The backbench canary in the leadership mine

Sometimes it is not what is said, but the mere fact of it being said at all.

Fine Gael's Kate O'Connell, speaking on The Irish Times Inside Politics weekly podcast, had words that will worm in the ears of her party and her leader.

O’Connell recently criticised Enda Kenny’s decision to create another three junior ministries, increasing the number from 15 to 18, as “jobs for the boys”.

“I just can’t see the logic in it unless they had two lads left over, and just made up a few jobs.”

"There are exceptions to openness, whenever it suits," was the verdict of the deal between Kenny and Micheál Martin on Seanad positions.

On the Eighth Amendment, many in Fine Gael are "allergic" to the issue. O'Connell, whose baby had a fatal foetal abnormality, said the time has come "for the lads to take their heads out of the sand and get on with it".

In isolation, the comments of a backbencher on colleagues who achieved ministerial office, and on as personal an issue as abortion rights, would hardly warrant a second thought. Yet O’Connell’s interview is an indication that Fine Gael is starting to look at life beyond Kenny.

A first time TD clearly has no care whether her leader is annoyed by her actions. What can he possibly do for O’Connell, and others like her, now anyway?

Kenny has played his last hand with his parliamentary party. The people who will decide when it is time for him to go. Barring a few committee chairs - which are scant consolation to those passed over for ministerial office - the Taoiseach has no more jobs to give out.

He has said he will not lead Fine Gael into the next election, and indicated in a weekend interview with the Irish Independent that he has a firm idea about the manner of his departure, while sticking to the implausible, yet necessary, public position that he will serve a full term.

Does it mean a leadership challenge is on the way? Of course not. Kenny is still setting in for a second term and his friends insist he will know when his time is up. The timeframe on that is put at a year to eighteen months. Those at the top of the party insist they are just getting on with their jobs and are not concerned with the leadership.

But if someone like O’Connell can feel free to criticise the leadership, others will feel emboldened to follow. Not necessarily now, or soon, but at a time of their choosing and on an issue of concern to them.

On the podcast, O’Connell was asked by my colleagues Harry McGee and Hugh Linehan whether she was getting ready to resurrect the last Dáil’s five-a-side team of slightly disengaged deputies.

“It’s more S Club 7, I think!” she joked.

Others in Fine Gael have said the team could expand to a full GAA 15.

Kenny must hope they do not find their voices as O’Connell did, because his authority will slip further with everyone.

Devaluing the Dáil?

The Government yesterday decided not to oppose the Fianna Fáil motion on motor insurance costs but, much like the Labour motion last week, it is unlikely much will be done about it.

Fine Gael seems to have decided that it is better to retreat more often than fight, given the overwhelming numbers stacked against it. The Government deciding not to oppose an Opposition motion will cause fewer ripples than a parliamentary defeat.

To use that horrible phrase, this is all “the new normal” in times of minority government but could it have the effect of devaluing the parliament?

If the Dáil continually inflicts defeats on the Government, or if the Government continually allows motions to pass, a stockpile of largely useless motions will build on the scrapheap.

The danger is that the public could, in such circumstances, come to see the Dáil as a limp parliament, rather than empowered, as had been promised.