Daniel McConnell: Dáil's youngest TD had people choking on their cornflakes

Unhappy at being “misled” by Government figures over the lack of inclusion of Cork East projects in the National Development Plan, James O’Connor let rip on his local radio station

James O'Connor threatened to resign from Fianna Fáil if the situation is not resolved immediately. Picture: Denis Minihane

The explosive interview given by the Dáil’s youngest TD James O’Connor on his local radio station had many people choking on their cornflakes yesterday morning.

Clearly unhappy at being “misled” and “lied to” by Government figures over the lack of inclusion of Cork East projects in the National Development Plan, Mr O’Connor let rip, going as far as threatening to resign from Fianna Fáil if the situation is not resolved immediately.

Mr O’Connor has said that despite repeated assurances for some time, it was not until last Sunday night that he discovered that neither of two overdue East Cork roads projects would be included in the National Development Plan. 

When asked if he felt that he was lied to, Mr O’Connor said, “yes, by a multitude of colleagues, I feel I have been deeply misled, I am hurt”.

His party colleagues were, no doubt, aghast on hearing his strident outing on C103 Radio and it led to many of his fellow TDs to dump on him, describing him as everything from naïve to petulant.

Politics can be a dirty business and it even grew nastier later in the day when some suggested that because he was away in France, he wasn’t pushing as hard as he could for his constituents.

Mr O’Connor was on a private trip and it turns out that the exclusion of the Killeagh/Castlemartyr bypass scheme and the Fota Road upgrade to Cobh was decided upon a week ago, and he was only told late on Sunday.

The reality is that speaking out meant that people were out to get him, even many in his own party.

Perhaps conscious of the recent loss of Marc MacSharry, Taoiseach Micheál Martin was keen not to lose another TD so soon.

Despite being in Slovenia, Mr Martin made a call to the young TD in a bid to reassure him and to agree to meet him alongside Transport Minister Eamon Ryan upon his return to Ireland today.

Mr O’Connor says the lack of inclusion of these projects is a “red line” issue and he is prepared to resign the whip if he does not get satisfaction.

The trouble for Mr Martin is that even if he does manage to quell the fire in East Cork, he will have opened the door for many other TDs to demand the same.

Already, TDs such as Dara Calleary and Éamon Ó Cuív are demanding a meeting over uncertainty on projects in the West, caused primarily by comments made by Green Party leader Mr Ryan.

Mr Ó Cuív accused the Greens of seeking to “strangle” projects through bureaucracy, saying this is what they did when the parties were last in government together a decade ago.

Senior Government sources said they are seeking to work with Mr O’Connor and do not want to see him jump overboard, a move that could mean the Government could only rely on 81 votes, a bare majority.

They said the Cork East projects were not listed as they are so early on in the process that it would have been premature to do so, but that looking at the glass “as being half full as opposed to half empty”, plenty of signals have been given to Mr O’Connor to show the projects are “in the mix”.

Mr O’Connor has taken a big risk in speaking out and could ultimately pay a price for doing so and many have not taken too kindly to his overt actions.

However, as last night’s Irish Times poll shows, Fianna Fáil is now 12 points behind Sinn Féin and firmly lodged in third place. 

Party TDs in fear of their seats will be willing to do more and more desperate things to try and avoid losing their jobs.