From Bloody Mary and Doctor Jim to courtroom battles and street riots
On Monday, a planned cabinet meeting to discuss the budget was postponed so that ministers could attend the removal of Léana Martin, the youngest daughter of Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin. The seven-year-old had taken ill with a heart condition and died in Great Ormond Street Hospital in London the previous Friday. Now, on a cold, wet winter’s night in Cork, the Taoiseach, his wife, and numerous cabinet members were among those who crowded into Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Ballintemple to offer the devastated Martin family what support they could.
The sympathisers included Mary Harney and her husband, Brian Geoghehan. Earlier in the day, the Health Minister had unwittingly made the headlines after being sprayed with red paint by a protester in Dublin.
The protester was Dublin city councillor Louise Minihan, who had left Sinn Féin a year previously because she believed the party had sold out on the issue of “ending British rule in Ireland”. Now a member of Éirígí, a party intent on ending the “British occupation” and building a “socialist republic”, Ms Minihan claimed her actions in spraying the minister with paint were meant to symbolise the “blood” on Ms Harney’s hands because of cutbacks in the health service. Appearing subsequently on RTÉ’s Liveline programme, Ms Minihan failed to see any irony in her accusations, despite the fact she had supported the IRA throughout its bloody armed campaign. A couple of days later, Éirígí would be at the centre of another protest — but this time involving real, rather than symbolic, blood.
BUT first came another individual protest of sorts, as Donegal North East TD Jim McDaid stunned the Government by announcing his resignation from the Dáil. The medical doctor had lost the Fianna Fáil whip in 2008 after abstaining during a vote in protest at the Government decision to scrap a cervical cancer programme. He had been an erratic presence in Leinster House ever since, attending some days and being absent on others, frequently criticising Government policy and repeatedly calling for a general election.
Yet, on the days he was present, he had never voted against the Government — mostly, it seemed, from loyalty to Fianna Fáil. And even though the coalition claimed they had never counted him as part of their majority, he was, in fact, regarded as such. His resignation has reduced the Government’s Dáil majority to a miserly three.
In his letter to the Ceann Comhairle confirming his resignation, Mr McDaid said it was “purely for personal reasons”. Many accepted this, as Mr McDaid, whose problems with alcohol infamously saw him convicted for drink driving in 2005, seemed to struggle with life in Leinster House, and its some- times boozy side, in recent years.
But there was another element to his resignation, as evidenced by another letter which he dispatched to the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Finance Minister days before the announcement. The letter demon- strated, yet again, that Mr McDaid had no faith in Government policies and felt a general election was desperately required.
“Where decisions have been made, they have invariably pursued the path of least resistance, focusing on what is politically possible rather than what is economically necessary,” he wrote.
“I do not believe we have the confidence of the ECB, European Commission, IMF, or the international bond markets as is borne out by our massive interest rate repayment. That’s because they see this Government as a temporary little arrangement, that another is waiting in the wings and they await to see the colour of their eyes.”
Mr McDaid’s resignation has left the Government even more exposed ahead of the budget. And as the cabinet met twice on Tuesday to resume discussions of that budget, Government chief whip John Curran was dispatched to assure the public that the coalition had the numbers to push it through.
But a further blow was only 24 hours away.
THE blow came in the shape of a humiliating High Court judgment which found the Government had offended the spirit of the Constitution by delaying the Donegal South West by-election for 17 months. The constituency had been under-represented since the departure from the Dáil of Pat “The Cope” Gallagher to become an MEP in June 2009. The judgment was a massive victory for Sinn Féin, which had sought the ruling. The president of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns dismissed suggestions that the court was trampling on the separation of powers between the judiciary and the legislature.
“Far from the court ‘tearing asunder’ the provisions of the Constitution by adjudicating on this application, it is the ongoing failure to move the writ for this by-election since June 2009 which offends the terms and spirit of the Constitution and its framework for democratic representation,” he said.
