Reasons to be cheerful?
Not many in the Dáil.
For the second week in a row, deputies discussed the rising cost of living, the “runaway train” of grocery prices and ongoing uncertainty over the cost of third-level fees this year.
Wait for the budget, says the Government.
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Act now, urges the Opposition.
And yet, there is always something to smile about.
The Taoiseach, having returned from his big trip to Japan in plenty of time for Sunday week’s All-Ireland hurling final, was in good form. From the Land of the Rising Sun to the Chamber of the Rising Spirits.
Even though he was back suffering his daily disappointment with the Sinn Féin leader, the usual tetchiness was absent from their exchanges.
Cork steamrolling their way over a valiant Dublin into the All-Ireland final had him positively giddy at times.
Across the floor, Mary Lou McDonald seemed to have an extra pep to her step too. She was in the pink.
Was that a Statement Jacket?
She probably grabbed it from her wardrobe yesterday morning because the weather is lovely and summery, but we may as well keep the Presidential guessing-game going even if we’re heartily sick and tired of it already.
A run for the Park for the President of Sinn Féin?
When asked about this on Monday, a very coy Mary Lou didn’t rule it in and she didn’t rule it out. Consequently, her intention and prospects were a topic of much discussion around Leinster House when the Dáil resumed on Tuesday.
Why not bask in the moment, whatever her decision?
She could teach Joe Duffy a thing or two about the dance of the seven veils.
Another reason to be cheerful – the shared realisation on all sides that next week is the final one before the long summer recess.
For a parliament routinely derided by detractors as the Do Nothing Dáil, an awful lot of people say they are worn out after its first turbulent term.
This is not the reason why the main Opposition parties choose to stick with a topic they pursued all last week when plenty more issues could have been examined. There was still good mileage to be had out of blaming the Government for escalating grocery prices while harrying it for an answer on whether or not households will facing an increase in third-level fees in September.
The issues were well ventilated last week, with Micheál’s stand-ins unable to “clarify” the question over the annual student contribution charge.
Such a simple question. So easy to understand.
Will the fee remain at €2,000 – as capped by the Government for the past three years in one-off cost-of-living measures – or will it revert to €3,000?
They didn’t get an answer last week. How can they give clarity on a financial move which has yet to be decided, argued the Minister for Public Expenditure, Jack Chambers, and the Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe.
The budget is in October. The first fee instalment must be paid in September.
This is open-goal territory for the Opposition.
TDs ask what comfort this is to parents planning their budgets or students working to fund their education while wondering if they will have to find an extra €1,000 for next year’s fees.
Heavy hints about easing the burden through “the budgetary process” are lost when the politicians in charge can’t answer a simple €1,000 question.
With the Taoiseach returned from his travels and Dáil refusals in the bag from at least two of his ministers, it was time to ask him the question to land the definitive non-answer.
Micheál wouldn’t talk numbers either.
“I invite you again to answer that question” entreated Mary Lou. The one that hasn’t been answered for “Nine. Whole. Days.”
Labour leader Ivana Bacik – also wearing a bright pink jacket (is she considering an Áras bid too?) – asked for clarity. “Do you rule out that increase?”
But Micheál wasn’t touching the €1,000 question.
Instead, he talked of targeting measures to benefit those children who need them most.
“Education has always been at the core of why I am in politics,” he declared, adding he joined Fianna Fáil because it was the party of Donogh O’Malley, the visionary Minister for Education who brought in free secondary school education in the early 1960s.
“Throughout my political life, my fundamental motivation has been to ensure the children furthest behind are given priority. It is about access and participation.”
What about the children who are being left behind – missing out on school trips and activities because their parents are battling the “runaway train” of rising grocery prices, asked Cian O’Callaghan of the Social Democrats.
“In some instances, they can’t go to their friends’ birthday parties because there is no money for a present.”
Can he not help them?
Cian doesn’t want a fee increase either.
The Taoiseach paused to make a general comment about “all the parties on the left” and their attitude to meeting funding needs.
It’s a case of everything everywhere all at once.
Or, as Micheál called it, “universality”.
A luxury enjoyed by the Opposition but one which his Government has to avoid.
It’s all well and good to go waltzing down the full-and-plenty route when somebody else is holding the purse strings, but he has to face Paschal and Jack before promising the divil and all to one and all.
“All the parties on the left favour universality in everything in terms of provision and have not argued once today for targeting or prioritising those left furthest behind.”
“Every single one of them,” nodded Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.
“It’s been very interesting that in the past 10 days, including today, their entire focus has been on giving everybody everything. Whatever scheme is brought in … it’s a case of giving everybody everything."
He advanced the time-honoured mantra of the pre-budget leader – “there is only so much money” – and argued that billions of euro can be spent, but it has to be targeted.
Does the Opposition “have the political guts to target”, he wondered.
Cian replied by asking him if he has the “political guts to make supermarkets publish their profits” in Ireland.
“We have the guts to take on anyone who is price gouging on groceries,” came the reply.
So why hasn’t it been done?
Micheál reverted to type.
“I think we need an evidence-based approach.”
The fees argument continued into the night after Sinn Féin tabled a motion and tried to have the Government’s political guts for garters.
“Education is not a luxury, it is a right,” was their bottom line.
Further and Higher Education Minister James Lawless was not impressed.
“Some parties want to make noise. I want to make progress.”
