As talks drag on, some Fianna Fail TDs look to ‘active’ Jim O’Callaghan
The future of Micheal Martin as FF leader is the subject of increasing talk behind the scenes, writes Hugh O’Connell
FIANNA Fail, Fine Gael and the Green Party have now spent a month trying to negotiate a programme for government. In that time, solid working relationships and mutual respect should have been established. Instead, there is fear and loathing across all parties that has only grown as the talks have dragged on.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is now concerned he cannot get his party to endorse whatever deal is hammered out. Talks have entered the final stretch but whole swathes of a draft programme for government were not agreed as of lunchtime yesterday.
It is not just pensions and the ambitious 7pc emissions reduction target demanded by the Greens. “Public finances, income tax, roads, economic plan plus loads of itty bitty things like the Occupied Territories Bill,” said one senior negotiator.
Fine Gael believes the Greens didn’t come to the table with a credible and realistic plan for how to reach the 7pc target and that, as one source put it, “we’ve spent nearly a month trying to do all the work for them”.
Frustration is growing, so much so even the mild-mannered Richard Bruton was said to be “very annoyed” with the Greens in one session on transport this week. Paschal Donohoe, who is deeply involved in the talks, confided to one colleague last week it was 50-50 as to whether a government would be formed.
Fine Gael’s anger with the Greens is palpable and many of its TDs and senators fear even if a deal is agreed in the coming days, Eamon Ryan won’t be able to get it past his party membership, many of whom joined the party precisely because it is not Fianna Fail or Fine Gael.
The feeling is mutual in the Green Party, as is the anger and distrust of Fine Gael. “I’m pretty sure Fine Gael is trying to collapse talks but just don’t really want to be the ones seen to do it,” said a senior Green last week. Another senior Green figure admitted it was 50-50 whether a deal would pass the party’s membership, and added: “I am not too sure if the entire negotiating team will sign off on this.”
The mood is perhaps darkest in Fianna Fail, where TDs already despairing over the prospect of going into government with Fine Gael are now also increasingly annoyed with Micheal Martin and the team around him. “There is this feeling we’re passengers on this ‘get Micheal to the Taoiseach’s chair’ f**king journey,” said one new TD.
Another of the new intake said: “I feel he has been advised to treat us like dirt and not give us any details as to what’s going on... he’s being very dismissive.”
One long-serving TD noted — as did several others — it has now been over a month since Fianna Fail has held a parliamentary party meeting. While the Greens hold almost daily Zoom meetings and Leo Varadkar sends 2,000word emails to members updating them on Fine Gael’s priorities in the talks, Fianna Fail TDs bluff their way through conversations with members anxious for information. “The only way Fianna Fail TDs hear what’s happening in the talks is when Leo has a weekly briefing with his PP, we pick up from Twitter what’s happening,” said one long-serving TD.
With the party’s poll numbers collapsing into the mid-teens, another long-serving TD fumed: “It’s a complete f**king shambles. We have no idea what’s going on. It’s f**king pathetic, people are asking me how it’s going and you’re bullsh**ting.”
Conversations with a dozen Fianna Fail TDs this week revealed a high level of frustration and anger that is now bubbling to a point where some are looking at alternatives to Martin if the deal to form a government falls apart.
One name keeps cropping up: Jim O’Callaghan, the party’s justice spokesman. He is thought to share the frustration of many of his colleagues that Fianna Fail has been too quiet on issues and not politthat ically active enough in recent weeks. He has told some that he is not prepared to “sit back, do nothing and be silent”.
He is described as “active” by many TDs, one rural Fianna Fail deputy saying: “He’s around the Dail every day... the fact he is not part of the negotiation team is very strange.” A second rural TD said: “He is talking to as many people as he can. He’s around the place. I certainly get the impression from him that if it came to it, if we came to a crossroads and he was encouraged, he would go for it.”
After the election, O’Callaghan generated headlines by at first slapping down the prospect — raised briefly by Martin — of serving in government with Sinn Fein, before opening the door to it when Covid-19 struck, suggesting a national unity government should be explored. Since then he has called for an accelerated reopening with all restrictions lifted by June 29, a move the Government went some way towards on Friday.
After that announcement, backbencher Padraig O’Sullivan tweeted that “great credit” was due to O’Callaghan who “led the calls for greater opening up nationally”. The post was liked by a number of TDs and senators, including Mary Butler, Joe Flaherty, James O’Connor, Norma Foley, Thomas Byrne, Ollie Crowe and MEP Billy Kelleher.
Senator Malcolm Byrne told the Sunday Independent: “Jim standing up for small businesses and trying to get clarity was widely applauded in the party. The Government needs to be held to account but there seems to be a reluctance to do that with talks ongoing.”
Mr O’Callaghan, who declined to comment, has emerged largely because of his absence from a talks process that may fall apart thus sullying the reputation of other potential successors to Martin like Michael McGrath and Dara Calleary.
There is no plotting. But it never starts that way. Not unlike when Leo Varadkar once courted the support of Fine Gael TDs, O’Callaghan is said to have been very approachable and helpful to TDs on all manner of queries in recent months. One who benefited from such help recalled a conversation with a colleague who told them: “Don’t be fooled by the fact that he’s not courting you or overtly looking for your support. ”
Another somewhat unlikely name to emerge is Sean Fleming, the chair of the Public
Accounts Committee, who has been encouraged by some colleagues to consider a tilt at the leadership.
That all this is being discussed by TDs is indicative of Martin’s predicament. Discussion will be put on hold if a government is formed and he gets the job he craves. But that prospect hangs in the balance.
Martin is focused on the task at hand. At a meeting of the Fianna Fail national executive last Friday to approve procedures for a postal ballot on any deal, he told those concerned about its impact the party: “Fianna Fail exists to put the country and the people of Ireland first and the party second.” It was a patriotic call to arms he hopes will be enough to lead him to the promised land, at which point the plotting behind his back will really begin.