Story of the Week
It’s the election innit? Or the non-election. We are not allowed to say the word “unexciting” or “boring” in the Irish Times political team but the campaign has been about as bland and unstimulating as an Uncle Colm monologue on Derry Girls.
After two weeks, it hasn’t taken off and it’s not dominating. There are a flotilla of issues (cost of living, housing, health, childcare, immigration) but none are dominating and none seems strong enough, in itself, to sway voters one way or the other. Nor is there a surge for any party, or particularly momentum behind any leader.
How do you analyse that inertia? Are people unhappy with some issues but content (or what passes for content) overall? Are they still uncertain, and sifting through the evidence, and have yet to make their minds up? Are they overall unhappy but not riled up sufficiently to express it?
We have had a 10-way leaders’ debate this week, controversy over a Fine Gael candidate in Co Louth, and a celebrity criminal entering the fray in Dublin Central. The weekend and the first three days of next week will be crucial. We can anticipate an Irish Times poll and a leaders’ debate involving the only three politicians who have the potential to be taoiseach: Simon Harris, Micheál Martin and Mary Lou McDonald.
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Faux pas
There were a couple to choose from but a few were, to use the argot of Mary Lou McDonald, “faux”. Sinn Féin and Fine Gael had a bit of a bust-up about a Fine Gael attack ad that implied that Sinn Féin would raid the €16 billion rainy day State piggy bank. Pearse Doherty was not best pleased and accused Fine Gael of “blatant lies” and “deliberate disinformation”.
The best bust-up, though, was the one that actually included the word “faux” in it. It occurred during the Leaders’ debate and began when Mary Lou McDonald directed a barb at Simon Harris over his approach to the scoliosis issue. She clearly hit a nerve.
McDonald: “I think this faux concern for the future of children needs to be called out.”
Harris: “How dare you. How dare you accuse anyone of faux concern for children. Who do you think you are, that you have some sort of monopoly on compassion? There’s no faux concern. I don’t know any member of the Dáil in any political party, or any candidate running for the Dáíl who has faux concern for children. So perhaps we could have a respectful debate.”
In fairness, after that standing count, she did recover well.
McDonald: “Nobody has a monopoly on compassion. I agree with you, but here’s the thing: you and Micheál Martin have had a monopoly on power for a very long time.”
That’s all very well but does any of this affect me?
The most interesting press conference of the week was the launch of the Aontú manifesto. The press corps landed, the press conference started but there was one teensy-weensy problem. There were no copies of the manifesto available. The printing process had been, erm, slightly delayed. Anyway the press conference continued for almost 40 minutes with Peadar Tóibín and company setting out the details of a document that, erm, wasn’t there. When the copies finally arrived, literally hot off the printing press, they served as great hand warmers on the coldest day of the year.
There was one very novel idea in the document called Operation Shamrock. It proposes a €5,000 grant to attract Irish people working abroad to relocate home, with a €10,000 tax relief package to keep them here. Almost worth the wait!
Banana skin
Sinn Féin’s manifesto includes a pledge to commission an “independent human rights and journalist expert review into the objectivity of coverage by RTÉ of the Israeli genocide in Gaza and other international conflicts”.
Talk about opening a can of worms.
The first – and really big – difficulty with the proposal was its implicit claim that RTE’s coverage of the Gaza invasion and wider Middle East conflict has been biased.
The pledge has provoked strong criticism – and outrage – from other parties, from journalists, from the NUJ and from other civil society groups. There have been claims that it is censorship, media restrictions, or trying to control the independence and agenda of media and broadcasting organisations.
Mary Lou McDonald has spent the week defending the measure. At the manifesto launch she argued that peer reviews were common in every professional walk of life. She also said it would be carried out independently by media and human rights experts, and would not involve political interference from the government of the day.
Others point out that that is the very role carried out by Coimisiún na Meán in this area.
Besides, picking the international experts would be another exercise fraught with division, as each would be scrutinised to see if they brought any conscious or unconscious bias to the table.
The very inclusion of the pledge does suggest Sinn Féin believes RTÉ coverage is biased. The party leader was grilled about this issue by Claire Byrne on Friday and repeatedly asked to name a reporter or journalist that would have prompted the decision. She did not do so.
Winners
Joan Collins and Peadar Tóibín
Even though they represent parties with only one Dáil seat, both were present for the 10-way leaders’ debate on RTÉ on Monday night. Collins is the leader of the micro left-wing party Right to Change and is its only TD. The party is based almost wholly in her constituency of Dublin South Central and she is its only Dáil candidate. In contrast, Tóibín’s party is running a candidate in all 43 constituencies and has real hopes of winning in three, perhaps four, constituencies.
Loser
The Louth Senator might have thought he had put a 2018 late-night street altercation behind him. In 2022, he was acquitted in the criminal courts of assault causing harm to a Co Monaghan farmer, Breen White, outside a pub in Dundalk.
After a civil case in the High Court in May this year, he was found 65 per cent at fault for the assault (White was found 35 per cent liable).
But that was May and the incident faded a little from the public consciousness.
However, video footage of the incident, as well as photographs of the bruises and cuts White sustained in the assault, were in wide circulation last weekend, putting McGahon, Fine Gael and its leader Simon Harris into the centre of a storm of controversy. Under considerable criticism from rival parties, Harris stood by McGahon. For his part, the candidate in the Louth constituency issued no public statement and has not been seen on national media. It’s hard to see how his campaign has not been impacted by this.
The Big Read
There’s lots of election reads coming at IrishTimes.com this weekend. Here are some of the big ones:
How much does it cost to run a general election campaign? Cormac McQuinn takes a look
Sarah Burns speaks to new Irish immigrant candidates while Sorcha Pollak speaks to new Irish voters.
Jack Horgan Jones takes a look at the rise of the Independents
Hear here
Simon Harris spoke to the Inside Politics podcast and answered a range of voter questions. Here is the transcript and the podcast.
Simon Harris says no to a 'four or five' party coalition - and answers your questions
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