Louise Burne: Our 'do nothing Dáil' is much more appealing than Britain's omnishambles
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Taoiseach Micheál Martin ahead of a business roundtable at the Albert Dock in Liverpool, after the first in a new series of annual UK-Ireland Summits last year. File picture
For decades, it has become a phenomenon for Irish people in their mid-20s to wave goodbye to their hometowns and villages and make the big move to London.
Some stay for a few years before eventually coming home. Others make it their new forever home, staying for a career, the top-class (but expensive) public transport system, or, more often than not, love.
Those of us who stay behind in Ireland make the trek over every few months for a visit and are subject to continuous attempts to twist our arms in the hopes we will also decide to make the jump and move across the Irish Sea.
The cultural scene is better, the lights are brighter, and there is a train to the airport. In fact, there are multiple trains to multiple airports. Can you imagine?
One recent departee even tried to tell me a few weeks ago during my latest visit that it never rains in London. At least it does not rain as much as in Dublin, she backtracked. The jury is still out on that argument.
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On one of my expeditions to London three years ago, two friends attempted to convince me that being a political journalist in the House of Commons would be far more interesting than my job in Leinster House could ever be.
Imagine the controversies, they said. Imagine how busy you would be. Imagine the drama. Imagine the stress, I replied. Imagine the sleepless nights. Imagine the constant uncertainty.
But as I sat in Leinster House this week watching the same debates over and over again in the Dáil chamber, I found myself longing to be watching the latest psychodrama in the British parliament.
Then I started to wonder if we should actually be glad that our politics is as humdrum as it currently is.
British prime minister Keir Starmer has been hanging on by a thread all week, with things appearing to go from bad to worse to worse again hour after hour. There have been multiple times this week when it looked like he would not make it to the end of the day.
The release of the files examining the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and the revelations about Peter Mandelson’s relationship with the now deceased paedophile have sent the UK into a spiral.
In a matter of hours, Starmer lost his chief of staff, Cork man Morgan McSweeney, and communications director Tim Allan.
If the Taoiseach’s chief of staff and government press secretary both resigned within 24 hours, there is no doubt that he would have been leaving Government Buildings behind them.
Yet Starmer seems to be hanging on in there. How long he will last is another question.
In the last 10 years, the Brits have had six prime ministers. David Cameron and Theresa May both stood down at various stages of the British omnishambles.
Boris ‘Thems the Breaks’ Johnson stood down in July 2022 following a rake of resignations due to a plethora of scandals, including, but not limited to, the Partygate scandal and misleading the parliament, and the resignation of his deputy whip, Chris Pincher, due to allegations of sexual misconduct.
Then you had Liz Truss, who famously lasted fewer days in No 10 after crashing the economy than a head of lettuce being livestreamed from a newspaper’s office.
Rishi Sunak had better success but then suffered catastrophic election losses that saw Labour re-enter Government for the first time in 14 years.
In Ireland, we have had four taoisigh in the same period. However, we have also had far less chaos.
There was pressure growing on Enda Kenny to resign due to dissatisfaction within the Fine Gael ranks, but he ultimately decided to stand down and later retire.
Leo Varadkar was Taoiseach, Tánaiste and then Taoiseach again before stepping down to leave politics completely in March 2023. He passed the torch to Simon Harris, who is now Tánaiste and is likely to be Taoiseach again.
This is Micheál Martin’s second time as Taoiseach.
While we have had many men leading our Government, we have had far greater stability and far less chaos than our friends in the United Kingdom.
The closest we have to a controversial resignation in recent years was in December as part of the constant “will they, won’t they” that surrounded the Fianna Fáil backbenchers following Mr Martin’s misguided belief that former Dublin GAA boss Jim Gavin had the necessary skills, personality, and ability to be the president of Ireland.
But even that anger did not stick. And perhaps that is why Irish politics seems so much more lacklustre than British politics in recent months; Nothing is sticking.
Since the Government was formed in January 2025, there have been bursts of excitement and glimpses of scandals.
They usually vanish as quickly as they appear. This Government has been continuously accused of presiding over a “do nothing Dáil”.
The speaking row, which lasted for a whopping six months between January and June 2026, caused blaring rows and Dáil suspensions.
More importantly, however, it meant that legislation was stymied for months as the Oireachtas committees could not be established while the row was ongoing.
By the time the argument was sorted, it was summertime.
When TDs returned after the recess, it was straight into the budget and then the presidential election. And then it was Christmas.
Now, a full year after the Government was formed, it is only really getting down to full-time work in Leinster House.
While legislation is finally starting to flow through the legislative system, it is certainly not setting the world alight.
The opposition has also left a lot to be desired. Oftentimes, it feels like you are watching a repeat of Leaders’ Questions every day as the same topics are trotted out day in, day out.
While things like cost-of-living payments and energy credits warrant discussion, it feels like Sinn Féin turns to them every time they cannot think of something to raise.
If they were getting different answers or forcing the Government to backtrack and dish out money, you would not mind. But all they are getting are clips of rows between the Government and opposition benches to post on social media.
The Labour Party and the Social Democrats are faring no better, and despite countless motions and bills each week, nothing is having any impact.
The closest thing we got to a controversy in the Dáil this week was the Government's decision to plough through new rent reforms.
The opposition claimed that this would add between €3,000 and €5,000 a year to people’s rent, as they fumed at the fact that the Government was not allowing proper scrutiny.
It was controversial. But not a controversy. But at least it focused on an actual issue rather than an existential drama.
There have been none of the disasters we saw in the last Government. No attempts to make Katherine Zappone a UN special envoy, no bid to manufacture a secondment for Dr Tony Holohan, no sharing of documents about GP contracts.
But maybe we are better off this way.
It may be dull, but at least our Government is more stable than our British friends. While they make mistakes, they are not as damning. Or at least they have not been in the last year.
While some politicians probably do have dodgy friends, at least none of them appear to have been mates with Jeffrey Epstein.
While we continue to wait for the Dáil and our TDs to wake up and make things a little more exciting, perhaps for now we should just thank our lucky stars that we are not in the UK.
After the never-ending downpours here over the last few weeks, the most appealing thing about London right now is the apparent lack of rain.
And that is not even true.
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