SeriesWinners and Losers
It’s been a busy week, good for some and not so much for others.
EVERY WEEKEND, OUR political team casts an eye over the events inside and outside Leinster House that have people talking.
This week, storm season has taken hold and there were various political storms to match the meteorological situation. Some were expected, like the triple lock debate and the legal aid dispute, but others like the hug-your-granny fiasco were not.
They’re all referenced this week in our run-down of the political winners and losers of the week.
Winners
Micheál Martin
To get one thing straight, removing the triple lock is a significant step taken by the Irish government whether one agrees with it or not.
To get another thing straight, polling on the issue suggests that the government would have a very hard job convincing the public to vote this way in a referendum.
To get a third string straight, there is no clear legal reason why the government has to hold a referendum to abolish the triple lock.
One may make a moral argument that a referendum is preferable, given that 88 Irish soldiers have died over 66 years of peacekeeping missions, but the government is of the clear view that referendums are for constitutional questions only.
“We have never had referendums bar those amending, deleting or adding to the Constitution,” the Taoiseach told the Dáil this week.
Martin announced his intentions to get rid of the triple lock in late 2023, in a move that took some by surprise at the time.
The nature of the public affection for Ireland’s military neutrality and an opposition that is pretty much united on this issue means that pursuing such a goal was politically risky.
But Martin has persisted, argued forcefully for his position and, should the Defence Forces go on to take part in future peacekeeping missions without the need for a UN mandate for the deployments, he will undoubtedly consider this a significant personal political achievement.
Aidan Farrelly
The news that the Road Safety Authority (RSA) was planning to spend around €1.5 million on breathalyser terminals in hotels and pubs around the country first surfaced on Tuesday at around lunchtime.
By about 2pm, Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly was already out with a press release to denounce the idea, with numerous other politicians following suit.
The Kildare North deputy said the policy was “frankly disgraceful” and questioned whether junior minister for roads Seán Canney had been consulted, poking at the already sore relations between the minister and the RSA.
By Wednesday evening the breathalyser idea was dead in the water and the RSA were answering questions about the whole thing the following day.
It was another embarrassing climbdown for an organisation that has some recent form in that regard.
Ironically enough in road safety terms, the speed of the climbdown was the most striking thing here, with Farrelly winning some extra credit for the speed of his own response.
The deputy followed this up by asking the Health Minister about the same matter on Thursday to underline his win.
Losers
Jim O’Callaghan
We strive for nothing if not consistency in Winners and Losers, and last week Jack Chambers registered a loss due to the as-yet-unsolved public pay dispute.
On that basis, Jim O’Callaghan is a loser this week because the legal aid dispute really kicked into another gear.
This was literally the case as striking criminal defence solicitors withdrew even more services on Monday, to now also include custody cases and cases involving children.
Figuratively, the dispute kicked up a notch in terms of public bitterness, with O’Callaghan suggesting that rape cases were being targeted as part of the dispute.
This prompted a wave of criticism from the solicitors that he would make such an accusation and was also questioned in terms of its accuracy.
Worse still perhaps was the intervention of several judges, who pointed to the impact the ongoing dispute is having on the legal system, with cases being adjourned for months and those convicted awaiting sentencing.
Quite simply, there is little doubt now that the administration of justice is being affected as long as the dispute continues, a big problem for the minister with that job title.
The minister also waded into another row this week by inserting himself into the debate about how the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre spreads its message about consent.
Whereas some grandparents on Liveline might have cheered his intervention, it has raised questions about whether such ministerial interventions have set a dangerous precedent.
Mary Lou McDonald
Argue the rights and wrongs all you want about standing with the protesters on the Garvaghy Road, but that decision landed Mary Lou McDonald in a police station this week.
Worse still perhaps, McDonald’s time with the PSNI at Musgrave Street police station in Belfast coincided with a particularly eventful afternoon in Dáil Éireann, meaning the leader of Sinn Féin was not present.
McDonald did manage to get back to the Dáil vote on the triple lock, which the government won by a slim eight votes, but she wasn’t there for the debate on a matter that basically unites the opposition.
Instead, other Sinn Féin deputies had to make the case for retaining the triple lock before the government voted through the amendment to remove it anyway.
Significantly, McDonald was also not in the chamber for the State apology to the family of Brian Stack, the prison officer shot in the neck by the IRA in March 1983 who died 18 months later.
Members of the Stack family watched the apology in the Dáil visitor’s gallery and walked out of the chamber in protest when Sinn Féin representatives were speaking in McDonald’s absence.
Ivana Bacik was among those who called on Sinn Féin to do more to give justice to the Stack family, saying there are “still far too many questions that have not been addressed” by the party.
McDonald’s predecessor Gerry Adams facilitated a 2013 meeting between Austin and Oliver Stack and a man who gave the brothers information about the 1983 murder of their father.
The brothers were taken to the meeting with the former IRA leader in a blacked-out van.
Bacik told the Dáil that Adams “wasted” the opportunity to give “substantive answers” in a 2016 Dáil statement, and she said other party TDs should do so instead.