Squabbling when we need leadership

THE confidence-and-supply agreement between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil was always going to be the flimsiest of relationships – but now it has become positively dysfunctional. This week’s row over Irish Water was proof that the minority Government permanently teeters on the brink of collapse.

Add in the pernicious indulgence of Facebook posts targeting individual politicians and the flaws of this odd-couple relationship are all too apparent.

Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell is being upbraided by opponents, and from within his own party, for posting a Facebook jibe at Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen, who led his party’s climbdown on Irish Water during the week. But he is not the only one.

Those close to the committee deciding the water issue say Leo Varadkar has been using surrogates to manufacture a crisis in the belief that it will help him win the Fine Gael leadership. Mr Varadkar’s office strongly denies this but its prevalence tells its own story of distrust.

And it is clear that party and self-interest always come first and public policy a very poor second.

It is not as if there are no consequences for voters. Water will cost the State more than €3bn between now and 2020. That money has to come from somewhere. That funding issue should be the only focus of the committee.

Instead, we are being treated to a pathetic spat between the two largest parties. Between the backstabbing and the bitterness, how much longer can the relationship last? And for how much longer can we be forced to endure its demise in full public view?