‘Pressure’ for Paschal as FG dips in the polls
Mutterings of unease in party but confidence vote from Tánaiste
PASCHAL Donohoe is under ‘rising pressure’ in Fine Gael as the party frets over its latest slump in the opinion polls.
The Public Expenditure Minister needs to bring the two-week controversy over his election expenditure in 2016 and 2020 to a close.
However, the embattled minister received a guarded vote of confidence from Tánaiste Micheál Martin, who told RTÉ yesterday that he had spoken to Mr Donohoe and was ‘satisfied’ with his explanation of the issue over election expenses.
The poll published yesterday shows Fine Gael has dipped below the critical 20% mark.
But Fianna Fáil leader Mr Martin said yesterday: ‘Of course I have confidence in him.’
Mr Martin said he did not want to pre-empt what Mr Donohoe might say in the Dáil tomorrow but expects a ‘comprehensive account’. Ultimately though, he noted the Standards in Public Office commission (Sipo) would be the final arbiter.
Mr Martin also insisted the controversy had not been a distraction and said the Government remained ‘focused on the big issues of the day.’
Earlier on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics programme, Government Chief Whip Hildegarde Naughton insisted that Mr Donohoe has been transparent about his election expenses.
But Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore said Mr Donohoe had not been transparent to date because he had failed to answer questions in the Dáil last week.
Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy said this is a controversy about the value of a donation which ‘objective observers’ believe is greater than the publicly stated figures.
Fine Gael, however, has launched a ferocious counter-offensive against Sinn Féin, with rising ministerial star Peter Burke warning: ‘We will be digging out all of Sinn Féin’s Sipo skeletons.’
Mr Burke said: ‘Sinn Féin don’t just have double standards: they have multiple double standards.’
Fine Gael veteran Michael Ring hit out at what he described as ‘a deliberate attempt to discredit an honest and hard-working Minister, who has made mistakes’.
Commenting on Sinn Féin’s own Sipo difficulties Mr Ring added: ‘People will ask if the surface has only been scratched on an undisclosed £6,000 sterling invoice. What else lurks beneath?’
However, a slump in Fine Gael support to 19% in the latest Sunday Times poll, taken as the controversy became public, has also generated unease internally within Fine Gael.
One senior party figure warned: ‘A 4% drop in support is not exactly the honeymoon we were looking for. Paschal has to put this to bed this week or there will be trouble.’
Several senior figures in Fine Gael have expressed concern over the slowness of the response, with one noting: ‘It is starting to bear an unnerving resemblance to the Phil Hogan affair. That was a puff of smoke, but we lost an EU commissioner over it.’
Other TDs and Senators also cited the Phil Hogan affair and collectively warned: ‘Paschal needs to fill or kill this on Tuesday, or we’ll start to have a problem.’
Significantly, even his own party members are struggling to understand the logic of Mr Donohoe’s somewhat convoluted explanations to date.
One veteran Fine Gael TD said: ‘It looks like a concocted story. It makes no sense at all.’
The most vocal support for Mr Donohoe has come from Fianna Fáil back-bencher Barry Cowen who has said the Public Expenditure Minister should not be ‘hounded out of office’.
‘Paschal has to put this to bed’