Pick a f ight with Mary at your peril,Taoiseach
HIS maiden trip to Downing Street put Leo Varadkar in mind of Love Actually but his imagination must have taken a darker turn later in the week as Mary Mitchell O’Connor took aim. Indeed the phrase, ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ may have sprung to mind as Leo’s newly demoted Minister for Jobs led the charge and took a wrecking ball to his promises for a Republic of Opportunity and publicly challenged his authority. Mitchell O’Connor who now has responsibility for higher education is not one to mince her words and she was never going to take the snub of being the only person demoted in the Cabinet reshuffle on the chin.
This week she faced up to her new leader. At a conference for high-powered women she raised her game significantly, lambasting Leo for ‘not leading by example on the diversity issue’ before warning that ‘power and success doesn’t just come in a pinstripe suit’.
Mitchell O’Connor, a former school principal, has often been the target of scorn, much of it unfair, but there cannot be anybody who cares about female participation in public life who would take issue with her criticism. Indeed, more female FG backbenchers have since joined Mitchell O’Connor’s ranks. Varadkar will be aware of this as, in his first real test of his people-management skills, he contemplates how best to deal with this difficult woman.
DOES he address her lack of loyalty by commanding her to a private meeting and urging her not to publicly vent her grievances? Does he sack her, which some might argue he should have done when she refused his original job offer and her fury could be dismissed as sour grapes?
Or does he simply hope that she exhausts her indignation and knuckles down to resolving the problems in the third-level sector which is the bedrock of the country’s future?
Ironically had he committed more to gender fairness in his reshuffle he would have greater flexibility. By cutting the number of female ministers in favour of repaying favours he made a rod for his own back. Should he censure Mitchell O’Connor or drop her from Cabinet he can be accused of not only marginalising women but targeting strong women too.
If he does nothing he can be charged with weakness, of letting bitterness fester and spread.
He cannot trust that Mitchell O’Connor will ultimately toe the line or uphold Cabinet convention as she did for Enda. She fought him tooth and nail for a post to her liking so she has demonstrated that she’s not malleable or fearful.
She prides herself on being slightly off beat, of speaking her mind, of playing the part of the ditzy airhead who can’t be controlled.
She is a brash and unpolished populist, a bit like Donald Trump, rather than a suave and sophisticated operator like Leo.
SHE commands great loyalty among her constituents. Last year, she helped get a second Fine Gael TD Maria Bailey elected in Dún Laoghaire when the party was otherwise in freefall and was appointed to Cabinet on the strength of it.
The Taoiseach can’t afford to alienate her grassroots support no more than he can the vast body of female voters who are still dismayed at his Cabinet.
If she can play a clever long game Mitchell O’Connor will ensure her own political survival while becoming a symbol of women’s tenuous grip on power and a thorn in the side of her new leader.
Varadkar, whose identity ticks so many diversity boxes, arguably overlooked the oldest and most fundamental barrier of all – the gender bar.
If Mary Mitchell O’Connor intends to make him pay for it, he only has himself to blame.