The next few weeks will reveal if there is more to Declan Ganley’s involvement in public life than simply being the figurehead of a single-issue organisation. Little has been heard from Ganley on important public issues beyond the Lisbon treaty. If he wants to develop a political career — and seeking to become a member of the European Parliament indicates that he does — then he needs to speak out and adopt stances on a wider range of subjects. If he succeeds in extending his reach beyond a near-exclusive focus on Europe, then Libertas may well have a significant future in Irish politics.

Ganley’s timing may be good, because a gap has emerged in the market for political ideas in Ireland. The demise of the Progressive Democrats means there is no distinctly pro-enterprise party in Irish politics.

Given Ganley’s background in the world of business, it is a fair assumption that he has strong views on how the state and the private sector should interact. His career has ranged from Russia to the United States and it would be interesting to hear his thoughts on what other countries could teach us about the biggest issue on the national political agenda — public-sector reform.

The contemporary importance of reforming the public sector stands alongside tackling the national finances in the 1980s and creating jobs and reducing income tax in the 1990s. Brian Lenihan, the finance minister, can probably grab a bit more tax in the December budget but not much more, so if he is to meet his targets then reductions in public sending are vital to our economic survival.

There has already been considerable talk from government ministers about reforming the public service. But none of them has yet spelt out exactly what they mean by reform and what they are hoping to achieve. The moves last autumn to merge a handful of agencies, including art galleries in Dublin and Cork, were more cosmetic than real. Those proposals were sponsored by civil servants — the last people who should be advising on such issues given the huge potential for conflicts of interest.

Economist Colm McCarthy and his colleagues on the expenditure review group An Bord Snip Nua will report to government in a couple of months. McCarthy would do well to offer an overarching strategy alongside his proposals for immediate reductions in public expenditure. Slash-and-burn might seem the most obvious response, but a more nuanced approach will yield better long-term results.

Such a strategy would involve a cross-departmental review of every functional area, with a close examination of the multitude of agencies which operate under each minister. Even the justification for maintaining the current 15 departments should be examined. Do we really need a minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs at the cabinet table? Is there enough work to justify a separate Department of Agriculture or would a merger with Eamon O Cuiv’s department make sense? Brian Cowen has already decided to cull the number of junior ministers. But the taoiseach has been in office long enough — and in charge of enough departments — to have recognised other areas in the public service where real savings can be made.

Beyond the cabinet table, Cowen must also have a fair idea of the state agencies which could either be abolished or subsumed back into parent departments. He must also know that public-service reform has to be accompanied by a redundancy programme — there is no point abolishing divisions in government departments or shutting down state agencies only to be left with staff with no work to do. The lessons from the costly administrative mess that is the HSE must be learnt.

I have no doubt that Cowen knows all this — but has he the bottle to take on the huge task? Fianna Fail’s biggest problem is that after 13 consecutive years in office it seems to have been captured by the system. Cowen and his colleagues are just too close to the officials in the departments and agencies which have to suffer in any serious shake-up of the public service.

Unfortunately the opposition in Leinster House is hardly brimming with alternative ideas. Fine Gael has yet to offer a coherent view on what steps it would take with the public sector. The Labour party is still too closely aligned with the trade union movement to champion public-sector reform. As this issue comes to dominate public debate, Eamon Gilmore may rue the day that he backed off ending his party’s formal links with the unions.

It is in this policy space that there may well be scope for a new political formation to emerge. Smaller parties tend to become identified with a single issue. Clann na Poblachta burst onto the political scene in the mid-1940s and was associated with ending Eamon de Valera’s long tenure in government. Forty years later it was the turn of the Progressive Democrats and their tax-cutting agenda, and Democratic Left and its social-inclusion policies.

Today the Greens represent environmental causes while Sinn Fein is tied to the idea of a united Ireland. But where is the champion of getting value for public money, for rooting out 20th century work practices and treating trade unions as lobby groups acting not in the public interest but in the interests of their members?

We live in extraordinary economic times. The financial upheavals of the last 12 months are likely to change the established political order. Fianna Fail is set for a thumping in the European and local elections in June. That may well mark the start of a period of decline for Ireland’s most dominant political force.

Enda Kenny has done a superb job in dragging Fine Gael out of its 2002 electoral abyss but the party has flatlined at around 30% in the opinion polls and this is hardly an achievement given Fianna Fail’s weakness. The Labour party has had some excellent poll results, but there is no certainty those figures will be sustained if an ability to tackle the public service dominates the minds of voters.

Libertas could prosper in this space. The disbandment of the Progressive Democrats means there is room for a niche party promoting value for public money and acting as an advocate for private enterprise. But if Ganley remains straitjacketed in European affairs then it may be that a new political formation will emerge.

Some who currently offer advice on the sidelines might well consider the opportunity for a value-for-money platform which could win five or six Dail seats. A single-issue party dominated by the likes of Shane Ross, Eamon Dunphy or David McWilliams might seem farfetched, but their collective ambition could easily fuel such a project.

The prospects for smaller parties should be bright at the next general election. Coalition governments have been the outcome of every general election since 1989, and Fine Gael and Labour will most likely need the involvement of another party to form an anti-Fianna Fail coalition. High-profile single-issue candidates who can tap into the electorate’s concerns about runaway public spending could prove influential in 2012 — or sooner.

Matt Cooper is away

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