Story of the Week
It was rather a dull week this week. Little to report. Nada. Nothing doing. Tada ag tarlú. Same old same old. One of the committee spent a few hours discussing the HSE Service Plan. The Joint Committee on European Affairs had a discussion on combating voter disinformation. The only other thing of note was that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar resigned on Wednesday. And by Thursday we had a new taoiseach-in-waiting, Simon Harris.
Yes, sorry for the slightly laboured first paragraph but it is an effort to describe just how sensational a week it was. First the bombshell by the Taoiseach that he was stepping down, which caught everybody unawares. Then the immediate roll out of Simon Harris’s ‘shock and awe’ campaign that rendered the Fine Gael succession race over within minutes of the flag being raised.
It is said that the best way of spreading a story is to tell a politician a secret. For once, in the leaky political environment we live in, Leo Varadkar’s plans to step down were kept hermetically sealed by a close group of confidantes. Varadkar made up his mind fully on Saturday but besides a handful of people, the news came as a huge shock of his colleagues in Government and to his staff when he disclosed it late on Tuesday night.
He spent most of Wednesday explaining the reasons. Seven years in office had taken its toll and he thought he no longer could give the job the energy it demands.
The Taoiseach’s job had taken its toll. “More than seven years of long days, late evenings, most weekends, a lot of travel. I need to stop that for a while,” he said.
As soon as he stepped down, the phones of politicians and journalists pinged with messages inquiring about the “real reason” behind Leo Varadkar stepping down. Of course, there always has to be a real, secret reason. Was there a third Simon Harris on the grassy knoll? For once, the mundane reason given by Varadkar was in fact the real reason.
The way the Fine Gael electoral chapel works is that the 54-strong parliamentary party carried 65 per cent of the vote, with councillors having 10 per cent, and the membership having 25 per cent. It essentially means that whoever carried the parliamentary party would be nigh impossible to stop.
Within four hours of the campaign opening – and six hours before he officially put his name forward – Harris had the support of half the parliamentary party. For those rivals mulling their options on Thursday morning, the numbers stacked in favour of Harris essentially made up their minds for them. It was a coronation.
So what now? Nominations don’t close until Monday. If Harris is, as is certain, the sole candidate, there is an expectation that the electoral process may be foreshortened allowing him to assume the role of Taoiseach a little earlier.
The other big issue will revolve around the shape of the Fine Gael part of the Cabinet. There is one vacancy (Higher Education) but if Harris is to make good on his promise of a refresh you would expect him to bring at least two new faces to Cabinet, and introduce a shoal of new junior ministers. There are rumours that Simon Coveney may be vulnerable. It would be a bold move to exclude him or any of the other ministers. It will be the first big – and divisive – decision of his new role for Harris.
Bust-Up of the Week
It was completely overshadowed by other events but the publication of the report on assisted dying, following months-long deliberations by a special Oireachtas Committee, created a bitter row between members of the committee.
As Jack Horgan-Jones and Sarah Burns reported, the report of the committee, published on Wednesday, recommended the Government introduce legislation allowing for assisted dying in restricted circumstances – limiting its application to those with six months to live in most instances, or 12 months where they are suffering from a neurodegenerative condition.
It also recommended that within the legislation an offence be created where someone can be found to have coerced another individual into assisted dying, and that doctors and healthcare workers involved in assisted dying be trained to identify coercion.
It was a big step to take but there was a schism in the committee with Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae, Independent Senator Ronan Mullen and Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy the most prominent members of a minority who voted against it.
That was to be expected but Healy-Rae was chair of the committee. He, Mullen and Troy launched their own minority report. That sparked an outraged reaction from Fine Gael members particularly against Healy-Rae. They said that as chair he should have stood over the report when it was published, even though it came to a view contrary to his own.
For the record, Healy-Rae argued the case for assisted dying had not been established, “whereas the case against any change is overwhelming”.
Bust Up Number Two
You will have to go to social media to find the other memorable bust-up of the week, between the anti-immigrant local election candidate Gavin Pepper and Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon. Some choice language but compelling.
Banana Skin
Ten years ago, this was definitely a banana skin but we are not so sure any more. As Fiachra Gallagher reports, Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan has disclosed she has taken cocaine in the past.
In an interview with Hotpress she said: “I tried it twice and I liked it so much I didn’t try it again, and that’s a scary thing,” she said.
She also revealed that she has taken ecstasy in the past, stating that it “wasn’t a big thing” for her.
She also has ambitions to become a future leader of the Green Party.
Winners
Simon Harris.
Losers
Paschal Donohoe, Simon Coveney, Helen McEntee, Heather Humphreys. There was a big narrative around that, unlike Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael had loads of potential successors to succeed Leo Varadkar. That was guff. Within moments of the vacancy arising, Simon Harris had blown everybody else out of the water. There was a rueful note in Donohoe’s statement about the shock of Varadkar’s announcement. Was there an implicit message in there that he was taken by surprise and did not have adequate time to prepare? Even if that were the case, Harris had such enormous momentum behind him that it’s unlikely he would have been bested even in a long-drawn out process.
Things to Look Out For this Weekend
The Fine Gael selection convention for Midlands North West is being held in Athlone on Sunday. Talk about jockeying for position, literally. The announcement that Nina Carberry will contest the convention could result in one of the two sitting MEPs, Maria Walsh (unlikely) or Colm Markey (more likely) losing out. Simon Harris will be present. Of course.
The Labour Party conference takes place this weekend in the Helix in Dublin. Talk about timing. While Ivana Bacik has performed well as leader, any hope of getting a big profile for the party will be flattened by the Simon Harris juggernaut.
Best Reads this Weekend
Miriam Lord’s column this Saturday on all that happened this week will be required reading.
If you have not read it already Marie O’Halloran’s profile of Harris is excellent.
Jennifer Bray is the Batman to my Robin in a long read on why Leo Varadkar came to the conclusion that his time as Taoiseach had to come to an end.
Pat Leahy has a long and insightful op-ed piece on Leo Varadkar and his legacy, particularly where it leaves Fine Gael and its Dauphin Prince, Simon Harris.
Jack Horgan-Jones has a feature on what are the choices and challenges confronting Fine Gael in the here and now, and what strategies it might need to pursue in order to remain significant and relevant.
Cormac McQuinn has written an excellent preview of the Labour Party conference this weekend.
Hear Here
Varadkar’s resignation took even political correspondents by surprise as Jennifer Bray explains in Wednesday’s bonus Inside Politics podcast referring to her poor 7am political digest newsletter on Wednesday
‘One of the politicians actually sent it to me and was like, you should frame this, because I was saying it was going to be a quiet week’
— Jennifer Bray
