Paul Hosford: No curtain calls following low-stakes piece of political theatre

Justice Minister Helen McEntee survived the vote of no confidence. 

Confidence motions are high stakes by their very nature.

Succeed as a government and you can claim a major victory, a mandate, and momentum. Lose and you're knocking on the doors.

If the stakes were high on Tuesday, as Sinn Féin called for the removal of Justice Minister Helen McEntee, it didn't really feel that way. 

Indeed, most of the attacking came from the Government benches as TDs and ministers let loose on Sinn Féin's record on law and order. The names Jonathan Dowdall and Jerry McCabe were invoked frequently.

Perhaps informed by a weekend poll that showed that Ms McEntee's standing has actually improved since the riots in Dublin, Sinn Féin did not make this an argument about personalities or try make Ms McEntee a villain, indeed many speakers praised her — though Michael MacNamara's contention that the justice minister is a "relatively competent politician" wasn't exactly effusive.

Ms McDonald, instead, tried to make the case that Ms McEntee has overseen a Garda recruitment and retention crisis, that the streets of all cities and towns are less safe, but in looking for a knockout blow, it was tame offence. 

Things only ratcheted up when Ms McDonald contended that "it took nearly two weeks for the Government to reach out to the school community" at the centre of the horrific stabbing of three children and their carer. 

The Government benches were outraged, demanding it be withdrawn. It was pointed out in the chamber that qualified emergency psychologists were on site by 2pm that day, just hours after the stabbing and government sources pointed to the fact that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar spoke to the school's principal a day later, while the education minister had engaged in conversation on the day of the incident.

That the school was put at the centre of a political row when it has actively sought to be left out of the narrative about what followed the stabbing of its students and a staff member was unseemly to say the least. 

So, too, was the invoking of historical public order charges against Sinn Féin deputies Matt Carthy and Pearse Doherty by government TDs. 

While most TDs tried to stick to the matter at hand — the serious issues around policing and safety in Ireland — this was a piece of political theatre that did not capture the imagination of the general public.

For Ms McEntee, the question was never about whether she would survive — though she will be pleased to have come through by 83 votes to 63 — the issue at heart would have been about whether she or the Government suffered any blow serious enough to be considered fatal to the Government. 

In that regard, she and it did not. 

While last Tuesday's statements on policing saw Ms McEntee put under pressure, this motion felt far more comfortable. 

Partly that is because of the timing — it is now 12 days since the stabbing and riot that followed — and partly it is because the wider public does not seem to believe that the minister was to personally culpable.

As the debate wound down, it was Clare TD Violet-Anne Wynne — a former Sinn Féin TD, remember — who took issue with the premise of the entire use of three hours of Dáil time.

"This is a colossal waste of time," she said.

"A complete farce."