Could damaging stories of wanton waste become the election’s ‘events dear boy, events’?

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. There’s been endless speculation on the date of an election and its timing. There’s also the consideration of “events, dear boy, event”, to use Harold Macmillan’s memorable phrase. Take it as writ that if an election campaign were under way at this moment in time, the Government would be shipping a lot of damage. Over what? The Leinster House bike shelter? At €336,000 it’s small change compared to the billions that will be thrown around Budget time like snuff at a wake.
But that’s not the point. The point is the wanton waste of taxpayer’s money by the State. And if you are looking for a Q. E. D for it, this is it. Then we learned about the €1.4 million security hut. And if that was not bad enough, it was the week when the ongoing debacle of the €2.2 billion (and counting) National Children’s Hospital hoved back into the public spotlight. While the Government was saying it can’t micromanage projects, the voters don’t make that distinction. They will take the Opposition view that the Government can’t be trusted to mind public monies and are not doing enough to control soaraway costs.
Nothing like a bit of Government infighting to keep us all amused. Jack Horgan-Jones had this zinger of story during the week, which involved squabbling between the three Government parties. Over what? The Budget? No. The NCH? No. Immigration and homelessness? No. Actually it was sports funding. So periodically, the Minister of State for Sport will announce the clubs which are lucky recipients of State grants for capital investments in facilities – halls, pitches, all-weather training grounds, clubhouses.
It’s a big pile of money. For example the GAA got €97 million in this round. For local TD it’s a big deal. They can share in the reflected good-mood vibes when a local club is lucky enough to hit the jackpot. So it’s important for them to be first.
But when the grants were announced this week, Fine Gael and the Green Party accused Fianna Fáil TDs of getting the information early and running out the tell the local media and the clubs involved.
And there was even a secret spy in the Fianna Fáil camp who informed his colleagues in Fine Gael that the good news was being leaked to the Soldiers of Destiny first.
Jack wrote: “A Fine Gael source claimed the party was made aware by a “mole” that details had been circulated by Fianna Fáil representatives this afternoon, and in turn moved to publicise the funding decisions, with Green Party TDs also saying they believed Fianna Fáil were “breaking embargo to get a jump”, in the words of one party source.”
It was a funny old week too when it came to politics because all of the action was in New York. The Taoiseach was there. So was the Tánaiste. So was the President. And the former Green Party leader Éamon Ryan. It was a story-rich environment and if words were steps, our colleague Jennifer Bray easily exceeded her weekly target, each and every day.
One might question the presence of four of the five most senior politicians in the State (Roderic O’Gorman wasn’t there) in New York for a UN General Assembly when there are issues galore at home, from the Budget, to homelessness, to over-spend on public projects.
Their presence was important. It happened as Israel launched a widespread air offensive on Lebanon with catastrophic numbers of casualties. It gave Simon Harris an opportunity to meet Mahmoud Abbas for the first time since Ireland formally recognised the Palestinian State. And for Michael D Higgins to raise the issue of the Israelis circulating a letter of what he said was a standard letter sent to Iran on the occasion of it electing a new president. There was a terse exchange with Irish journalists over whether or not he claimed the letter was leaked by the Israelis (he maintained he had never said this).
It was a prolonged absence, but, from a diplomatic perspective, worth every moment.
Immigration. Homelessness. Especially when you link both. Simon Harris kicked it off last weekend when he said that the rise in homelessness was linked to immigration. There was more controversy around this later in the week when Leo Varadkar told an audience in Notre Dame University in Indiana that immigration numbers had risen too quickly in Ireland. Pearse Doherty also weighed in the Dáil saying the €800 tax-free payment for accommodating a Ukrainian refugee should not be paid to landlords. Their detractors in other parties pointed to the imminence of an election and all were accused of ‘dog whistle’ politics, by blaming the issues on one small cohort: immigrants.
Winner: Simon Harris. He has wrangled his own White House visit and will be meeting President Joe Biden in the Oval office in mid-October.
Loser: John Conlan. The career Civil Service only took on the job as chair of the OPW this summer but has found himself mired in controversy over projects that were conceived, approved and completed before he moved into the job.
Jack Horgan-Jones and Cormac McQuinn have a comprehensive preview on what we might expect to find in the budget next Tuesday.
On the Inside Politics podcast political scientists Theresa Reidy and Aidan Regan join Hugh Linehan to discuss Sinn Féin’s fortunes.
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