Alison O'Connor: Micheál Martin's 10 years of endurance as Fianna Fáil leader
Micheál Martin has just a year-and-a-half to make a mark for himself — other than as a someone who ploughs along as a solitary slogger.
At the end of January, Micheál Martin, as Taoiseach, will celebrate a decade as leader of the Fianna Fáil party. Ten years is a long time for any political leader to remain in situ. It does says a lot though, doesn’t it, that the word celebrate in this context just does not seem apt.
Endurance seems a more appropriate description — both on his own part and that of his party. When he did finally get to take that top job in Government Buildings in June, it was in the midst of a pandemic and with Brexit looming. There was also the backdrop of a poor general election performance — where there had been high hopes for Fianna Fáil. There was no overcoming the sense then that he and his party were willing to form a coalition at any price in order to enter government.
There was a little good news for Fianna Fáil in one recent opinion poll, but otherwise it has been nothing but a hard slog during the six months since June. If the Corkman seemed a remote figure as party leader, that has seemed only to increase upon him becoming Taoiseach.
Unlike most taoisigh, Micheál Martin was not in a particularly popular place when he got the job. His ratings were poor and, as usual, there was sniping from within his own party. There was also a Tánaiste who would attempt to steal his limelight at every hands turn.
The vagaries of a pandemic mean it has been nothing but fire fighting every hour of every day since he took office. There was so much else going on, it was hardly noticed that the two civil war parties had joined together in coalition. At that point, everyone was so fed up of Covid and the restrictions, and the fear involved, that anything else seemed fairly trifling.
In the time since, at a political level, Fianna Fáil has only seemed capable of looking on impotently from the sidelines as Fine Gael and Sinn Féin scrap it out publicly — thus keeping those two parties in the headlines.
Even his harshest critics do not question Micheál Martin’s work ethic and the toll of the last few months are visible in his gauntness. Whatever break he got over Christmas will have been short lived, given the rising virus levels.
It’s doubtful he even got the time to “engage in a lonely Poc Fada”. He mentioned this as a Covid-friendly Yuletide aspiration when asked about his plans for Christmas at the announcement of the country moving back to level 3. "I generally fall down at Christmas; that's how I relax,” he told journalists.
One of the plusses of Covid must be that the deteriorating virus situation proved a distraction from when he shot himself in the foot by claiming in the Dáil that the last Fianna Fáil government did not bail out the banks following the property crash a decade ago.
That episode apart, Fianna Fáil colleagues say they feel in recent weeks that Micheál Martin is finally finding his way as Taoiseach, having struggled at the start.
The three-way Coalition split meant there were a number in his party who expected, rather arrogantly, that they were owed promotion, but for whom ultimately there were not enough jobs to go around. The somewhat tedious public sulking continues.
There is a trend here. It is difficult to remember a time during his decade-long leadership that a significant rump of party members were not railing against the leader, often as he attempted to bring Fianna Fáil to places these elected representatives — widely seen as pale, male and somewhat stale — did not wish to go. Something in the Cork South Central TD has failed to inspire loyalty, well at least a loyalty that TDs ever really feel galvanised enough to express publicly.
“It is that he just does not listen. It is the school teacher in him,” said one TD who could not be described as a Martin fan. “He’s blinkered once he has his own mind made up.”
Despite being in Government, it seems the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party has become even crankier than usual, with Micheál Martin seeming unable at times to lead or drive his troops.
One TD explained that part of the reason for this is TDs and senators know the media is listening in to the weekly Zoom meeting and the “sensible voices have pulled back because they know the feed is being shared by someone to those outside of the party. That leaves the pitch open to those who crave attention.”
Opinion is divided on the recent decision to appoint 18 members of the parliamentary party to a range of spokesperson positions. One TD said it was a very good idea that showed respect to the unsettled backbenchers, while another described it as “sticking plaster stuff really”.
Some TDs point to the problem of poor communication — both what is being communicated to the public and how issues are passed down internally within the party. They spoke of a sense of being kept out of the loop, being none the wiser, for instance, on Covid restrictions until they are publicly announced. The party’s internal communications structure, as well as the research team, had been subsumed into Government in June. According to some, “there was six weeks where we couldn’t even get a press release sent out”.
Laois TD and junior finance minister Seán Fleming was given the job of conducting a review of Fianna Fáil’s poor general election performance, as well as those of the European and local elections. That report is due to be completed shortly. It should spark a much-needed discussion as to how Fianna Fáil might rescue itself from seeming political irrelevancy.
Micheál Martin has already served six months of his two-year stint as Taoiseach. The uphill struggle will continue. Even his detractors do not doubt his commitment to public service — to, as one put it, “grind it out”. But it will take far more than that. Even if we’re all vaccinated, by say, the summer, it leaves Micheál Martin only a year to put his and Fianna Fáil’s imprint on issues such as housing and the health system. It’s a seemingly impossible order.
From this vantage point it is very difficult to imagine him as leading the party into the next general election, assuming it does not take place for another few years. The most speculation centres on Dublin Bay South TD Jim O’Callaghan, who is also a senior counsel.
“Jim would be a good leader, but would he put the work in, the hard yards?” wondered one party TD. “He is holding lots of Zoom meetings recently, but that’s relatively easy to do. What will happen when the courts are back up and running? Will Jim be as involved politically then? Will he be willing to travel the country? That’s the biggest doubt about him at the moment.”
As of now, Micheál Martin has a year and a half to make a mark for himself — other than as a someone who ploughs along as a solitary slogger. There is also the very survival of his party. No pressure really — given everything else that is going on.
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