Soldiers of Destiny are on the road to oblivion

I’M afraid the game is up for Fianna Fail, barring an absolute miracle.

Mark my words, Eamon De Valera’s beloved party will soon be confined to the history books and the dustbin, unless radical changes are made.

If the results of the Dublin Bay by-election – where they got just 4.6% of the vote – and recent opinion polls are anything to go by, the voters have had enough of Micheal Martin.

Rightly or wrongly, they see him as an ultraconservative who is too slow to make decisions.

Throughout the pandemic, he has alienated hundreds of thousands of workers in the aviation and hospitality sectors by allowing NPHET to stop them re-opening.

But voters have also had enough of some of his crew, especially Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and the Housing Minister Darragh O’brien.

God gave both men two ears but sadly they never listen. They both have big egos and every time they open their mouths they cost Fianna Fail votes.

They both have an air of perceived arrogance that annoys the electorate.

All three parties in government should be getting plaudits for the successful rollout of the vaccination programme by the HSE, but life doesn’t always work that way.

The dogs in the street know the two biggest issues are Covid and housing.

Donnelly has flown more kites since he came into office while O’brien will present his big housing plan in a few weeks’ time.

Neither he nor the Government have helped themselves by failing to ban vulture funds from the housing market.

I accept there is no easy fix for housing – homes take time to build.

However, Fine Gael has failed to deal with the problem after almost a decade in office, yet it is Fianna Fail who are being blamed for their Coalition partner’s failure and incompetence. The issue is a doorstep winner for Sinn Fein at the expense of Fianna Fail.

Thousands and thousands of people right across the country are furious that not enough houses are being built and they can’t get on the property ladder.

They are being screwed by sky-high rent while they wait.

Another section of society, equally vocal, are years on their local council waiting list for social and affordable housing.

The whole mess is a disaster for Fianna Fail. They are going to have to spend billions and radically change the planning laws to fix it. Time is against them.

The party itself is now heading for an internal civil war the likes of which we have not seen since the split which led to the founding of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael more than 99 years ago.

A section led by Jim O’callaghan and Barry Cowen want Micheal Martin out but the rest don’t, preferring him to get off the pitch at the end of his two-anda-half-year term as

Taoiseach. Very few within Fianna Fail want him leading them into the next general election.

The problem is, would O’callaghan do any better? I doubt it.

And Cowen has yet to prove himself at the top table.

There is no real future leader within Fianna Fail at the moment that voters would see as Taoiseach material.

There is a real shortage of talent, who have no idea what the Fianna Fail brand is and no vision for the future of the country.

Michael Mcgrath has political pedigree but he will hardly win you votes in Finglas.

Perhaps the only hope for Fianna Fail is to rewrite history, turn the clock back and re-unite with Fine Gael – if Varadkar would have them.

He might not have any choice and such a move would see a proper right-left divide in Irish politics.

The way the country is feeling, very few people will be sorry for Fianna Fall and the mess they are in. They have made their bed, and can lie in it.

Fianna Fail have made their bed… now they can lie in it