When Sinn Féin TD Mairéad Farrell knocks on doors in Galway West, she does not bring a shiny political leaflet or a pre-prepared spiel.
Instead, she has a basic card with only her contact details and asks simply what is on the voter’s mind. It is a deliberate tactic.
“I purposefully don’t lead in with a view so that I am not influencing what comes back,” she says.
And what comes back is clear: ”Without question it is housing and the cost of living, it is those key issues.”
Five of her parliamentary colleagues agree that on the doorsteps it is housing, health and the impact of inflation that are occupying hearts and minds. And yet perched at the very top of the agenda for the party’s ardfheis in Dublin on Saturday, high above all else, is a motion on Irish reunification.
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Sinn Féin will use the gathering of more than 2,000 delegates to once again call for an all-island citizens’ assembly on unity – something which has been resisted by the Government – and to declare that the demand for constitutional change is growing.
This is not surprising: the party’s core objective is, and always has been, to establish a united Ireland. The question is: is this the issue that will get the public so revved up that they vote for Sinn Féin en masse, giving the party a real shot at government in 2025?
‘Outline your vision’
In Pa Daly’s constituency of Kerry, up to three families a week are facing homelessness, a situation which he hopes will be tempered by the Government’s temporary ban on evictions.
Are these families preoccupied with reunification? Daly agrees that it is not the first thing troubling his constituents.
‘If you don’t have the vision and you are not looking towards it... well, then it won’t happen’
“Is it something that people bring up at the door when you first come to them? No, it is not. But when you talk to them and outline your vision as to where you want to go with it, and particularly for young people, they see that is inevitable and feel it is an exciting way for the country as a whole to move forward. If you don’t have the vision and you are not looking towards it... well, then it won’t happen,” he says.
In his constituency of Donegal, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn agrees that housing, health and the cost of living are “the three big problems that people encounter”.
“That’s what people want the Government to address.” He is keen to add, however, that “what we are starting to see, and it comes from Brexit and the chaos in the Tory government and Stormont not functioning, is a growing willingness [to discuss it]. The debate is starting to become mainstream. Our primary goal is reunification but we want the country to have a strong health and housing system and for me, all of that fits like a glove.”
Similarly, Louth TD Ruairí Ó Murchú says that while reunification might not top a voter’s immediate wishlist, he detects an appetite for it.
He says we have “two failed states, or at least two states that have failed to deliver to the maximum of the promise of the proclamation”.
It is notable that Ó Murchú then references conversations that are happening about reunification at an EU level. In a European newsletter sent to foreign diplomats in Dublin earlier this year, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald claimed that reunification had never been so widely discussed before. Sinn Féin, which has been described as a Eurosceptic party by rival politicians, is clearly in bridge-building mode.
“We had a huge level of solidarity shown to us as regards Brexit that is still being shown in relation to the Irish protocol, probably a lot more than we would have anticipated,” Ó Murchú says. “See, if you had tried to even sell the European project on the street at the time of austerity and the banking collapse and all of that… but, see the solidarity being shown to us and see the interest that is there.”
He goes further again: “The fact is, the European Union is part of modern living in Ireland. We saw what the EU was able to do in regards to co-operation during the Covid-19 period around vaccine buying. European countries were able to co-operate.“
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Fostering relationships
”The alternative is, we operate in silos and one person sits around a table and makes all the decisions. We have seen that lately and it hasn’t exactly been beneficial to anybody.”
It is not just at a European level that Sinn Féin is fostering relationships.
In recent months there have been reports of meetings between the frontbench TDs and various strands of what might be considered Ireland Inc to reassure big business of the party’s economic credentials, and that Sinn Féin might be tempering its tax polices as it moves towards the centre.
‘We meet with anyone and everyone. People are interested in having a chance to interrogate policy, but they also want to meet the personalities’
Louise O’Reilly, the party’s enterprise and trade spokeswoman, and Eoin Ó Broin, the housing spokesman, don’t shy away from the manoeuvres being made as they eye up Government Buildings.
