Dissent will not be tolerated
Once every couple of years, our Oireachtas plebeians threaten a riot against the patricians. The private briefings from individual TDs are often dynamite, bristling with fury and righteous indignation.
When Charlie McCreevy and Mary Harney announced swingeing cutbacks in the Community Employment Schemes in the Budget cycle 18 months ago, there were mutinous soundings from the Fianna Fáil room in Leinster House. But in the end McCreevy’s and Harney’s cuts went ahead as planned. The backbenchers got a weedy little sop. The revolution did what all revolutions do ... it revolved until it spun itself out.
Dun Laoghaire TD Barry Andrews has given the best definition of a backbench TD in a Government nearing a decade in power: lobby fodder.
The situation is in marked contrast to Britain, where even with a huge majority before this year’s election, Tony Blair’s Labour government encountered big difficulties in passing contentious policies through Westminster. When it came to parliament giving the go ahead for Iraq, Blair faced a rebellion. Convincing a number of key waverers to change their minds took it to the wire.
The Irish parliamentary tradition has never tolerated such muscle from Government backbenches. Defying the whip on a vote is a prelude to getting booted out of the parliamentary party. The only time it has happened in the recent past was in 2001 when then Minister of State Chris Flood abstained on a vote on legislation which criminalised illegal camping by Travellers. Mr Flood had long campaigned for Travellers’ rights and made it known he could not support the measure.
But since then, nothing. The control of the senior ministers over the party seemed to have tightened in the first two years after the election.
In 2003, Bertie Ahern publicly rapped the knuckles two TDs, Ned O’Keeffe and John McGuinness, for having the temerity to criticise the Government and ministers. The message was clear: dissent would not be tolerated.
And so, what can we make of the latest rumblings of discontent from within Fianna Fáil over the introduction of café bars and ASBOs.
What is behind it? It’s more than a coincidence that both measures are being championed by Michael McDowell.
There’s the ‘McDowell is getting too big for his boots’ theme, certainly. There is discontent within Fianna Fáil ranks about the free rein afforded to the Minister for Justice.
Certain Fianna Fáil TDs and senators are also playing to the tune of the publicans’ lobby. You can add into that mix a small core of rural TDs who believe Government is over-regulating people’s lives. But it doesn’t explain the opposition to ASBOs. Especially since the concept has been endorsed (to varying degrees) by both main opposition parties.
When he was asked about it in Cork on Wednesday, the Taoiseach expressed himself surprised that anybody would oppose ASBOs.
Whatever the elements, it seems the displeasure of the backbenchers is more co-ordinated and more sustained than previous occasions.
One prominent dissenter confided that the fact that up to 40 TDs and senators had put their names to the café bar motion was a prelude of things to come - meaning the beginning of the changing of the guard.
There’s no chance of that.
Still, there are strong signs of frustration. Policies are being announced that are not in the Programme for Government and, moreover, ministers don’t bother letting backbenchers know beforehand.
It is not too machiavellian to suggest that some Fianna Fáil backbenchers are taking potshots atMcDowell at their masters’ bidding. Ministers can point to the recalcitrant lobby fodder as handy leverage for compromise.
But somewhere in there, too, there’s a bit of Chris Flood conscience emerging, the kind that demands debate and democracy in the face of all-powerful ministers deciding things by ‘writ’.
On Tuesday, McDowell will face down his detractors. Then we shall see if there is mutiny in the air or if it this revolt will fizzle out like all the rest.
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