Paul Hosford: Paschal Donohoe’s departure makes it harder to rebuild Fine Gael

Watching Simon Coveney and Leo Varadkar ride off into the sunset must have given the former finance minister some pause

Paschal Donohoe, the former minister for finance, at Government Buildings on Tuesday where he announced he was leaving his role in government to take up a position with the World Bank. Picture: Damien Eagers/PA

The departure of Paschal Donohoe from Irish politics leaves a number of questions for the Government, the coalition and Simon Harris, but it raises just as many questions for Fine Gael.

In his first interview following his shock departure on Tuesday, Mr Donohoe made a revealing comment to David McCullagh on RTÉ Radio One.

Having made clear his intention to run in the general election last year on a number of occasions, Mr Donohoe admitted that the Fine Gael exodus ahead of last year’s election had an effect on him to the point that he considered joining those who were hanging up their boots, so to speak.

“The scale of departure of our party and Leo Varadkar’s decision to step aside cemented my decision to stand,” he said.

“Everybody has a plan, but when the context around that plan completely changes, you then assess what you’re going to do.

“And really it was my commitment to Simon [Harris], actually, and my faith in him, and my determination to make the case for a particular type of politics.”

Mr Donohoe’s position is understandable on a human level. 

When he first ascended to Cabinet in 2014, he likely expected to outlast the likes of Enda Kenny, Richard Bruton, and Alan Shatter, but watching Simon Coveney and Leo Varadkar ride off into the sunset must have given him some pause.

When the likes of Eoghan Murphy, Heather Humphreys, and a slew of others went in the lifetime of the last government, Mr Donohoe might have looked around the Fine Gael parliamentary party and found himself wondering who he might know in the Dáil following last year’s general election.

Mr Donohoe’s loyalty to Tánaiste Simon Harris

In the end, out of loyalty to Tánaiste Simon Harris, Mr Donohoe said he decided to stick to his original plan and run last year.

But, within a year, he is gone and all of a sudden, Mr Harris finds himself without a very senior and trusted colleague, but also the longest-serving uniterrupted member of the current Cabinet and thrust into the finance portfolio, all while in throes of attempting to steer a party that has undergone a near complete change in personnel in a short space of time.

Mr Harris now finds himself — still not 40 — with a cabinet cohort all under the age of 50 and just two TDs elected before he was in 2011, Limerick’s Kieran O’Donnell and newly-minted junior minister Frank Feighan, though Mr Feighan lost his seat in 2016 and regained it in 2020.

On top of those demographic changes, Mr Harris has seen his party contest every type of election since his elevation to leader in April 2024, most recently an anaemic presidential operation for one of his departed former ministers, Heather Humphreys. 

That he has been on an election footing for the guts of two years is something of which the party is aware.

Before Mr Donohoe’s departure, a communique to members acknowledged the fact and promised that Mr Harris would soon embark on a mission to meet with constituency organisations.

Fine Gael in continuous election mode

“The party leader, an Tánaiste Simon Harris, is writing to each constituency noting that since he became leader, we have been in election mode almost continuously — fighting local, European, general, and presidential elections one after another.

“It has been an intense and demanding period, and he wants to sincerely thank everyone for their work in that time.

“Now, with this cycle of elections complete, the Tánaiste has the opportunity to visit constituencies in a different way. Not to campaign, canvass, promote candidates, or fight elections — but to meet directly with members.

“Therefore, the Tánaiste will meet with each constituency over the next six months with the focus on hearing from members.

“It is proposed that the engagements would take one of three forms — a coffee morning, a public meeting, or a social gathering.”

Within the party, grassroots members echo that feeling, saying that the constant planning for an election of some kind has taken its toll, but so too has nearly 15 years of being in government.

Constant firefighting along the way — Brexit, covid, Ukraine, etc — has meant that, along with coalition, the party’s identity has become almost fluid.

'Prudent Paschal' oversees growth in spending

Defined by many critics as conservative or austere and by colleagues as “prudent Paschal”, Mr Donohoe has in fact overseen a growth in total Irish spending from 2017 to 2026 of €58bn to €117bn. 

Along the way, Fine Gael’s likeness as the party of parsimony and efficiency has become somewhat muddled.

Speak to members at all levels and there is a sense of Fine Gael now being a bigger tent than ever, but without a guiding principle, a problem compounded by the loss of its ideological pathfinder in Mr Donohoe.

In 2017, when Leo Varadkar was preparing to take up the role, he said that he would overhaul party structures and democratise its framework:

“I want to democratise the party, engage with members, and organise and mobilise to connect with a wider public.

“We will listen to their interests, concerns, and views and secure their confidence and support.

“Gaining new support must be a key priority for the new leader of Fine Gael. I believe I am best placed to do that.

“Fine Gael should be a party that can attract votes in Castleknock and Clondalkin, Dungarvan and Doohoma, not because we try to be all things to all people but because there are people in all areas and all walks of life who share our values.”

Fine Gael's use of electoral college system

But Mr Varadkar was seen by many in the party as a better taoiseach than party leader and it was notable that both the race to replace him and to contest the presidential election following the withdrawal of Mairead McGuinness saw no contests due in large part to the electoral college system the party uses which places huge weight on the endorsement of the parliamentary party members. 

In Mr Harris’ case, he had sown up backers so quickly that anyone who might have been minded to challenge was beaten before lunchtime the day after Mr Varadkar stepped down.

Last year, Fine Gael arrested a late polling collapse to elect 38 TDs. 

Of that cohort, 22 are first time TDs, though some — Micheál Carrigy, Emer Currie, Barry Ward, and John Cummins — came through the Seanad. 

Mr Cummins, the party’s youngest TD at 38, is the only one of that 22 who was elevated to junior ministerial ranks.

It has been said that the feat of great sports managers is rebuilding a team while continuing to win — something likened to performing surgery in a moving car — and Mr Harris’ return with three more seats in the general election was contextually a victory.

But he now takes on the weightiest portfolio in the county while economic headwinds gather pace.

The loss of Paschal Donohoe made the surgery of rebuilding Fine Gael while in government just that bit more complex for the Tánaiste.