fianna Fáil focus group
research had independently come to the same conclusion’ (Collins, 2003:
29). Of course, FG’s decision may well have been partly based on the consideration
that a number of its own members (most notably, the former
Minister, Michael Lowry) have also been named as recipients of cash from
businessmen and property developers. Indeed, corruption is a tricky issue to
deal with even for the ‘new opposition’ of the Greens and SF since, although
putting themselves forward as cleaner and more ethical alternatives to FF,
they currently (beginning of 2007) refuse to exclude the possibility of coalition
with them. In that sense, a populist party, ruling out any collaboration
with either FF or FG, might find an anti-corruption stance more profitable.
Nonetheless, the perception that the Irish public is ambivalent about corruption
would appear confirmed by the fact that in the weeks following the
revelation that the FF Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern had received
cash gifts from business friends in the 1990s while he was Minister for
Finance, FF’s share in an October 2006 opinion poll actually rose by 8 points
to 39 per cent – its highest level since the 2002 general election (The Irish
Times/TNS mrbi poll).