“We meet anyone and everyone. People are interested in having a chance to interrogate policy, but they also want to meet the personalities,” O’Reilly says.
Ó Broin says they are not tempering their policies and gives an insight into what happens behind closed doors.
“We are moving the centre ground of politics on to our territory. I meet everybody from the public and the private sector, from council housing managers, small and medium building contractors, large developers, investors, academics, former civil servants. If you want to drive a positive and progressive agenda for change in housing, you need to know what you are talking about.
“The second thing is, we have to be open to listening to what people have to say. Those conversations are very fruitful. They start off with the folks on the other side kind of wondering, what is going on here? But all of a sudden they realise that there is a conversation to be had.”
He gives an example of how those conversations are playing out.
“If I sit down with large private sector residential developers and I am saying ‘look, we are against tax reliefs, lower design standards for apartments, we want a greater mix of owner-occupation and rental; how can you do that at a faster pace and a lower price point for the person who is going to rent or buy?’ The conversation starts by saying, ‘We are not giving you tax breaks, in fact we are going to close a bunch of them down, but are there other reforms to the system to allow the private sector do what it does at a more moderate price?’ And the answer is yes.”
Seismic shift
While new relationships are clearly being forged as corporate Ireland wakes up to the reality of a potentially seismic shift in Irish politics, the relationship between Sinn Féin and the professional media appears to be tense if not downright frosty. On the one hand, six party TDs willingly agreed to talk at length and on-record for this piece, some of them at short notice.
On the other hand, the party has seemingly adopted a strategy of appearing far less often on the plinth outside Leinster House. Sinn Féin denies that there is any such strategy but an analysis of the party’s media appearances before and after the summer clearly shows that they were appearing up to four times a week before the recess, but much more infrequently now.
On occasion, Mary Lou McDonald would have been there to field questions. That hasn’t happened outside Leinster House in quite some time. Furthermore, pretty much every political journalist has experienced the “pile-on” on social media that comes with writing a critical article about Sinn Féin.
Pa Daly, having studied communications in DCU for a time, says he understands that the media have a job to do, but he takes umbrage with certain journalists who he does not name.
“There are one or two journalists… they might ask questions of Sinn Féin they would not ask of other parties. I don’t want to name the one or two journalists who ask ridiculous questions and are better not answered.”
Scrutinising the relationship between Sinn Féin and the media might seem like navel-gazing to some, but it is even more of a legitimate topic of conversation after it emerged earlier this year that Mary Lou McDonald was bringing High Court proceedings against RTÉ seeking damages for alleged defamation. In the Dáil, Taoiseach Micheál Martin accused Sinn Féin of having a “chilling” effect on democracy.
Daly also practised as a solicitor and he stands behind the issuing of such actions.
“If there is somebody who is telling lies about you, that needs to be challenged. Politicians from all parties have to let a lot go with online abuse, abusive letters, that kind of stuff, because there is no point in taking it further. But if someone libels you, I don’t see why you should not take a case against them and I say that to members of every political party and no party. But there are practical considerations you have to weigh up in that as well.”
‘More scrutiny’
Speaking generally about the relationship between the professional media and his party, Ó Murchú says that “on either side of any argument there will always be people who believe that they are wronged. From time to time maybe everyone will be correct on some level. There is a belief out there, at times I’ve seen it, that we probably come under more scrutiny that most. We would have come from a point and a place where we didn’t necessarily have the support of the establishment in general, if you want to throw the media into that.”
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He also says that “it is absolutely necessary across politics that there is a level of accountability and the media play a huge role in that. We are in a completely different world of 24/7 media cycle and social media. We can all end up in strange places. We all probably have to, at times, take a step back. Across the board there could be a greater element of fairness.”
There has also been much discussion of where the power lies within Sinn Féin and around how key decisions are made. In fact, the power within Sinn Féin stems from its standing committee, the Coiste Seasta, an eight-member group that meets every fortnight in between meetings of the ultimate ruling body, the Ard Chomhairle. Under this system of “democratic centralism”, a number of unelected representatives have a huge amount of power.
