Independents might support new Taoiseach in return for local project

Newly elected Taoiseach Simon Harris TD is congratulated in the Dáil Chamber, Leinster House by Leo Varadkar TD, former Taoiseach, Tánaiste Micheál Martin TD.

Yet again with the election of a new Taoiseach the voting intentions of Independents played a critical role.

Before his election as Taoiseach, Simon Harris did the rounds of Independents seeking their support for his nomination.

Nobody knows, at least no one is saying, if Mr. Harris made promises in return for votes. He says he didn’t, and that there was “a meeting of minds”, whatever that means.

In time it may emerge that one of the Independent members was able to push an infrastructural project, a new facility in a hospital, or a sports grant for a club or facility in their constituency up the ladder by committing their vote to the Taoiseach’s election, and supporting his government during the run up to the election..

But no one should condemn the Independent members for trading their vote for that’s politics at the very raw end.

The problem, as many voters see it, is that Independents are given more clout in this process than say TD’s who are not members of the coalition parties, or indeed backbenchers in the governing parties, for they at times feel that they are just voting fodder for their masters.

The result of all this is that the voices of Independents are becoming more and more influential in our political system, and likely to increase as opinion polls are predicting that there will be even more Independents in the Dail after the next election.

Here in Louth we have one Independent member, Peter Fitzpatrick who was first elected to the Dáil on a Fine Gael ticket in 2011, and re-elected in 2016, but who, in the last election in 2020, stood as an Independent becoming the first Independent to be elected in the Louth constituency since James Coburn in 1927.

During the last week when there was much speculation about Mr. Harris’s wooing of the Independents, Mr. Fitzpatrick’s name was mentioned in a few dispatches about his voting intentions, but he wasn’t singled out as one of the votes on which Mr. Harris was heavily reliant.

If perchance Mr. Fitzpatrick was approached by the new Taosieach he was perfectly entitled to mention a project in which he was heavily involved the new gaelic grounds in Dundalk, and given all that has happened over the new grounds, few could blame him for asking for support for the project by way of national sports grants when they are being distributed.

He may be able to do so in a subtle manner, as a number of Independents who supported Mr. Harris have done so in the past, and have seen the benefits for their constituency and of course their own election prospects.

But there is no escaping the obvious question, which is, are we better voting for an Independent candidate in an election in the hope that he or she can trade their vote in the formation of a government or the election of a Taoiseach?

It may not be a system that all would support, but in Ireland, as we all know, all politics is local.