Ciara Phelan: Deja vu as Dáil returns with same old issues up for debate

The first day back in the Dáil was flat and tiring, perhaps a reflection of the public’s mood, writes Ciara Phelan

Protesters hold pictures of TDs including Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on a makeshift scaffold with effigy outside Leinster House, Dublin, as the Dáil resumes after the summer recess. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

There was a real sense of deja vu as the Dáil returned after politicians took a break for the summer.

As the three Coalition leaders attend a UN General Assembly in New York, Fine Gael deputy leader and Trade Minister Simon Coveney stepped in to take Leaders’ Questions, telling Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald it was good to have her back after illness.

And back she was, fighting fit. 

Despite undergoing major surgery in recent weeks, Ms McDonald was sharp in her delivery, driving home the message that despite the summer holidays, households did not get a break from the cost-of-living crisis nor have sky-high rents fallen and, for many mortgage holders, they are paying hundreds of euro more a month due to the rise in interest rates. 

“She is like a broken record,” one Government TD said. 

Politicians were inquisitive as to what opposition parties were going to raise at Leaders’ Questions but Ms McDonald stuck to her script, because, really, it is clear that not much has changed for people.

The Government has consistently over the past year faced scrutiny in the Dáil about what it is going to do to help people who cannot pay their energy bills and are struggling to put food on the table and pay their rent. 

And the first day back in the Dáil was no different. 

It was like going back in time. 

Just one hour before TDs flocked to the Chamber, Minister of State at the Department of Trade Neale Richmond was on RTÉ News getting grilled over food inflation following another meeting with food retailers, facing questions over what he has done, other than asking politely for supermarket chains to lower prices.

Politicians were gearing up for a ding-dong when opposition and Government TDs met one another across the Dáil floor but it was anything but that. 

It was flat and tiring, perhaps a reflection of the public’s mood.

The only lively moment came when Mr Coveney claimed his Cork colleague, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns, was trying to “drive a wedge” between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael over the Government’s response to farmers on the nitrates issue. 

His remark resulted in all opposition parties erupting in laughter, with the Ceann Comhairle appealing to deputies to “stop behaving like children”.

All the action happened outside the gates of Leinster House where hundreds of protesters gathered to shout abuse at staff members, politicians, and journalists on their way to work. 

Demonstrations have become more regular outside the Dáil but this protest undoubtedly saw an escalation of hate and violence with TDs being physically shoved and having to be escorted by gardaí. 

A mock gallows was erected outside the building with images of a number of ministers and opposition TDs, which left politicians sick to their stomachs.

There was anger inside the walls of Leinster House too. 

The latest scandal to hit the health service, where children are at the centre of concerns over spinal surgeries and the use of unauthorised devices being implanted in their bodies, has ignited an important conversation again about the treatment of families and children with scoliosis and spina bifida in Ireland. 

It is a national scandal, as Social Democrats TD Róisín Shortall put it. 

Once again, we find ourselves discussing the lack of care given to those most vulnerable in Irish society.

Some things never change.