Daniel McConnell: Rebel Fianna Fáil backbenchers driven by fear for their futures
Backbenchers including Padraig O’Sullivan, above, fear that the Taoiseach and his ministers are not listening to their own troops and, more importantly for them, that the party on its present course is heading for electoral annihilation.
As much as Micheál Martin and his senior ministers have sought to downplay the so-called rebel meeting of angry and frustrated TDs and Senators this week, the truth is it was very significant.
As they gathered in their parliamentary party room on Wednesday, frustrated Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators decided to deliberately sit in a circle and not with a top table.
With division bells ringing overhead, acutely conscious about how such a meeting of backbench members would be viewed by the leadership and the media, many present were at pains to point out this was not a meeting about ousting Micheál Martin.
Not yet anyway.
This group has been likened to the Lemass Group of rebels which formed during Brian Cowen’s tenure as Taoiseach, but those behind it being formed deny this was seeking to unseat Mr Martin.
The meeting was formed out of the frustration of backbenchers who feel they have “no voice or no say” in the formation of policy and they argued the weekly parliamentary party meetings are no longer working successfully.
From many sources present in the room, the reason Cork TDs Padraig O’Sullivan and James O’Connor, along with Barry Cowen and Jackie Cahill, sought to have the meeting convened was driven by fear: fear that the Taoiseach and his ministers are not listening to their own troops and, more importantly for them, that the party on its present course is heading for electoral annihilation.
Clearly, such fears are well held as 29 members attended.
Those present included: Padraig O’Sullivan, James O’Connor, Catherine Ardagh, Jim O’Callaghan, John Lahart, Éamon Ó Cuív, Joe Flaherty, Willie O’Dea, Lorraine Clifford Lee, Niamh Smyth, John McGuinness, Barry Cowen, Erin McGreehan, Jennifer Murnane O’Connor, Mary Fitzpatrick, Aidan Davitt, Lisa Chambers, Paul McAuliffe, Pat Casey, James Lawless, Malcolm Byrne, Andreas Moynihan, and Diarmuid Wilson.
At the meeting, the one-time heir apparent to Martin, Jim O’Callaghan stated starkly that the future of Fianna Fáil depends on the people gathered in that room.
“We should not be constrained by being in government. Having outspoken backbench TDs has always been a feature of Fianna Fáil and we need more of it,” O’Callaghan said. He called for a meeting in September or October to decide what Fianna Fáil stands for.
Ó Cuiv said the party is being tested in the short term as well as the long term and said thinking new housing legislation will deliver the party success is mistaken.
He railed against the power of the permanent government asking who actually runs the country.
“Who is calling the shots? Or are we just going out making announcements the permanent government have agreed to,” he asked pointedly.
He said the party in government must have the “odd row” with the system and overrule it if it is to gain any traction on the ground.
“If we do not deliver in the short run, it will be too late for us. We must address the short-term issues,” he warned his colleagues.
Mayo Senator and former TD Lisa Chambers said she favoured more of these meetings being held, saying the normal weekly parliamentary party meeting is useless as opportunities to speak are very limited.
She told the meeting that she felt “the fight has gone out of us” and said that post the 2011 wipe-out, the party had to unite and work to recover.
“We are missing that unity of purpose,” she said.
She said that willingness to fight delivered a doubling of the party’s seats in 2016. “I don’t see that fight now. Ministers are very separate to us, they are siloed from the party,” she added.
She and Erin McGreehan spoke of how often Fine Gael senators are getting “little strategic digs” in at Fianna Fáil ministers every week in a coordinated fashion.
Ms Chambers said: “They are being fed this stuff, they are not making it up. So there is a clear strategy there to target our top guys. We don’t do the same thing.”
She pointed out that Health Minister Stephen Donnelly “gets battered” every week by their own government colleagues.
While Ms Chambers said she felt they shouldn’t be doing that in return, others piped in and countered saying: “Of course, we should be hitting them.”
Ms McGreehan gave what was seen as the standout contribution saying the party needs to stop looking behind them and around them, and start worrying about themselves.
According to sources at the meeting, she said: “Stop looking around us. We are concentrating on our role in government, we are concentrating that Sinn Féin are this and that.
Ms McGreehan was among a small number of contributors to complain that Fianna Fáil ministers are being attacked constantly in the Seanad by their Fine Gael colleagues in government. She said it is time to fight back and said she would be criticising Justice Minister Helen McEntee.
“Of course, we should be highlighting Fine Gael ministers and what they are failing to do. We are getting in the neck from Fine Gael in the Seanad and it is a pain in the arse,” she added.
O’Connor, the Cork East TD, called for Sinn Féin’s millions in fundraising monies must be tackled given how powerful the party now is. He said Sinn Féin's potential to become so dominant “frightens the shit out of me”.
He was another who lashed out at the failure of the leadership to properly listen to the backbenches.
John Lahart, the Dublin South West TD, said his major concern was the “single lack of ambition” within the party and asked if 22% in terms of party’s support is the extent of that ambition. “Try 10% support in Dublin,” quipped Mary Fitzpatrick in response.
Offaly TD Barry Cowen said a whole new regime and generation at Fianna Fáil headquarters is now needed. Kilkenny TD John McGuinness said the meeting was formed because the parliamentary party was not working and people were not being listened to.
He said Marc MacSharry left the party because he was blocked in his pursuit of a “shared ownership” of the party. He warned his colleagues: “You will not be back again if this continues. We are toxic for transfers at the moment.”
With Micheál Martin’s tenure as Taoiseach coming to an end in December, the lack of success that Fianna Fáil can point to and the party's distinct lack of identity is driving these frustrations among members.
What is certainly true is that the sense of isolation felt by TDs and Senators is nothing new under Martin’s watch. Since his elevation to party leader in 2011, his own TDs have never felt particularly loved, included, or respected, even by their own leadership.
The motion of no confidence in the Government next week brought by Sinn Féin only further adds to the sense of pantomime before the summer recess but reports that Martin took the phones to try and quell the internal rebellion indicate a sense of nervousness in the leader’s mind.
While the focus of the backbench group was to seek a new identity or to refocus on what priorities the party need to pursue, should this malaise continue, it will very soon turn again on Martin, who has proven again he is a leader who is tolerated rather than loved by his own party colleagues.
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