Dáil’s first year had only one item on the agenda

World of Politics with Harry McGee

It’s hard to believe it’s a year since the election – possibly because it took half of that year for a government to be formed. But mostly because Covid-19 has dominated everything, almost from the very start. We are used to the concept of a single-issue candidate – but a single-issue government is one that takes a bit of getting used to. And like it or not, this government will be defined by corononavirus, or at least the Fianna Fáil half of it will.

The bulk of Micheál Martin’s two-and-a-half years will be taken up with firefighting. Will he and his party benefit from it? Will they hell. People will look at the damaged part of the economy, not the parts that the Government went out on a limb to save.

The politicians who will get credit will be those who oversee the recovery. That could be Leo Varadkar and Fine Gael or – if the recovery is slower than anticipated – it will be Mary Lou McDonald and Sinn Féin.

Was it a mistake for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to go into coalition together? Sure – both parties have acted responsibly. But the upshot is that it’s almost impossible to tell them apart.

Until now, there was at least a thin veneer of identity differential. Now it’s almost impossible to point out anything that sets them apart – even on Northern Ireland, Fianna Fáil under Micheál Martin have evolved to become very traditional Fine Gael in its views on the North.

Martin will argue that it’s the Jack Lynch tradition. Maybe so, but he was not as much a standard bearer for that tradition as was Garrett FitzGerald.

As for the Greens, they are so much on board that they too are becoming very similar. The party will get big wins on sustainable transport and climate change but that won’t be enough.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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