Elaine Loughlin: McEntee needs to raise her game to win back party trust

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee during the controversial walkabout in Dublin last month. Also pictured are Angie Willis, Garda assistant commissioner Dublin Metropolitan region; Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe, and Pat McMenamin, Chief Superintendent.

Helen McEntee has been largely untested up until now, but she must step up, and quickly, to maintain the support and respect of her colleagues.

The usually astute minister has made several blunders in recent weeks. Telling fatigued gardaí that there is no issue with morale in the force did not go down well with members and insisting that she felt safe in Dublin’s inner-city after a number of high-profile attacks resulted in criticism that she was out of touch.

With Garda recruitment targets unlikely to be met this year, a dispute over rostering, calls to address the retirement age, and criticisms that frontline gardaí are not visible enough on our streets, McEntee is facing a number of challenges coming into the autumn and that’s before considering the possible ramifications of the upcoming no-confidence vote in Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.

Then, of course, there was the incident this week with three Garda recruits turned away over their tattoos. It speaks to an outdated model of policing that must be addressed.

Helen McEntee with Garda Commissioner Drew Harris who is also under fire with the rank and file. Picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

McEntee now needs to swiftly get on top of things as issues relating to An Garda Síochána — and indeed the Department of Justice — can quickly escalate as her Fine Gael predecessors Alan Shatter and Frances Fitzgerald learned the hard way.

The Department of Justice has a way of getting ministers into hot water; some have accidentally slipped into the boiling pot, while others have turned on the stove themselves.

It is now more than 40 years since then justice minister Seán Doherty signed warrants to have the phones of journalists Bruce Arnold and Geraldine Kennedy tapped.

The debacle grew legs nearly a decade later when appearing on the Nighthawks chat show, Doherty suggested that taoiseach Charles Haughey had known about the recordings and had been shown transcripts of conversations, which prompted the resignation of the Fianna Fáil leader.

Fast forward to 2014, when the justice minister Alan Shatter resigned after being told by taoiseach Enda Kenny that he had three hours to read a report into the Maurice McCabe affair compiled by senior counsel Sean Guerin before deciding what to do.

Shatter, who was later exonerated, was gone within a few hours.

His successor Frances Fitzgerald was also forced out of office amid scandal and threatened motions of no confidence which, at the time, could have taken down the government.

In 2018, the Charleton Tribunal cleared her name and any suggestion that she was inappropriate in her handling of emails, but it would have come as cold comfort to the former tánaiste.

For McEntee, there is more than just her reputation as minister at stake. For some time now, she has been lined up by some as a possible successor to Leo Varadkar and she will have to show that she has the skills, grit, and agility required to lead Fine Gael.

As a woman, McEntee must know that she always has to outperform her male counterparts, she must always watch her words, be aware of what she wears.

The level of intense scrutiny, which at times borders on the farcical, was highlighted recently when it was reported that two photos of McEntee were circulated to a number of Government advisers and Fine Gael members on a WhatsApp group.

The pictures, taken when McEntee visited Dublin’s north inner city after an unprovoked attack on American tourist Stephen Termini, showed the minister wearing a gold pendant during her press briefing inside the Garda station, but the same necklace was missing when she did her walkabout along the surrounding streets.

The strong inference is that she didn’t feel safe enough to display her jewellery despite publicly insisting that she did.

'Circus performance'

Her tour of Talbot Street sparked criticism from other quarters and was likened to a “circus performance” by local councillor and former Lord Mayor of Dublin Nial Ring who pointed out that she had been “flanked by two gardaí and then telling us it’s safe”.

Her response to the high-profile attacks on tourists in recent weeks has also prompted Fianna Fáil’s youth wing to back a motion calling on her to resign.

Ógra Fianna Fáil pointed to the fact that Fine Gael has held onto the Justice portfolio for 12 years and during this time, law and order had fallen “to a standard far below that which is owed to the public”.

Only back from maternity leave, she had to address existing prejudices that come with being a working mother, admitting that some of her Fine Gael colleagues don’t approve of her taking maternity leave.

“I’m sure there are people who don’t approve of the fact that I took maternity leave for a second time. I don’t really have much to say to that,” she told reporters in June.

“The vast majority of my colleagues, including the Taoiseach, and many others have been nothing but supportive and I can’t stress that enough. I think the vast majority of people are supportive, and anybody who isn’t I think that’s their own issue.”

When entering office, McEntee took a fresh approach, focusing on what had been neglected areas of the portfolio.

She has spearheaded a zero-tolerance campaign of gender-based violence; rolled out an amnesty scheme for thousands of undocumented migrants, and has progressed legislation relating to stalking and non-fatal strangulation.

While critically important, these are not key priorities for many others in Fine Gael who pride themselves on being the party of law and order.

Privately, some have been venting frustration that part of Fine Gael’s core identity is not being pushed or progressed strongly enough in the Department of Justice.

Publicly, Willie O’Dea, a former minister of state in the Department of Justice, has gone further by hitting out at McEntee for “playing to the woke gallery” instead of focusing on delivering safe streets or tackling what he described as the “real and pressing problem” of antisocial behaviour.

A Bill to legislate for hate crime has become a lightning rod and has sparked unease and opposition in the Seanad where it is again due to be debated after the summer recess.

Members of Young Fine Gael passed a motion at their Garret Fitzgerald Summer School last month which opposed the coalition’s attempt at introducing the Criminal Justice Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences Bill 2022.

Determined to push through legislation

Despite the reservations and opposition, including from within her own party, McEntee remains determined to push through the legislation.

While it may be said that some of the mutterings have been sprinkled with more than a dusting of misogyny, negativity can be hard to shake.

Regardless of whether the growing rumblings come from a place of concern, cynicism, sexism, or even jealousy, any undercurrent has the potential to destabilise a minster.

Many have noted that McEntee has been performing well overall in her role as justice minister, but has not faced any real tests. She has enjoyed a time of relative calm in a portfolio that has a reputation for throwing up unexpected controversy, strife, and scandal.

McEntee will now need to address the niggles within her department to avoid any further damage.