In May 2019, Paschal Donohoe launched the Balance for Better Business initiative reviewing gender balance on corporate boards. In his speech, he said, “business is a meritocracy built on people having the right character, skills and behaviours rather than being based on gender, ethnicity or the school they attended.”
Earlier that month, Donohoe gave a speech at the Irish Times Business Awards, saying, “Tonight is not about recognising dynasties or lauding inherited titles. Everyone here tonight has earned their stripes… At its best, business is a meritocracy.”
In 2010, Fine Gael’s Alan Farrell, now a TD, made a speech at a Fine Gael convention in Swords, Co Dublin, stating, “We must now change our society from one where cronyism and who you know count, to a meritocracy where honesty, integrity and hard work mean something.”
Despite electoral politics in Ireland being dogged by dynastic, pre-sold franchise politicians, nepotism, classism, and unqualified people ascending to power, if there’s one through-line that characterises the public face of Fine Gael’s neoliberal ideology, it’s a stated belief in meritocracy.
Fine Gaelers get very annoyed when you point out the reality of the space they occupy in Irish society, which is about consolidating existing privilege
When Leo Varadkar launched his leadership campaign in 2017, he said he wanted to lead a party for “people who get up early in the morning,” an infamous dog-whistle to those who view the spoils of success solely as the outcome of hard work, talent and a functioning alarm clock. This worldview speaks to those who firmly believe that the rewards one reaps in life are simply the results of personal achievement.
Of course, this is a ridiculous, blinkered worldview. Not everyone has the same start in life, and rewards are harder to reap when there are additional obstacles in one’s way. Fine Gaelers get very annoyed when you point out the reality of the space they occupy in Irish society, which is about consolidating existing privilege, and serving those who already have it.
To counter this, some Fine Gael politicians sometimes outline their humble beginnings, but of course the exceptions always prove the rule. Their how-very-dare-you reaction when how they’re seen is detailed, calls to mind a quote from the French philosopher, Guy Debord: “The more powerful the class, the more it claims not to exist.”
When Fine Gael selected James Geoghegan, an inexperienced candidate who has made no impact on public life, in the Dublin Bay South byelection, his elevation to Dáil contender was greeted by those who don't drink the Fine Gael KoolAid with: "you couldn't make him up". Geoghegan is in many ways a Fine Gael trope.
He comes from an intensely privileged background, with two Supreme Court judges as parents, and two more as grandparents. He looks the part, he’s got the clichéd south Dublin accent (something I sympathise with, having one myself), and he has run a superficial campaign based on the brand of bland nothingness his constituency predecessor, Eoghan Murphy, espoused to cruise into a housing ministry, and we all know how that went.
Geoghegan drifted from Fine Gael and backed Renua, a right-wing, anti-abortion entity that looked for a millisecond as though it might make an impact
But condemning Geoghegan based on his beginnings is unfair. It’s not his fault that he had a remarkable head-start in life. Privilege isn’t some kind of original sin. But what is relevant is how you use that privilege. Geoghegan worked for Fine Gael’s John Bruton in Washington DC, and then got a job with a lobbying firm run by another John Bruton adviser, Kevin Gilna. It’s a small world . Now I’m not saying working for a lobbying firm that represents for Big Tobacco is amongst one of the worst things one can do with one’s privilege, but it is up there.
Back in Ireland, Geoghegan drifted from Fine Gael and backed Renua, a right-wing, anti-abortion entity that looked for a millisecond as though it might make an impact, given how disproportionate its founder Lucinda Creighton’s profile in the political media was. Renua flopped, closing off that career path.
Fine Gael is asking people to vote for Geoghegan because he is in Fine Gael. But if we extrapolate “merit” from meritocracy, and compare Geoghegan’s record to those he’s leading in the polls – Ivana Bacik, Lynn Boylan, Claire Byrne, and Sarah Durcan – he’s simply not at the races. There is no comparison. Political affiliations, ideologies, and feelings aside, let’s focus on facts.
You cannot compare his work on the council with regards to making Dublin more “liveable”, to Byrne’s record. You cannot compare his political experience to that of Boylan, a former MEP and current senator.
You cannot compare his contribution to modern Irish society to that of Sarah Durcan, one of the driving forces behind the Waking the Feminists movement. And you certainly cannot compare his legal, academic, political or activist legacy to that of Ivana Bacik. On “merit”, Geoghegan trails far, far behind all of these women. That should matter. But will it?
What Geoghegan has going for him, is what those who are anointed, rather than those who graft, always have; resources, access to power, networks, and in this case, the heft of a party machine with Cabinet ministers traipsing around Ranelagh for him.
For Fine Gael in this election, it’s not actually about meritocracy, it’s about mirrortocracy, the system where those most “like” those in power are hired, not the best person for the job. What the voters of Dublin Bay South must decide, is which ethos – merit, or mirror – is best and fairest, not just for their constituency, but for our national parliament.