The Politics Fix

Coalition talks are like Santa’s Grotto as Independents are busy writing their lists

Your essential end-of-week politics catch up a Israel enters a war of words with Ireland

Verona Murphy after being named as the new Ceann Comhairle. Photograph; Maxwells/PA
Verona Murphy after being named as the new Ceann Comhairle. Photograph; Maxwells/PA
Harry McGee's picture
Harry McGee
Fri Dec 20 2024 - 14:38

Story of the Week

Well the die has been cast. One by one the others have peeled off. Sinn Féin never got a look in. Not personal said Micheál Martin. All to do with policy. Ideological incompatibility. Didn’t stop him having a cut at Sinn Féin on the opening day of the 34th Dáil on Wednesday. Sometimes, he just can’t help himself.

What about Labour? Well, we are were all surprised that it actually stayed in the game for a second week. There were a few in the party keen to go into government but from the start the majority of its TDs were iffy about it. They saw what had happened to the Greens. Besides, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael didn’t seem overly enthusiastic about their ‘red lines’ which includes a State development company. If they were going in they would have to show something tangible. They were gone by Thursday.

For now, the Social Democrats are still in talks but there are very few around Leinster House expects any outcome rather than the party going into Opposition. A delegation form the party met Fine Gael in Thursday and the parliamentary party will meet after Christmas to discuss its options. At this moment in time, it just looks unlikely.

So that leaves the Independents. The moment when we all knew the inevitable was happening when the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael both recommended to their members to back Verona Murphy for the job as Ceann Comhairle.

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It’s a bit like Santa’s Grotto. The Independents of the Regional Group are all now getting into an orderly line and busily writing out their lists.

Bust up

Few Irish people would have known who Gideon Saar was before the beginning of this week. But he is much better known now given his war of words with Ireland, with the President Michael D Higgins, with Taoiseach Simon Harris, and just about anybody who has the temerity to challenge Israel’s right to defend itself.

The row started when Israel announced it was closing its embassy in Ireland. Israeli Ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich cited the current hostile atmosphere in Ireland towards Israel, in addition to some of the recent decisions taken by Ireland (presumably the recognition of the Palestinian State, its support for the South African case alleging genocide at the International Court of Justice, and the cross-party support for the Occupied Territories Bill). She also claimed that there was a growing hatred of anything Israeli and there had been a surge of anti-Semitism in Ireland in the past year.

But that was nothing compared to Saar. When the Taoiseach rejected the criticism of Israel, the foreign minister described Ireland as an “anti-Semitic” State. That criticism was roundly rejected by Harris, by Tánaiste Micheál Martin and by the President who described it as a “gross defamation” and a “deep slander”. Saar then alleged that the President and the Taoiseach were both anti-Semitic.

The argument that all the political leaders have made is that it a distortion and a lie to claim as anti-Semitic a poltiica response that recognises a two-State solution (and a meaningful one, not just arid patches of unconnected land) and which condemns the brutality and excesses of Israel’s annihilation of Gaza.

That’s all very well but does any of this affect me?

There’s another election about to happen, in case you have not noticed. In fact a number of elections but for the same assembly, the State’s Upper House, otherwise known as Seanad Éireann. There are 60 seats in total but 11 of those are nominated by the Taoiseach of the day. A further six are elected by university graduates and then 43 by county councillors, by TDs, and by outgoing senators. There are five vocational panels. The panels are further complicated by the fact there are “outside” and “inside” nominations. The latter provided a slightly easier path to getting elected as they limit the number of candidates, and the candidates are nominated only by TDs.

If you are not a public representative, a university graduate, or the taoiseach of the day, the election will have no impact on you, as you will not have a franchise.

Banana skin

The arrangement with Independents will be different this time around than when the famous deals were done with Jackie Healy-Rae, Mildred Fox, and Harry Blaney in 1997. Then it was delivering projects to constituencies. Now it’s more about delivering Mercs or half-Mercs to Independent TDs. As of Friday at least four members of the Regional Group have expressed an interest in getting a ministerial position, even though the horse trading on that will not begin in earnest until January. The latest is Galway West TD Noel Grealish.

The is likely to turn out badly for one or two as it looks like the largesse of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will be limited. As Boxer Moran told Cormac McQuinn on Friday, there will not be ministerial jobs for all of them.

Winners and losers

The winner was Verona Murphy. The first woman Ceann Comhairle. Not everybody in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael loves her and she has indulged in some intemperate criticism so opponents in the past. She certainly has the requisite toughness to do the job. As Miriam Lord noted she was the only one of the four candidates to stick to her five minute slot and, uncharacteristically, did not utter a word upon being elected Ceann Comhairle.

The loser is the outgoing Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl. He had already served two terms and surprised people by saying he would like to serve part of a third term. But then he did not get the backing of his own party or Fine Gael. When they backed Murphy, he got a lot of media attention by saying that it was using he job as a bargaining chip, and impacting the primacy of the Dáil. But the rearguard action was not enough, he trailed in third behind Murphy and Sinn Féin’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh.

The Big Read

Marie O’Halloran has an interview with former Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy

Miriam Lord is handing out her end-of-year gongs. Should be great reading this year, given we had three elections and a referendum!

Hear here

On the Inside Politics podcast this week Eoghan Murphy speaks to Hugh Linehan about his time as housing minister and what governing looks like from the inside.

‘All of a sudden you’re not being called into the Taoiseach’s department on a Saturday afternoon for the crisis meeting because they don’t want the press seeing you going in because it’s like, oh, Christ.’

—  Eoghan Murphy