Local election wipeout facing Fianna Fail

'The most national local election ever" was how one brave Fianna Fail candidate going door-to-door on a canvass recently characterised his experience in Dublin. It"s not hard to understand why because there is real anger out there at the Government, and local election candidates are finding themselves first in the firing line. Typically, county council and town council elections every five years tend to be dominated by, and fought much of the time on, local issues, the things that affect people in their day-to-day lives, such as the state of local roads, difficulties in obtaining planning permission, local services and such like. This year, with the country in a state of economic crisis, soaring unemployment and heavy tax rises about to hit, the national agenda will dictate the outcome of the 5th June elections more than ever on this occasion. Fianna Fail candidates, in particular, are bearing the brunt of the backlash against a Government perceived as having squandered the boom years, made a complete mess of the economy by permitting unregulated and lunatic bank lending to developers and speculators and which is now bereft of ideas and trying to tread water as a fiscal and economic tsunami, the likes of which has not been seen in 80 years, threatens to overwhelm the country. Six weeks out from the local elections, it is already beginning to look like a bloodbath. Now, facing into what promises to be a gruelling six-week campaign, a number of backbench TDs have reportedly been growing restive with Mr Cowen"s leadership of the party and, in particular, with Tanaiste Mary Coughlan, who was strongly criticised at the weekend by sacked junior minister John McGuinness. The outspoken former junior minister said Ms Coughlan, as Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment - a key ministry at a time of such unprecedented crisis - was not up to the job. What Mr McGuinness has helped to do is encourage a debate on the various skillsets of ministers who may be ill-equipped because of their previous professional experience for the ministries which they now control. The Cabinet is largely made up of those who previously trained as lawyers or teachers but there are precious few businesspeople or economists with real experience of life outside politics. It has taken John McGuinness, himself a businessman, to lift the lid just a peep on the inner workings of a government in crisis. At a time when fearful people are looking for decisive leadership and a clear roadmap (if such a thing exists) out of the carnage of the past 18 months, all we have had is paralysis and now internal strife. Mr Cowen certainly did not enhance his credibility much by his weekend comments that Ireland was among the first countries to recognise the scale of the global financial crisis and put in place a comprehensive framework for recovery. That"s certainly not how anyone else remembers it. The public and media had been clamouring for action for much of the second half of last year but the Government"s collective head remained firmly rooted in the sand as the banking and financial crisis unfolded all around us. With a weekend opinion poll showing further losses for Fianna Fail and a 10 point lead for Fine Gael, the omens are not good for the senior Government party for June. With a probable wipeout on the cards for the party in the council and European Parliament elections, dissension and discord beginning to appear in the ranks and the clumsy handling of the most serious economic crisis to face the State since its foundation, how long can Mr Cowen survive? Much will depend on the scale of the losses on 5th June.