Micheál Martin's first 100 days as Taoiseach marked by stalled legislation and stormy setbacks
Micheál Martin's government had to contend with Ireland's worst storm since 1961 at the start of its term. File photo: Leah Farrell/© RollingNews.ie
Micheál Martin probably isn't one for cakes. The famously health-conscious Taoiseach eschews sweet treats. Besides, the Taoiseach is far too pragmatic and practical to have a cake marking 100 days of his second term as Taoiseach.
But if those around the Cork man at the Cabinet table had been minded to break out the streamers to mark the occasion, the botching of the appointment of Brendan McDonagh to the Housing Activation Office really put paid to that.
But, then, the circumstances aren't a major aberration in how the last 100 days have progressed for this coalition in a number of areas.
Take, for beginners, that number. The 100-day mark of this government should have been Friday, but for an extraordinary day in which Mr Martin's return to the Taoiseach's office was delayed by a Dáil adjournment caused by continued interruptions by members of the opposition.
When the Dáil resumed the following day, Mr Martin's election and his and Simon Harris's ministerial selections were hit by Ireland's worst storm since 1961.
Storm Éowyn left 768,000 homes, farms and businesses without power on the same day that the CSO announced that the number of new homes built in Ireland fell by 6.7% last year, with the number of completions significantly lower than Government targets and forecasts of 40,000.
It wasn't the best start.
What would follow would be a months-long argument between the Government and Opposition about speaking time that effectively rendered the Dáil a talking shop, with little to no legislation being progressed and no committees formed.
In the end, the Government finally pushed through its reforms to speaking time rules, but the fall-out has meant that committees are still not up and running and the legislative agenda which had been announced in February appearing to be more speculative than concrete.
There was legislation passed - to allow for more junior ministers, a function of the coalition's third leg of independents - but otherwise there's only been a handful of laws even brought to Cabinet - Simon Harris's changes to the Triple Lock and Jim O'Callaghan's overhaul of immigration stand out.
Amid all of that, Mr Martin travelled to the US, where his meeting with President Donald Trump was feted as a mission accomplished, but really he had simply avoided being bullied by the mercurial leader of the free world.
When, a few days later, former MMA fighter Conor McGregor rocked up at the White House to "represent the Irish people", the Government was dragged into a problem not of its own creation, a common enough theme of the last 100 days, the most notable of which was, of course, the tariffs threatened by Mr Trump.
While those have been paused, there is no question that the announcement spooked the Government, which immediately went into firefighting mode and, it must be said, looked its most effective thus far.
But the last week of controversy around the appointment of Mr McDonagh - and his retention of his €430,000 salary - has exposed the fault lines in the Government.
The race to apportion blame for the mess was quick and partisan, but there is an old line that ministers use about cabinet collective responsibility. This is a governmental mess and everyone will take some blame in public.
With the first term down, the inability to get out of first gear will frustrate both Mr Martin and Mr Harris, though neither will panic. They will, however, hope that they can break out the cake - or green tea - sometime soon.
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