Fianna Fail plays happy families when British are watching, but all is not well

Open defiance of the party leader has increased — and TDs don’t bother voting,

BREXIT papers over the cracks. The difficult conversations we need to have are put off. People make excuses for not doing things and blame Brexit.

They blame it for almost everything these days. House prices, high taxes, low pay and so forth. They also don’t want to be seen to be arguing in front of our next-door neighbours. They’re troublesome enough as it is. So we play happy families and pretend nothing is wrong.

This is especially true for all those lost souls living within the political limbo that is the Fianna Fail parliamentary party.

Like John and Mary in Father Ted, Micheal Martin and Leo Varadkar are all smiles and pleasantries when the British call over. But you know behind closed doors, especially for Micheal, all is not well in domestic political life.

A leader is a dealer in hope, as Napoleon Bonaparte said. In politics that hope is a ministerial office, a chauffeur-driven car and the responsibility to make decisions which can affect people’s lives.

Right now that aspiration seems a long way off for an increasing number of Fianna Fail TDs. Senior party figures, who never speak unkindly about Martin, are now questioning whether he could even become Taoiseach after the next general election.

“He’s either Tanaiste in a coalition with Fine Gael or he’s gone,” one Fianna Fail source said.

If this is the case, Martin will only have seven or eight Cabinet seats to dish out. Not a lot when you’re trying to keep at least 44 deputies happy.

But then Martin has never been overly concerned about the opinions of his TDs — not even the ones he supposedly trusts. Take the almost twomonth long review of the confidence and supply agreement.

Martin picked his top team to carry out a painstaking examination of each department. Dara Calleary, Michael McGrath, Lisa Chambers and Charlie McConalogue spent weeks listening to civil servants explain the mundane complexities of departmental operations.

The information was relayed back to Martin. The fact the review is complete was relayed to the parliamentary party. No details were provided. Then, a couple days later, Martin stood up in the Dail and announced he would extend the confidence and supply agreement for another year. He blamed Brexit.

The Government needed stability and a general election would plunge the country into some apocalyptic nightmare, the likes we’ve never seen before. You know, like the other 32 general elections we’ve had when this happened.

But let’s give him some credit. The stability was appreciated by Fine Gael ministers who cracked open the good brandy in their ministerial offices and poured a particularly large measure to celebrate another year in office.

The strategy was accepted by most Fianna Fail TDs, even if they didn’t like the fact that their opinions on the matter meant diddly-squat to their party leader. Even members of the confidence and supply team were not told about the decision in advance.

There is an infectious inertia within the party. Bizarre as it might seem, there is an acceptance among TDs that they have no role to play in the key decisions taken by the party hierarchy — despite the impact it might have on their livelihood.

Parliamentary party meetings are generally forums for debate, but in Fianna Fail, there is little discussion or explanation from the top table before big political decisions are being taken.

Martin regularly attacks Sinn Fein for not being a ‘normal’ political party but he implements the same top-down management system which Gerry Adams made popular in the Republican movement.

Until recently, Martin’s authority was sacrosanct. He was trusted. The vast majority of TDs would not dare to cross him, either publicly or privately, which is another trait he shared with Gerry Adams.

There’s always the outspoken few but it was always a handful in Fianna Fail. However, the outward defiance of the party leader has increased.

Billy Kelleher and Brendan Smith have never been seen as anything but Micheal Martin loyalists. Yet both decided to blatantly ignore Martin’s ban on sitting TDs putting their name forward for the EU Parliament elections in May.

Both are very experienced TDs with ministerial pedigree and stand a very good chance of taking seats. But the two seasoned party members made their decision without Martin’s blessing. They barely even consulted him.

Despite extolling the importance of being politically focused on Brexit, Martin was apparently happy for councillors and Fianna Fail ghosts of the economic crash to represent the party in Brussels.

He insisted he wanted his best team for the general election, again, despite the apparent importance of Brexit.

Kelleher has been honest about his reasons for looking to Europe. There’s too many Cork-based Fianna Fail TDs and he will probably miss out on a Cabinet seat if Martin manages to get the party into Government.

Smith, meanwhile, believes he has the credentials and EU contacts, who include Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier from his time as a minister, to fulfil the role of an MEP.

Another area where Martin’s authority has eroded is Dail votes.

If TDs don’t personally support the party’s position on certain votes, they just don’t show up.

“What’s the point in showing up in the Dail to abstain on a vote?” a senior TD asked. “I can do that from my constituency office,” the TD added. Those who do not show up don’t even need excuses, as there are few or no repercussions.

Martin’s reshuffle hasn’t exactly rallied the troops either. Kelleher clearly took the hump with his demotion from the Health portfolio and his replacement, Stephen Donnelly, at times can barely hide his objection to Martin’s imposed party line on certain issues such as the nurses’ strike.

Barry Cowen was once Martin’s greatest defender at parliamentary party meetings.

He was always there to shout down dissenters but now, since he lost the housing portfolio, he rarely shows up, according to colleagues.

But if the British ask, tell them everything is fine in Fianna Fail and they are concentrating on Brexit.

‘What is the point in showing up to abstain on a Dail vote’