Daniel McConnell: We are fast approaching this Government’s half-way stage

The Government has held together remarkably well, but as problems in housing and health persist, there is little that Taoiseach Micheál Martin can point to as a legacy

Unfortunately for Taoiseach Micheál Martin, his tenure at the top of our government will certainly not be remembered as one of his great successes. Picture: Fennell Photography

Two years ago this Monday, on that rainy and windy afternoon in Dublin’s Convention Centre, Micheál Martin achieved his dream of becoming Taoiseach, and formed the historic Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil/Green Party coalition.

As the gales whipped up the Dublin docklands, Martin stepped out of the building into his awaiting ministerial car.

As he took his first fragile steps as the elected leader of our country, his position was already as unsteady as he appeared in the inclement conditions.

Formed after 140 days of tortuous negotiations in the teeth of the Covid-19 pandemic’s first wave, because of strict social distancing rules, the occasion had an entirely surreal feel to it.

The starkest manifestation of that surrealness was the absence of Martin’s family in the auditorium, to share his career highlight.

Frustrating tenure

Whatever the sense of history on that day, an anniversary of such is a natural point at which to assess the successes and failures of this administration.

The temptation often is to assess such tenures through the prisms of the fortunes of the key protagonists as opposed to appraising how successful the government has been in delivering on its stated objectives.

For Martin, his has been a largely frustrating tenure as Taoiseach.

Constrained by the presence of the pandemic and his own innate cautious behaviour, he has been prevented from being able to deliver any meaningful difference so far, and with the unprecedented handover to Varadkar due to happen in six months, his chance of any kind of a substantial legacy is slim.

The truth of the matter is that he will go down in history as a stop-gap Taoiseach, and his handling of Covid-19 is what he will be remembered for.

But unlike previous Fianna Fáil taoisigh, Martin is not in charge of a party which has enjoyed near majority support in its own right.

He has not led a party of 70 or 80 TDs which has dominated the political agenda and landscape as it once did.

No — he has been leader of a much-reduced and increasingly irrelevant party, which has at various times seen itself eclipsed by Fine Gael and more recently Sinn Féin.

Martin’s time in office has done little to change that situation.

In fact, it has only exacerbated it.

His party did much worse than was expected in the 2020 general election, coming back with just 38 seats. Of that, Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl was re-elected as chair of the Dáil, so reducing the effective number to 37, and since then Marc MacSharry has gone overboard.

The party regularly finds itself in third place behind the other two parties in opinion polls across most, if not all, of the key demographic categories, and its poor presence in Dublin is becoming an existential issue.

Martin endured a torrid first 18 months in office, between the dual Cabinet departures of Dara Calleary and Barry Cowen, constant questions over his leadership, a disastrous by-election last year which saw the party take just 5% of the vote, and moves to oust him which ultimately fell away.

While the moves to oust him have faded and he looks set to carry on as Tánaiste, any fair-minded critique of his Government would have to argue that it is simply not working.

Legitimate questions

Look at health and the state of the accident and emergency departments.

In the middle of summer, when you have hospitals like the Mater in Dublin or University Hospital Limerick asking people to stay away because of pressures on the system, at a time of record funding, it is not working.

Politicians will argue it is for the HSE to run the health service, but there is a minister for health, and Martin’s choice of Stephen Donnelly to be his man in that role opens him up to legitimate questions.

Quietly, even Donnelly’s own ministerial colleagues are slow to defend him and will concede in the event of a reshuffle, he is the one most likely to be axed or shifted.

Housing too is proving to be a stubborn and thankless area for minister Darragh O’Brien and the Government.

Record low rental accommodations as house prices continue to increase, with homeless figures back over 10,000 all paint a devastating picture of failure.

O’Brien, to be fair, is not idle and there is a limit to what he can do, but from issues like vacant buildings to the slow handover of land by State agencies for housing, point to a systemic lethargy and apathy which is frankly galling.

Coalition partners 

For Fine Gael, this Government too has been a bruising affair and unlike Fianna Fáil, much of it of its own making.

While the economy has proven resilient through and since the pandemic, between Simon Coveney’s various travails including Katherine Zappone and ‘Champagne-gate’, as well as Leo Varadkar’s much more serious troubles with the gardaí and the DPP, the party is showing all the signs of being around the Cabinet table for far too long.

Take the passport issue, again another foul-up in Coveney’s department, but allowing staff to remain at home for so long during the pandemic, and allow services to fall apart in the manner in which they did, was disgraceful.

But you could say the same about trying to get to a driving licence, a medical card, an NCT, or your public service card.

Now, most of those latter examples are ones that come under Eamon Ryan’s department, who has himself overseen chaos in nearly every area of his remit.

Energy capacity is dicey so we have seen repeated amber warnings about supply, and we live with the looming threat of blackouts or shortages this winter because of the war in Ukraine.

While his proposal to reduce flat fares across Dublin Bus and Luas was a positive initiative and should be made permanent, delays to the Dublin Airport metro are frustrating, not to mention the chaos at the city's airport in recent months.

The airport is now a filthy edifice of the crumbling ability for the State to do the mere basics correctly.

Not to be all negative, the Government has held together remarkably well despite clear tensions at the top, particularly in the beginning.

Varadkar and his difficulties in accepting being number two and not top dog certainly marred relations in the first 18 months or so, but his cough has been severely softened since his leak activities came to light.

Ryan and his Green Party have made some noticeable gains in terms of their agenda, particularly the Climate Action Bill, but they continue to be tricky coalition bedfellows. Rows with Fianna Fáilers over roads only to back down are unnecessary, and only ferment bad blood and ill will.

Stepping back, there is a reason why Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’s popularity combined is now less than Sinn Féin’s.

For all the talk, for all of the promises, kite-flying, and leaks, the lack of progress on health, housing, and now the cost of living is hurting them, and yet they seem powerless to do anything about it.

We are fast approaching what should be the halfway stage of this Government’s lifetime in December, with few people believing it will last the full five years until 2025.

Examining the performance of the Government, one can only surmise it by amending that famous 2002 Fianna Fáil slogan — not much done, a good deal more to do.