Micheál Martin treads carefully along road to recovery
The Taoiseach Micheál Martin in his office at Government Buildings. Picture: Moya Nolan
The country he leads is in the grips of a year-old pandemic with no immediate end in sight.
The country has been plunged into an extended severe lockdown, bringing with it economic chaos and severe recession.
On a personal level, his party remains at historically low poll ratings and there are mutterings about a potential heave against him in the coming months.
Days after the tenth anniversary of his becoming leader of Fianna Fáil, Mr Martin speaks to the Irish Examiner frankly about the delays to the roll-out of the vaccine and when the country can expect a return to normality.
He reveals how the past three weeks, with Covid-19 case numbers racing out of control, have been the toughest of his tenure as Taoiseach so far.
“The toughest parts are when we have challenges like last three weeks. There was genuine concern with rising hospital numbers of raising bed numbers and people getting ill, and I was very worried about the hospital situation,” he admits frankly.
I ask him did he fear that the country’s hospital system would be overwhelmed.
“Yes, that would be a big concern. We were asking [hospital bosses/HSE] what more can we do to help you with staff? Just tell us, what we can do we'll do,” he says.
“That was and continues to be a worrying aspect and that's why we've got to get those numbers down and give the people in our hospitals a break,” the Taoiseach stresses.
He admits that government predictions that the country will be fully vaccinated by September will not be met, saying it will be closer to the end of the year.
“I would envisage that, yes, end of year will be the target. I would like to think by end of year."
This, he admits, is still subject to caveats, with the delivery of vaccines such as those made by AstraZeneca still under intense EU scrutiny.
Despite the delays, he rejects opposition criticism of Mr Donnelly over the vaccine rollout as “very unfair”.
“I have been very taken aback by it because it's a lot of noise. It's not his fault as far AstraZeneca have had this massive row with the EU Commission,” he says.
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With the delays to the vaccine, attention has shifted to what happens after the current Covid-19 restrictions deadline of March 5 passes. Mr Martin is downbeat in his assessment.
“I do not see a major reopening on the fifth of March,” he admits.
“We will have to be conservative and cautious in terms of reopening. Schools are our number one priority. Special Needs schools first, we're going to have to deal with the Leaving Certificate and respond comprehensively to the anxieties that students have, and then a phased return of schools, beginning at primary level,” he says.
“Construction is next because that is an essential service and housebuilding in particular because we have a big social crisis that hasn't gone away because of Covid,” he adds.
With the warnings about people not going on foreign trips for summer holidays, I ask him what sort of summer can people look forward to here in Ireland.
His response is bleak, confirming that there are no guarantees that hospitality will be open.
“But, I'm going to be very cautious, to be honest with you,” he says.
“My sense is if we're rolling out a vaccine there's no point in taking risks,” he makes clear.
Responding to Conor McMorrow’s PrimeTime report which showed scores of people returning back from sun destinations this week, unfettered, the Taoiseach says he was “surprised and annoyed” at what he saw.
“Anyone who's demonstratively in breach of level five should be accountable in terms of dependencies that are there for level five.
"However, I don't want to develop an overly-draconian sort of police state approach either because we do need buy-in from the public,” he says.
Talking more locally about controversy over the Cork GAA team training in Youghal last month, he says any breach of guidance at that particular time is “not acceptable".
"People should not be in breach of guidelines,” he says.
Today, the Cabinet sub-committee on education will meet to finalise plans for this year’s Leaving Certificate exams.
“We do get the fact that students are under enormous strain and stress, and that we need to bring clarity.
"People want decisions the next day, nowadays, but I wanted to give the minister and her officials space,” he says.
He makes clear that various options are being considered. “I'd like to give that space [Norma Foley and her officials] to give options to the students. And the more we can move back towards normality in education the better,” he says.
"However, if you're closing that option of getting back into the classroom, then that puts pressure on the capacity to have the written exam,” he concedes.
“We'd like a staged return to have primary school kids [back] before the end of February. Special needs [students] would come earlier. The Leaving Certificate would depend on the talks are now going on. Whether Leaving Cert children are back three days a week or more is an open question,” he says.
It was not lost on me as we sat under the portraits of both Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera in his office in Government Buildings of the historic nature of the coalition he leads.
Also pictured on another wall, is the third man of that triumvirate – Harry Boland.
As for the key triumvirate within his government – himself, Leo Varadkar and Eamon Ryan – he says there is a good working relationship, but tensions have surfaced over when the country should have opened up before Christmas.
"Where tensions have been, if there have been and they haven't been huge would be certainly around aspects of when you open up, when do you lockdown.
"There have been some areas around that from the summer onwards, people would have different perspectives,” he says.
He says he does not see Leo Varadkar as seeking to undermine his position as Taoiseach as many within his own party do.
Mr Martin says he does not anticipate a leadership heave when his time as Taoiseach comes to an end but hits out at his own party members for acting in a “self-indulgent” manner during a pandemic.
“I've made my position very clear. I respect people's views and perspectives on this but a lot of people in the parliamentary party, want to focus on Covid, and they get the fact that the party can't be self-indulgent in terms of itself in the middle of a global pandemic, and it needs to put the country first and the people of this country first,” he says.
“Since I became leader of the party and I'll have my critics, I have developed a more consensus style of politics and opposition,” he adds.
He accepts though that the poor election result last February – coming back with just 38 seats – “created tensions and concerns”.
“We would have preferred a better result. Without question, that created tensions and concerns and that I understand,” he says.
Of one of the two Agriculture ministers he lost in those “tumultuous early days” was Dara Calleary. I ask him is the door open to the Mayo TD back into ministerial office.
“There's always a road back.
On readmitting the three party senators – Aidan Davitt, Niall Blaney and Paul Daly who also attended the golf-gate event in August, he said it is not fair to punish people forever.
In a recent interview, Mr Martin suggested his party’s relationship with Sinn Féin will “evolve” a sign perhaps his position is softening. I press him on this.
“It would be very difficult to do deal with Sinn Fein right now in terms of its policy platform.
"The economics of what they're saying if you add it all up doesn't work out and issues on enterprise, trade, and all of that is problematic,” he says.
“But politics does evolve and we will have a much more fragmented political world into the future.
"I'm not predicting the future but I'm not going to be saying something is never going to happen into the future,” he says.
Last Wednesday, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told a grassroots meeting of Fianna Fáil that a referendum on Irish unity is likely before the end of the decade.
I ask Mr Martin does he agree.
“It could be, but not within the next five years,” he says.
I put it to him that his legacy as set out on the day he took office has been completely thrown off course by Covid-19, and while he says progress is possible in health and education, the housing issue is his big concern.
"We have put 3.1 billion into the budget this year. But targets are off because of this lockdown in the first two months but we could pick it back up,” he says.
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