Harris targets ‘Mystic Micheál’ over FF leader’s ‘juvenile’ jibe

SIMON Harris yesterday labelled the leader of Fiana Fáil ‘Mystic Micheál’ in response to claims that he and Eoghan Murphy are desperate for an election – because they are not up to their jobs.

The Fianna Fáil leader yesterday accused ministers of being ‘juvenile’ and said: ‘The word is Simon Harris wants to get out of Health and Eoghan Murphy wants to get out of Housing, because they are not making any progress there.’

The spat comes amid tension between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael over the slow progress of their talks on renewing the Confidence and Supply Agreement.

Mr Martin referred to commentary made at the Fine Gael ard fheis over the weekend, including from senior ministers, that the party is election-ready.

He told RTÉ’s Seán O’Rourke: ‘The only people who have introduced an aura of instability about the Government is the Taoiseach and his ministers. And it’s quite juvenile what was going on at the weekend.’

However, Minister Harris labelled the Fianna Fáil leader ‘Mystic Micheál’, and said his own comments have ‘been absolutely consistent and absolutely in line with that of every other member of the Government, which is that we need obviously a certainty in relation to the continuance of Confidence and Supply’.

Leo Varadkar added that Mr Martin still hadn’t agreed on a plan to avoid an election until 2020, and added: ‘We still don’t yet know whether Fianna Fáil and Micheál Martin are up for that, so rather than reading the minds of Minister Murphy and Minister Harris, perhaps he might share with us his own mind and his own thoughts on this.’

Meanwhile, the Taoiseach yesterday said he would not rule out any further tax cuts-in addition to the €3billion package he outlined at the weekendshould his party hold on to power.

However, Mr Martin said the tax proposals were an ‘election promise that is outside of any context’.