The latest spat between Fine Gael and the Independent Alliance, this time over Palestine, points up the fundamental instability of the Government. After the renewal of the confidence-and-supply arrangement between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, there was a widespread assumption that it was secure for at least another year, but internal tensions could yet prove its Achilles' heel.
The depth of the division has been masked by Brexit, which has forced the governing partners to stick together and has also promoted a unified front on the border backstop across the Dáil. However, the deep divisions on the Bill to ban the sale of goods imported from illegal Israeli settlements, that led to a defeat for the Government by a whopping 78 votes to 45, with the Independent Ministers abstaining, showed just how fragile its position is.
It is not as if this was an aberration. The Government has suffered a string of Dáil defeats on a wide range of issues. Its minority status has forced it to avoid bringing forward legislation which cannot command a majority in the House and has severely hampered its ability to govern.
Clogging up the system
The other side of the coin is that the Dáil has passed a range of Bills at second stage which will never be brought into law as many of them commit the Government to spending programmes it cannot afford or run directly counter to its policies. There are now more than 250 Bills clogging up the system and most will never again see the light of day. It is a bizarre situation in which the Government is not able to govern and the Dáil is not able to put majority views into effect.
House of Commons-style chaos has been avoided by the confidence-and-supply arrangement which ensures that the Government is able to get essential legislation such as the annual budget through the Dáil after consultation with the main Opposition party.
Nonetheless, the tensions between Fine Gael and the Independent Alliance have the capacity to bring the fragile edifice down. The abandonment of collective Cabinet responsibility on the Palestine issue represents another blow to its cohesion, already weakened by ongoing squabbles on a variety of issues. The tension between Shane Ross and his Cabinet colleagues has become more intense by the day. Fine Gael Ministers make no secret of their antipathy to him and the feeling is heartily reciprocated.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had to warn his Ministers at last week's Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting to refrain from criticising Ross because of the damage this was doing to the Government's cohesion. Rural Ministers in particular sense a backlash by their constituents against measures promoted by Ross. If and when a pathway to Brexit becomes clear, it is hard to see this Government surviving for very much longer.