Miriam Lord: Electrical sparks fly in face of darkness descending

Keep her lit, Micheál!

This was the unanimous message from Dáil Éireann.

But to be totally clear here, it’s merely a figure of speech and not intended in any way to insult or diminish Mary Lou McDonald because she is a woman. (Even if the sight of Micheál Martin ignites flames of scorching contempt in the Sinn Féin leader and the Taoiseach increasingly looks on the verge of spontaneous combustion.)

Between a “generation gap” threatening electricity blackouts around the country and a gender war flaring up in the chamber, the sparks were flying between Micheál and Mary Lou on Wednesday. Business as usual, in other words.

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Leaders Questions kicked off with the standard pleasantries which accompany all exchanges between the two on housing policy. The routine is well-established now: the Sinn Féin leader excoriates the Government for its scandalous dereliction of duty on the housing front, the Taoiseach for his failure to understand the gravity of the crisis because he is living in a fantasy world and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for lining the pockets of wealthy developers to the detriment of ordinary people who have been given a slap in the face yet again by the Coalition’s cosy boys’ club.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, argues Micheál.

But you’ve been going on about it for years with no appreciable results, reposts Mary Lou. “Blathering” is what she called it on Wednesday.

Then the Taoiseach lists, in great detail, all the work being done across all Government departments to speed up the implementation of the biggest house-building programme in the history of the State. He lays out the facts and figures.

“Eclipsing even the programmes of de Valera,” he said on Tuesday.

“You’re bluffing,” said Mary Lou.

“Spoofing” was the word on Wednesday.

Acrid exchanges

These acrid exchanges are becoming increasingly acrimonious. The Sinn Féin leader complains she cannot get the Taoiseach to respond to her crunching questions about why his coalition is failing miserably to solve the housing crisis. He hits back by accusing her party of consistently “exploiting” the crisis for base electoral gain and reels off all the vitally needed housing schemes voted down by her colleagues at local level.

Mary Lou turned to the Ceann Comhairle for help during this latest bust-up because she felt Micheál wasn’t giving her straight answers. Is it not the case during this set-piece session that questions are put and the Taoiseach “attempts” to answer them “to the best of his ability”?

She tacked on a condescending “however limited that may be”.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl kept his nose out of the spat and said he was not having a debate on the matter. But Mary Lou argued on, ignoring his pleas to sit down. The head of Government shouldn’t be indulging in diversionary tactics, she complained.

“Please Deputy, you’re bringing the House into disrepute!” cried the Ceann Comhairle.

“Ooooh!” went the ample ranks of Sinn Féin TDs around her, outraged at such a suggestion.

“What brings this house into disrepute is that kind of blather that we have had to listen to,” retorted their leader, giving way.

You see, nobody wants power outrages. (Except, maybe, Sinn Féin. It makes for good video clips, if not constructive opposition.) The same old, same old bickering and bad blood every day now between Taoiseach and the leader of Sinn Féin is getting extremely tiresome. There’s a pair of them in it – Micheál’s increasingly ratty reactions only seem to spur on Mary Lou.

Labour leader Alan Kelly brought up the really worrying subject of electrical power “outrages” (as opposed to two politicians blowing fuses on a daily basis) and asked the Taoiseach to assure the public “that the lights will stay on this winter”.

He was assured “everything that needs to be done will be done”.

Energy guzzlers

Maybe if the energy-guzzling, power-hungry data centres around the country were capped, the prospect of households facing possible electricity cuts in months to come would diminish, suggested the Social Democrats, calling for a pause in the rapid expansion of these data farms in a Dáil motion on Wednesday morning.

People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith said the problems we are having with energy supply are bound up with the Government’s commitment to building these facilities for global tech giants, which are seriously eating into Ireland’s climate targets. What’s it to be, she asked, “climate targets and data centres or climate target and heat?”

It’s not that simple, replied Micheál. Banning them would not be a “measured” response, not least because of the thousands of people employed by the tech companies. “Ireland has a great reputation of serving the interests of FDIs.”

That statement got Mary Lou going again.

“I find it extraordinary that you are prepared to leave households in the dark so that you could roll out the red carpet for data centres,” she told the Taoiseach, adding his government isn’t up to the basic task of “keeping the lights on” while people worry about rocketing energy costs and the threat of power cuts this winter.

She joined in the calls for a moratorium on new data centres.

Micheál got stuck in again, all riled up once again by his Sinn Féin tormentor.

If she thought the topic of energy cuts was that serious, why didn’t she bring it up during Leaders’ Questions? Labour leader Alan Kelly, “in fairness, understands the seriousness of the issue”, he condescended to her.

“Oh, so, I see!” Mary Lou sarcastically drawled, as if the Taoiseach had put her right on the facts.

“That is the reality, now Deputy,” he informed her.

“Thank you,” she replied sweetly, really hamming it up as her colleagues indignantly howled on her behalf.

‘Mere woman’

“I thank the Taoiseach for mansplaining the importance of a public policy issue to a mere woman like myself,” she sneered. “You’re very good, Micheál. Go raibh maith agat.”

He should have said no more after that, but he kept going.

“You didn’t see it as a priority issue today. That’s your decision, that’s your option and I fully respect that . . .”

(Mary Lou majored on housing, something he says is the biggest challenge facing the country today.)

He talked about the budget and protections “in terms of the costs and rising costs of energy”.

“I am really concentrating to understand your answer. I hope I can. I am really trying,” purred the Sinn Féin leader, derision dripping from every word.

“It’s not an issue of rolling out red carpets to anybody,” said Micheál.

“Is it not?” mocked Mary Lou. “Okay. If you say so.”

As for rolling out the red carpet, “that’s just classic sloganeering, the hallmark of your approach to every issue”, countered Micheál.

TDs were roaring on both sides of the floor.

“Political insults seem to be your preferred mode” came right back at him.

But mansplaining? Really, Mary Lou? This, coming from a leader who made a point of repeatedly and disparagingly referring to the Minister for Housing as “the Taoiseach’s man” and “your man” on Tuesday. A cheap shot.

The woman doth protest too much.