ENTRENCHED SOCIALIST A CUCKOO IN FG’s NEST

THERE certainly is something about Independent Alliance minister John Halligan.

The problem is that no one quite knows what it is – and increasingly, after more strife in the life of John, very few in Fine Gael or even the Independent Alliance are minded to find out. Instead, after a week of semi-departures and half-hearted returns, the latter now believe that if Halligan doesn’t stop ‘carrying on the way he is, none of us will be back’.

The bad news for the Alliance is that Halligan plans to ratchet up the Waterford hospital drama. He said he doesn’t want trouble but if ‘Noonan and Coveney don’t stand up to the plate and deliver what they promised me I may have to meet Enda and see can he do something’.

He somewhat anxiously added: ‘I get on with Enda.’

That is undoubtedly true, for the one thing foes and allies of the turbulent Waterford politician agree on is that: ‘John is a lovely fellow.’

However, when you are as big a threat to Government stability as a €13bn tax judgment, even if you are a ‘lovely fellow’ nobody likes you very much.

As is often the case with break-ups, the root of the difficulties lies in the past.

He may be the most affable fellow but Halligan is a child of the old Workers’ Party Marxists to such an extent he regularly brought its former general secretary Seán Garland in for Dáil visits.

His advocacy of the fundamental reform of our abortion regime, of assisted suicide and his belief in the primacy of aliens is indicative of a somewhat different view of life to his blueshirt brethren.

Ironically, his path to the Dáil was eased by a less-thanamicable split from the old Workers’ Party on the issue of bin charges. This facilitated his evolution into a soft-left community candidate whose backers, he proudly said, included ‘consultants, businessmen, doctors, college lecturers and nurses’.

It was a profile that made him the de facto Fianna Fáil TD in 2011, during the party’s implosion and the de facto Labour candidate in 2016.

Halligan’s pleasant demeanour meant few begrudged him a ministerial position on the grounds that most thought Finian McGrath and Shane Ross would be a far greater source of difficulty.

Even at the start, though, some Fine Gael TDs warned: ‘John is used to the easy life; he has never had to say or do hard things. It will be interesting to see how he fares in Government.’ It certainly has.

The splits with Fine Gael began with aliens, fatal foetal abnormality and a confrontation between Halligan and ‘arrogant’ Fine Gael ministers who were told to ‘shut their mouths’ on water charges.

His positioning on the latter attracted particular ire from Simon Harris and Paschal Donohoe and little has changed there either – except that the Independent Alliance is now also treating the Waterford man like a political Manchurian candidate.

Commenting on the ongoing tug of war with Donohoe over party funding, one senior figure noted the desire to build a party structure was informed by the desire to control Halligan.

‘Our job is to create a spider’s web where someone like Halligan has something to lose,’ the source said.

‘Currently he has nothing to lose if he goes but if you surround him with a few advisors and staff down in the constituency that’s different,’ the source added.

Halligan is, of course, unrepentant over his actions.

Like many ‘unrepentant’ socialists he is a consummate practitioner of the politics of emotion. ‘How could I look a child in the eye if their father dies because there is no second cardiac unit in Waterford?’ he asked.

His ire is particularly driven by the claim of parish pump politics: ‘I didn’t look for €700m or an airport or trains,’ he added.

He is still enthusiastically kicking the hornet’s nest of Fine Gael TDs: ‘Noonan and Simon are being economical with the truth. Noonan said it was a formality but we can’t be seen to do political deals; Simon said it was inevitable.’

In a slightly contradictory piece of political positioning, Halligan also told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘I do not want to destabilise the Government… whilst I am still in it.’

The view from Fine Gael is somewhat different, for this is the week Halligan made very powerful Fine Gael enemies.

‘We could tolerate the tomfoolery over believing in aliens but this brings it to a new level,’ a senior Fine Gael figure said.

‘Where does it end? He got away with defying the Taoiseach and the Finance Minister before the usual death-bed conversion,’ one minister said. ‘Now he is making a liar of the Minister and Simon Coveney.’

Another source said: ‘There was no deal offered on Waterford. Noonan actually warned him that it would be foolish to stitch something like that into the Programme for Government, while Leo was even more direct – he told him to get lost and then he told Kenny essentially to get lost when he tried to interject.’

Fine Gael sources claimed Health Minister Simon Harris was even more outraged.

‘At one point in the negotiations, Simon Coveney was walking past and Halligan pulled him into the room,’ a source said. ‘Simon [Coveney] didn’t know what to do.’

Harris was more decisive, telling Halligan: ‘Anything to do with health, you talk to me.’

In a uniquely divided Dáil, everyone appears to be united on John. The Independent Alliance said: ‘We frankly don’t know what he will go mad about next – he is the cuckoo in the nest.’

One Fine Gael figure said his behaviour was ‘debilitating, which ‘doesn’t enhance longevity or collegiality or the chances of getting things right’.

‘Halligan is even a source of horror to Fianna Fáil,’ another source said. ‘Micheál thinks an election would be disastrous but he is not in control of events any more.’

On the plus side, however, all were united on one final key issue: John is still a ‘lovely fellow’.

‘What will he go mad about next?’