Daly says that for his part, he is not afraid to speak his mind but he concedes that representatives try to stay on message.
“We try to have a consistent line, because there are some issues that are tricky. People in Fianna Fáil seem to be on both sides of the fence on every issue. We try to keep it fairly consistent. But I am free to speak my mind if I see there is something that shouldn’t be done, that we are doing wrong. We are republicans at heart. The fundamental tenet of republicanism is equality. People don’t join the party because they want to go on solo runs.”
Questions about how a Sinn Féin minister could possibly be quick on their feet or decisive if they have to revert to the central party, or around exactly how much power a cabinet of elected Sinn Féin ministers might feasibly have, are important but perhaps premature.
There is the small matter of making good on the historic gains of the 2020 general election and emerging from the next election in a position to hold genuine government formation talks.
‘No seat left behind’
It appears election preparations are now in full swing across different constituencies. The party is taking a “no seat left behind” approach and is going to pursue a three-candidate strategy in many constituencies where possible.
“The local-government elections are really only a year away, around 12 months in terms of actual working weeks. We are already at an advanced stage in identifying candidates, developing candidate strategies to try and increase representation and reverse losses we made in certain constituencies, including mine, in 2019,” Ó Broin says.
In terms of the general election, in Dublin Midwest, “planning is at a very advanced stage. We are actively considering in Dublin Midwest a three-candidate strategy which is a big challenge in a four-seater. The general approach of the party will be guided by the numbers but also guided by a desire not to leave any seat behind.
‘All constituencies will be required to look hard and make sure they don’t leave anything behind. If there is even the slightest possibility of a third seat, we will do everything possible to make that happen’
“This is a general election with the very real prospect of Sinn Féin coming out as a lead party of government. Every seat will be crucial. All constituencies will be required to look hard and make sure they don’t leave anything behind. If there is even the slightest possibility of a third seat, we will do everything possible to make that happen,” he says.
Mac Lochlainn was a victim in 2016 of Sinn Féin’s decision to run three candidates, but that does not deter him from backing this strategy.
“Elections are funny things. In 2016, we got it wrong. It doesn’t put me off being ambitious. In 2020, we probably could have taken three seats. If Donegal remains a five seater, we will definitely run three candidates. Setbacks give you humility. They make sure you are not complacent,” he says.
In terms of policy, the party will stick to what it knows best in the lead-up to the next general election, or as O’Reilly puts it: “We’ll stick to the knitting.” This means a consistent, laser-like focus on health, housing and worker’s rights.
Ó Broin is not deterred by Government announcements this week that the number of new homes built this year will likely exceed the its target of 24,600. He says the Coalition is a very long way off the 13,100 social and affordable homes promised, and that these are the type of properties needed to bring prices down, rather than privately delivered buildings.
“The only target the Government is in control of is social and affordable housing and that appears to be the only target they are not on track to deliver. The Government can’t claim anything on that [headline target] except they set a figure and that figure is being met by other people.”
Is he confident that he can deliver upon the promises he has made: that Sinn Féin would ramp up both social and affordable housing?
“Absolutely. I am not saying it is going to be easy, I am not saying it is not going to require significant reform. But we are committed to putting the adequate level of investment into the system.”
Climate change
Finally, it is striking that the third item on the Sinn Féin agenda today is around climate change. The party’s Dublin branch has top billing on a motion calling for the ard comhairle to “further develop our policies and proposals to comprehensively address this emergency”. Is this a message from the party that it is not good enough to have elected representatives who cannot commit publicly to binding sectoral emissions targets?
Ó Murchú says. “In a political party a huge amount of people will have a huge amount of views on absolutely everything. We are not going to get absolute agreement but what was said at the time was, we had an insufficient amount of information available [to set targets]. There are percentages and ceilings but it is a matter of ensuring we have all those tools to facilitate all the different sectors to actually meet them.”
And therein lies the biggest challenge for Sinn Féin, should the party enter government. Its most pressing task will be delivering on the many promises and targets that it has set over the past number of years. Big promises have been made and the public will expect results. Only time will tell.
