Six months to sink the Coalition as Sinn Féin eyes a knockout punch
DESPITE claims by the Government that it is unconcerned about its now wafer-thin majority of one, the chief whip contacted ministers this week warning them not to travel abroad without securing permission first.
The Coalition faces an anxious six months following the departures of Green TDs Neasa Hourigan and Patrick Costello after they voted against the Government with Sinn Féin on a motion about the National Maternity Hospital.
Coalition leaders and Government TDs this week attempted to play down the significance of the dwindling Dáil majority.
But the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned chief whip Jack Chambers, fearful of the Government losing a Dáil vote, has told ministers they will be reported to the Taoiseach if they do not get permission to leave the country.
A senior Government source told the MoS: ‘There is a bit of a whiff of panic about it alright. Poor Jack [Chambers] is going around white as a ghost. It doesn’t take much with the young fellows.’
Intriguingly, while the Greens have lost two TDs over the maternity hospital vote, the bigger Government parties appear to be more concerned about the consequences.
And this unease is heightened by a growing belief within Sinn Féin that the Coalition’s waning majority, according to one party source, ‘opens up a quicker road to power than was previously thought’.
A party source told the MoS: ‘There is a lot of trouble coming down the road and they are weaker than before. After a summer of turf and inflation an early election is not impossible.’
In what could be viewed as an ominous sign for any aspirant partyswappers, Sinn Féin is not seeking to sound out any constituency rivals with a view to jumping ship before the next general election.
A Sinn Féin source said: ‘We don’t want their
TDs. We want an election so we can secure their votes and seats.’
Concerns about a potential early election are deepening within the diminished Government ranks as the Coalition faces a summer of discontent over issues as diverse as turf, fuel prices, carbon taxes and rampant inflation.
There is particular anger at the Greens among rural-based Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil TDs, some of whom have previously threatened to walk over national and local issues.
These include veteran TDs such as Willie O’Dea (FF) and Michael Ring (FG), both former senior ministers. The increasingly disaffected Carlow-Kilkenny TD John Paul Phelan (FG), a former close ally of Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, is also being watched with growing unease.
Uncertainty is also high over the capacity of the Greens to stay the course. One senior Fine Gael source noted of the response to Neasa Hourigan and Patrick Costello’s departures, ‘It was pretty limpwristed;, it looked like one of those GAA suspensions after an all-Ireland where you’re suspended for the six months the GAA season is closed’.
Attention is focused on Green Party junior minister Joe O’Brien. One source said: ‘Like Neasa and Costello, he has previous.’
Reflecting the growing discord towards the Greens, a Fine Gael minister told the
MoS, ‘[Green leader Eamon] Ryan is going to be the ruination of us yet – turf will hand rural Ireland over to
Sinn Féin’. ‘Don’t be fooled by that bewildered tourist abroad, Dougal-on-the-magic-roundabout persona, he is as much of a fundamentalist as the rest of them. He is determined to ban turf and kill the motorways.
‘[Taoiseach Micheál] Martin and Varadkar are in thrall to him. They love the virtue signalling. We are the ones that will reap the consequences. We won’t let the planet
burn.’