Backbenchers in the line of fire

The cutbacks are starting to affect TDs and senators, writes Political Editor, Paul O’Brien

THE proposed education cutbacks in the budget did not just trigger the predictable Government-opposition battle. They also heightened the battle between the opposition parties themselves, as well as placing intense focus on one particular Government backbencher.

The opposition battle is between Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin. There is a sense among some Government ministers that Sinn Féin has, to date, made a much better job of opposition than Fianna Fáil.

When the Government lost its first TD in July, it was directly as a result of a Sinn Féin motion calling for A&E services at Roscommon Hospital to be maintained. Fine Gael TD Denis Naughten had already spent weeks trying to convince the Government not to close the A&E unit, but without success.

When Sinn Féin put forward their motion in the Dáil, Mr Naughten found he couldn’t vote against it. As a result of siding with the Sinn Féin motion, he duly lost the Fine Gael whip and the Government had its first casualty.

Since then, buoyed by that success, Sinn Féin has been sharper and more effective in putting the Government — and individual Government TDs — under pressure. Or so goes the thinking among some ministers.

Fianna Fáil would no doubt disagree. They would also argue that while they are trying to be a “responsible” opposition — carefully teasing out the issues surrounding the eurozone debt crisis, for example — Sinn Féin is merely being “populist” on every issue.

Even so, Sinn Féin has had a better time of it in opposition to date. The question for Fianna Fáil is whether the party can combat this in the months ahead.

There will be no shortage of opportunities, given the scale of the budget cutbacks. The education cutbacks, in particular, continue to give the opposition parties avenues of attack — and not just on the Government as a whole, but on individual coalition TDs.

The TD who has arguably been the subject of most opposition attack in recent weeks is Labour backbencher Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, who represents Dublin North Central.

Prior to his election last year, he was the principal of St Laurence O’Toole’s girls’ national school on Sheriff St in the inner city, one of Dublin’s most disadvantaged areas.

Needless to say, the education cutbacks put him in a genuine bind. No Labour TD was elected to implement cutbacks in disadvantaged schools. And Mr Ó Ríordáin, as a former principal of one of those schools, needed no reminding of this.

But the opposition parties delighted in reminding him anyway. When Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin rose to his feet in the Dáil on December 14 to question the Taoiseach about the proposed cutbacks, he referenced Mr Ó Ríordáin by name.

“As a former principal of a disadvantaged school in the inner city of Dublin, Deputy Ó Ríordáin has said he is deeply uncomfortable with the proposed cuts. Who can blame him?” Mr Martin asked.

By then, Mr Ó Ríordáin, along with other Labour TDs and senators, was already engaging with their party colleague, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn, on the issue, to see if there was some way of reducing the cutbacks. He also engaged with the media on the issue, even though it was a no-win situation at that stage.

Surprisingly, that earned him some critics within his own party, who felt Mr Ó Ríordáin was effectively presenting himself as the main person in Labour pushing for a change of heart on the cutbacks when others were doing so as well.

Such is politics — any action you take or fail to take can irritate your colleagues as much as your rivals.

At the end of that week, Mr Ó Ríordáin tweeted: “Very difficult week dealing with DEIS (disadvantaged) schools. Imaginative solutions needed over coming weeks & a re-balance of priorities in Budget 2013.”

Since then, Mr Quinn has admitted he got the issue wrong and announced a review of the cutbacks. It remains to be seen to what extent the cutbacks will be reduced — Mr Ó Ríordáin is unsurprisingly optimistic, while the opposition parties remain deeply sceptical.

As for being targeted by the opposition, Mr Ó Ríordáin said: “I think playing the man undermines the issue. You should play the ball, not the man. But that’s politics, I suppose.”

He’s also not shy of meeting fire with fire, saying: “What people have to remember is that Fianna Fáil are the ones who took 14% off teachers’ pay packets, Fianna Fáil are the ones who increased pupil-teacher ratios, Fianna Fáil are the ones who slashed book grants, Fianna Fáil are the ones who attacked resource teachers for Travellers and language-support teachers in schools. So their record on education in the last number of years has been pretty catastrophic.”

But Mr Martin, himself a former teacher, is equally blunt: “No DEIS school should lose any teaching posts.”

Amid all the punches and counter-punches, the episode illustrated the degree to which the opposition can single out backbenchers and add to the pressure they are already under. It’s not just about targeting Government ministers. Backbenchers make for good trophies too. And with several more hairshirt budgets ahead, opposition parties won’t miss a chance to take aim at them.