As the coalition tried to digest the damning verdict, thousands of students were gathering outside Leinster House and Government Buildings for a peaceful protest over plans to hike third-level registration fees in the budget. But the protest quickly turned ugly when around 50 protesters occupied the lobby of the Department of Finance and were forcibly ejected by gardaí in riot gear. As missiles, bottles and sticks were thrown, gardaí used their shields and batons to quell the violence, while officers on horseback drove at students to disperse the crowd. Blood was spilled, a number of officers and protestors were injured. Onlookers around Merrion Row, Baggot Street and St Stephen’s Green were caught up in the trouble as the day briefly threatened to turn very dark. The Union of Students blamed activists from various left-wing organisations for “hijacking” their peaceful demonstration. Éirígí subsequently confirmed that its activists were among those protesting.
Back in Government Buildings, the scenes must have made uncomfortable viewing for ministers — a taste of what could happen if the budget were to be met with resistance. Nonetheless, they signed off on the adjustment figure for the budget that night. They also signed off on a date for the Donegal South West by-election, having been left with little other choice by the damning High Court judgment. But chief whip Mr Curran announced that while they would push ahead with the by-election, they would appeal the judgment to the Supreme Court. He also indicated that the other three pending by-elections — for Waterford, Dublin South and Donegal North East — would have to wait for at least several months more.
THE day of revelations. First Tánaiste Mary Coughlan confirmed that the Donegal South West by-election would be held on November 25, raising the distinct possibility — indeed, probability — that the Government majority would be reduced to just two for the December 7 budget. But one date wasn’t enough for the opposition, and the Dáil was suspended twice amid angry scenes as Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Féin demanded dates for the three other by-elections.
In public, the coalition wasn’t budging, but in private, Fianna Fáil backbenchers were getting very nervous indeed following a parliamentary party meeting in which they were briefed about the state of affairs. The budgetary math did nothing to allay their concerns. At 4.30pm, after Finance Minister Brian Lenihan had briefed the opposition, his department confirmed that the combination of spending cuts and tax hikes in the budget would amount to €6 billion — twice the amount previously estimated.
The €6bn figure had been well-leaked, but that didn’t matter. Now it was publicly confirmed, and there was no good way of spinning it — although Mr Cowen and Mr Lenihan tried by doing numerous TV and radio interviews to present it and the wider four-year adjustment target of €15bn as manageable objectives. The backbenchers knew how politically unsellable it all was, though, and debated amongst themselves the limited options available.
Stay the course and support the budget in the hope that things would somehow get better? Or pull the plug before the budget so they wouldn’t have another €6bn of cutbacks hanging like a millstone around their necks when they faced the electorate?
No matter what way they looked, they saw the ominous shape of the by-elections, which made the political realities both very simple and very stark. Donegal South West on November 25. A commitment by Government to move the writs for Waterford and Dublin South in the first quarter of next year. And the reality that the writ for the Donegal North East by-election caused by Jim McDaid’s resignation would probably have to be moved at the same time. The math? A Government majority of three, versus four pending by-elections which the coalition appeared likely to lose.
The backbenchers looked at this and said if the Government made it to next May, it would be a miracle. So some asked themselves what was the point in dragging it out? Why implement a savage budget with a general election likely within months? That would only further damage their already limited chances of keeping their seats. Why not call the election before the budget and try to salvage whatever seats could be salvaged? One TD told this paper he had intended to call publicly for a general election only to be talked out of it by Brian Lenihan. The Finance Minister had already made very clear his view that it was no time for an election. Well-informed sources said that the Taoiseach had made equally clear to colleagues that he had no intention of going to the country. He was going to tough it out.
THE week ended on a surreal note as, just 24 hours after the €6bn budget adjustment was confirmed, Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith announced that free cheese would be handed out to cash-strapped families in the run-up to Christmas. As he came under fire from both the Opposition and the public, Mr Smith defended the EU-funded scheme as “an important means of contributing towards the well-being of the most deprived citizens in the community”. He also pointed out that it wasn’t a new scheme. But the announcement — and particularly the timing of it — jarred. A Government handing out free cheese to the poor while preparing to cut social welfare rates and tax the lowest-paid? The irony, it seemed, was in plentiful supply this week.
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