Political World
Kenny snub to neighbours leaves Galway in the cold
World of Politics with Harry McGee
I was on leave last week and stayed (mostly) away from current affairs. Like the Garda holding the speed radar in the Kit Kat ad, the moment I turned my back, all hell broke less.
A slight exaggeration, but the reshuffle of the junior Cabinet did turn out to be almost as eventful as the one involving senior Ministers the week before.
It was always known that when the axe fell in Fine Gael, most of the action would be taking place in the junior ranks.
Enda Kenny is a minimalist by nature. A lot of his thinking was informed by a disastrous reshuffle in the 1980s in which Garret FitzGerald tried to chop and change but which backfired spectacularly. The 2010 leadership battle showed that Kenny can be ruthless but against that he is incredibly loyal to those who support him. So there was a genuine belief right up to the end that Jimmy Deenihan might be saved.
That loyalty did not really extend to the junior ranks. He had some room for manoeuvre. Paschal Donohoe had been promoted; Brian Hayes had moved on to Europe. There were another two who could not be moved. Paul Kehoe is one of his most loyal lieutenants and would not be sacked. However, it was never likely he would be promoted so he stayed put as chief whip.
The other certainty was Michael Ring. If Kenny sacked Ring as a junior minister, there would have been all-out war in Mayo and that was the last thing a Taoiseach defending in a constituency with a reduced seat count needed.
But the others were tumbled. Fergus O’Dowd, John Perry, Ciaran Cannon and Dinny McGinley were all sacked, all of them replaced by Fine Gaelers of the younger generation – Simon Harris, Dara Murphy, Damien English and Joe McHugh.
With such a large parliamentary party, with such a geographical divide and with such a limited number of seats it was always going to be hard for Kenny to satisfy his own TDs.
But that said, the new selections were attacked under three counts: the lack of women, the poor geographical spread; and the lack of expertise of one of the appointments.
Let’s deal with them in turn. Back in 2011, there was justified criticism of the disproportionately large male representation in Cabinet. Some of this was directed at Labour and then leader Eamon Gilmore’s decision to promote only one woman.
Well that woman is now leader and it was always a certainty that Joan Burton would correct that balance by promoting a female colleague to senior Ministry. And that choice was Jan O’Sullivan who is very efficient and relatively effective but who won’t be the most dynamic Minister of Education in the history of the State.
On the Fine Gael side, Heather Humphreys was a surprise choice. She has been a solid backbencher but there is absolutely no evidence she has a feel or knowledge of Arts, Hertitage and the Gaeltacht.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
World of Politics with Harry McGee
Academically, politics is described as a science. But in the real world, it’s more of an art – and one of the big decisions a Government has to make is to decide when to call an election.
Will they see out the full term, or will they go early – either to mitigate the damage they will ship, or to secure a victory before things go awry, or the economy takes a dip, or some kind of controversy erupts?
Timing is everything.
And there’s a bit of art to that – not to mention a lot of luck. If you call it early and win big, you’re a genius. If you call it early and lose, you are the political version of the village fool.
Charlie Haughey was a poor judge of the public mood. Twice he called snap elections and on both occasions they backfired. Haughey succeeded Jack Lynch as Taoiseach in late 1979 and did not – technically – have his own mandate. He tried to remedy that by calling an election in 1981. But it recoiled. Ray MacSharry warned him not to hold it during the H Block hunger strikes when republican prisoners were dying each day. He did not listen to the advice and found himself out of office.
After his return to power in 1987, Haughey tired of presiding over a minority government that kept on losing votes in the Oireachtas (the opposition won nine private members motions).
So he called a snap general election and it backfired. Fianna Fáil lost seats and had to broker a coalition deal with the Progressive Democrats and his long-standing political adversary Dessie O’Malley.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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World of Politics with Harry McGee
I was cycling down Mount Street in Dublin on Tuesday. It’s a wide esplanade that links the Grand Canal with Merrion Square. The street is a mixture of fine Georgian buildings and modern office blocks.
About half-way down is the office of the International Protection Office, which deals with asylum seekers who have arrived in the country.
Needless to say, the office has been overwhelmed in the past year. Besides an estimated 80,000 refugees who have arrived from Ukraine, there have been about 20,000 people from other parts of the world who have arrived into Dublin (mostly) claiming asylum.
The numbers peaked around Christmas, but they have been falling a little. In January, more than 1,300 people arrived seeking asylum but the numbers fell back to 831 and 858, in February and March respectively.
They are still huge numbers in a historical context.
So back to my cycle on Tuesday. I knew that some asylum seekers were camping outside the International Protection Office, but I was taken aback by how many. There were six tents lined up on the pavement directly outside. Then on the ramp that led down to the basement carpark on the side of the building, there were about another 20 tents.
It looked like what it was, a refugee camp in the middle of Dublin’s business district. If you pan out from Mount Street, you will find tents here and there in nearby streets and alleys. There were a good few tents in an alleyway off Sandwith Street about 500 metres away.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
World of Politics with Harry McGee
God that was a dramatic and historic weekend in England, wasn’t it? So much excitement, so much change, so much hype, so much out with the old and in with the new, and what looks like the coronation of a new leader. Yes, the local elections in Britain were something else weren’t they!
Apologies for not going on about King Charles III but the contract I signed when I became a lifelong republican forbids me to discuss the topic!
I know the British local elections sound a bit boring by comparison, but the results were stunning.
The Conservatives lost nearly 1,000 seats, the British Labour Party gained almost 500 and both the Lib Dems (with 350 gains) and the Greens (gaining over 200) also had amazing days at the polls.
It was Labour’s best day since 2002 but its victory was only partial. The Greens and the Lib Dems actually made gains at the expense of Labour in more affluent areas, and in parts of Britain where there were high numbers of graduates.
It was in the Red Wall constituencies in the North of England where the Labour recovery was strongest. These are working class constituencies with pockets of deprivation where people voted for the Labour Party forever. But all of those constituencies voted for Brexit and then voted for the Tories in the next general election. Labour is now winning back some of those votes.
Local elections are classified as second-tier elections which essentially means – from a national perspective – they are not life-or-death affairs, and not everything turns on them. Of course, it’s really important to have good local representation. But they are not an amazing weather vane for who rules the country.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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