Penrose's resignation is regrettable
Not long after voters on Athlone's westside found out that one of their TDs, Denis Naughten, was now an independent, voters on the east of the town are now also represented by a non-party deputy after the resignation from the Labour Party of Willie Penrose.
Penrose had been sitting at the Cabinet table as a 'super junior' minister but resigned his post and his party whip yesterday (Tuesday) in protest at a Government decision to close Columb Barracks in Mullingar.
And whilst the decision is noble and principled, and to be regretted, one wonders whether it was necessary for the Labour minister to stand down.
Penrose had vowed to fight to protect Columb Barracks in Mullingar. And he argued that it made little economic sense to close the facility, making the point that it may actually cost the State money to relocate the existing personnel and maintain and secure the empty barracks.
He had fought a strong fight - but in a Goverment dominated by Fine Gael, he was unable to hold sway.
In Roscommon, Denis Naughten had campaigned on the basis of a party pledge to retain services at Roscommon hospital and so felt he had little option but to resign when it transpired that pledge was not worth the paper it was written on.
However, whilst Labour had also promised to support Columb Barracks, there was no written pledge and Penrose was not elected on the back of any formal party promise.
Naughten too was not a Government minister, but a backbencher. Penrose when he joined the Cabinet must have known that tough decisions would be on the agenda in the worst economic crisis in the history of the State - and that somewhere along the line decisions not supported by Labour and which would hit his Longford/Westmeath electorate would be taken.
For that reason, there is a strong argument to be made for Penrose to do what he was elected to do - to help bring this country out of the mire in which it was left by the last administration.
If Government Ministers are going to jump ship every time cutbacks relevant to their area are implemented, this Government won't last long.
The reality is that there will always be victims in every cutback. Cuts to social welfare or pensions may hit larger groups of people on a national scale, compared to specific local cutbacks such as the downgrading of a hospital or closure of a barracks.
And the pressure groups may not be so local and personal as in this case, but that does not mean those cutbacks are less painful or hard-hitting.
The suggestion that most, if not all, of the Labour councillors on Westmeath County Council will also quit the party is equally regrettable.
We are not suggesting that the decision to close Columb Barracks was necessarily correct - not enough information is to hand as to whether there is a reasoned argument for such a move.
And it will have an obvious negative impact on Mullingar.
But it is clear that it will require politicians, across the State, to make cutbacks - and not just in areas which affect the vulnerable, but in tackling privilege, taking on vested interests and protected sectors of society and so on.
Labour promised, if in Government, it would ensure that the cutbacks were targetted fairly across society - now Penrose will be unable to influence that.
