Coalition partners sending mixed messages on housing

Good morning,

With a temporary eviction ban seemingly on the way, it is a truism that housing remains the soft underbelly of the Government, even though its status as “crisis of the day” has waxed and waned since the Coalition came to power. What’s more interesting is the emergence of housing as a fault line within the Coalition, rather than just an angle of attack for the Opposition.

It can be traced, roughly, to the Taoiseach indicating at the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis that Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien was safe in his position, come December’s reshuffle.

The comments were enough to knock Fine Gael noses out of joint. Sources in the party were quick to draw journalists’ attention to tweets issued as subtle rebukes to the Taoiseach – notably by Ciaran Cannon, the former minister of state who said that commenting on who is in what job after the reshuffle is “irrelevant”.

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In truth, it all felt a little contrived and it probably was. It was more of an opportunity to signal a difference between the parties, rather than a genuine row. Recall that polling suggests the two will be facing off for middle-ground votes come next election, so establishing how they are different is key for both in the medium term.

Since then, however, the ill-feeling has festered. The concrete blocks levy was introduced by a Fine Gael minister and resisted most loudly by Fianna Fáil backbenchers. An eviction ban was hatched by Fianna Fáil, seemingly without much engagement across Government, and encouraged by the Taoiseach in Prague as the Tánaiste was simultaneously pouring tepid, if not cold, water on it in the Dáil. It certainly raised eyebrows in Fine Gael if not outright opposition, and there are definite misgivings in the party even as the policy seems to be signed off, as Pat Leahy and Cormac McQuinn report in our lead.

Then, last week, Fine Gael had a couple of breakout sessions after its parliamentary party meeting to brainstorm ideas on housing. Many of them, unsurprisingly, found their way into the papers – underscored by no shortage of Fine Gael figures privately griping that the pressure on housing was building, and that output from O’Brien’s flagship Housing for All policy needed to improve amid fears that performance will dip next year. The backlash to the story was anything but contrived. There was real frustration and anger from Fianna Fáil, privately and publicly (“They basically outsourced housing to us for the last two years and let us do a 360 on their market-focused policy,” fumed one TD over text). Kildare North TD James Lawless and Dublin North-West’s Paul McAuliffe tweeted defending Fianna Fáil, with Lawless going in studs in on his Coalition colleagues, pointing out in a tweet that FG had been in charge of housing for 10 of the last 12 years, and exasperatedly pleading “spare me” in a follow-up piece in the Sunday Independent.

It is early days on this, but fault lines are emerging. In a Coalition that decided early in its life that it would hang together even as it misfired, this matters. And it’s visible elsewhere: climate (the turf war with the Greens) or squabbles over justice, with FF backbenchers clubbing together to take pot shots at Helen McEntee on law and order issues (one privately described her approach to me recently as “all woke no stick”).

These are issues that could move from simmering to boiling point quite swiftly, with unpredictable consequences.

Best reads

Fintan O’Toole on the full, unexpurgated version of Up the ‘Ra.

Conor Gallagher’s profile of former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall, a “bobblehead” as a politician and now convicted and sentenced for helping a criminal gang murder a rival.

Gerard Howlin on the politics of inflation.

Playbook

There is a rare pre-Cabinet press call for all the Fine Gael ministers at the ungodly (by political standards) hour of 8.30am.

That’s followed by Cabinet, which meets at 10am. Here’s a tee-up of what’s being discussed.

It is 10 years this month since the death of Savita Halappanavar sent shock waves through Irish society. A press event is being held at 11am in Buswells Hotel to mark it. Labour are on the plinth talking about the Reproductive Leave petition, which calls for 20 days’ leave for those who experience early miscarriage and 10 days for fertility treatments, at 11am.

Stephen Donnelly is out after Cabinet, opening a new menopause clinic – while Charlie McConalogue is in the agreeable surroundings of Milan promoting Bord Bia.

In the afternoon Simon Coveney and Minister of State Colm Brophy are out launching Ireland’s official development assistance annual report. That’s at 3.30pm.

Over in Westminster, Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is being questioned about the Stormont suspension and the Northern Ireland protocol at 2.30pm.

In the Dáil, Leaders’ Questions is at 2pm. There is a Sinn Féin Private Members’ motion on domestic electricity and gas disconnections at 7pm, before Simon Harris takes oral questions at 9pm. Topical issues is at 10.30pm.

The full schedule is here.

Heavy policy lifting over at the committees, with mental health supports in education, perinatal mental health and autism policy and health all in the morning. Eamon Ryan is in the environment committee on departmental matters at 12.30pm, and the justice committee is hearing from a variety of civil society and State stakeholders on the General Scheme of the Inspection of Places of Detention Bill. Officials from Cork and Galway city councils are up at the housing committee, and the children’s committee is hearing from officials and others on the domestic violence leave provisions of the Organisation of Working Time Bill.

The full schedule is here.

In the Seanad, the main business of the day falls in the evening with Government Business: statements on the summer programme are from 4.45pm, followed by the report stage of the Garda Síochána (Compensation) Bill 2021 and the committee stage of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill.

Here’s the running order.