With some people in Leinster House already suffering from severe PTSD, the knowledge that Dáil Éireann was just one day away from the summer recess brought great joy to the delighted few in Kildare Street.
Well, when we say “some” people, it might be more accurate to say “very many” people were suffering from Post-Tubridy Stress Disorder.
And perhaps, in the interest of accuracy and to stop any moaning, it would be fair to say that thoughts of the impending recess brought “infinite” joy to the delighted “masses”.
Happy to clear that up.
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Wouldn’t want a row about the wrong words blowing up here the way it did between Pearse Doherty and Leo Varadkar during Leaders’ Questions on Wednesday.
With Holly Cairns gallantly galloping in a short while later to stick up for her Opposition colleague’s interpretation of Leo’s remarks.
Doherty, deputising for his convalescing leader, returned to the housing and rental crisis as media attention shifted slightly to events in the Dáil chamber in the distressing absence of any bombshells of note from RTÉ’s all-consuming Montrose melodrama.
After the last few tumultuous weeks, just to refresh memories, Pearse Doherty is Sinn Féin spokesman on Finance and Leo Varadkar is Taoiseach and Leader of Fine Gael.
To give them their due, they are every bit as good – if not better – at the faux outrage, the thinly disguised insults and the roaring as practised by the committee members who have been stealing their thunder of late.
Pearse wasted no time reminding the Taoiseach of the dreadful housing situation, reeling off a sobering list from sky-high purchase prices, out-of-control rents, unacceptably low social housing targets and the growing homelessness figures.
But what he really wanted was an apology.
The Donegal TD was very angry over a comment from Varadkar on Tuesday at a press conference on his Government’s Housing for All policy. A comment he repeated a couple of hours later in the Diál when replying to a question from Richard Boyd Barrett.
Pearse said his words would cause “real hurt and anger” to people caught up in the housing crisis, repeating them back, verbatim. Or almost verbatim.
“And I quote: ‘Very many people in emergency accommodation have refused offers of permanent housing.’”
The Donegal TD’s outrage levels were building nicely.
“Not only is that remark untrue, it seeks to shift the blame for your failed housing policies away from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and place it on to the victims of this crisis,” he boomed.
I have never sought to blame anyone for the housing crisis or for homelessness. Anyone. Not the people who experience it nor the people who try to help them... You have misquoted and you’ve misrepresented me…
— Taoiseach Leo Varadkar
He instanced all the reasons why people find themselves homeless. There are many of them – a point which the Taoiseach stressed at the time he made the offending comments.
With all that people are suffering now and what they have suffered over the last decade, could Leo even imagine how they must have felt yesterday “when you stood there and they heard your remarks”?
Probably not very much because they were probably too busy listening to Ryan Tubridy’s remarks at the PAC.
But Pearse was incensed on their behalf.
He demanded an apology “for trying to shift the blame for the housing crisis on to the victims of that crisis”.
No chance, because the Sinn Féin man was wrong.
“Deputy, I’ve just checked and first of all, you’ve misquoted me,” responded Leo.
He was absolutely right. Technically.
“And secondly, you’ve misrepresented me. I have never sought to blame anyone for the housing crisis or for homelessness. Anyone. Not the people who experience it nor the people who try to help them... You have misquoted and you’ve misrepresented me…”
“I have not!” bristled Pearse.
“That’s bad politics as far as I am concerned, but let’s move on.”
Deputy Doherty was going nowhere.
“No, I haven’t. You said there were ‘very many’ [people who refused house offers].”
“I didn’t, actually.”
“You did.”
“I didn’t.”
There was a hint of smug from the Fine Gael side.
“No!” squawked Paschal Donohoe, categorically.
[ Varadkar ‘happy’ to rephrase comments on people refusing social housingOpens in new window ]
They moved on and the Taoiseach made his case, at length, for the Government’s housing policy.
“So, Deputy, instead of misrepresenting me, instead of misquoting me, instead of trying to put words into my mouth and accusing me of blaming people who I have never blamed for anything, you should at least acknowledge some of the progress that has been made in the past couple of years”.
“Hear! Hear!” went the Fine Gael benches.
Pearse Doherty couldn’t believe his ears.
“You stood there yesterday and you said that many people had refused offers of accommodation. That is the fact. You can deny it all you want.”
The Taoiseach was blaming the homeless for the housing crisis.
“No!” shouted junior Ministers Josepha Madigan and Jennifer Carroll MacNeill in unison with the Minister for Finance.
“Taoiseach. You made those comments yesterday. You made those comments deliberately.”
Angry allegations and angrier denials flew across the chamber floor.
Leo Varadkar put up a robust defence.
“Everyone has their story and everyone’s story is different. That’s the truth of it. It’s a simple fact that there are people on the housing list who have refused offers of accommodation and, in some cases, multiple offers of accommodation. And often for good reasons.”
It was “a pretty huge leap” to conclude that stating a fact that people have refused offers of accommodation is somehow blaming them for the housing crisis.
This didn’t go down well with Sinn Féin TDs. Louise O’Reilly and Thomas Gould led the indignant chorus as an outraged Pearse roared at the Taoiseach and the protesting Government benches.
The Ceann Comhairle hammered lumps out of the bell.
“You said ‘very many’!” Pearse bellowed at Leo, over and over.
The Taoiseach opened his mouth to say something.
“You should apologise,” thundered Pearse.
“Ah, never mind,” he shrugged.
“You should apologise for putting the blame for the housing crisis on their shoulders!” foghorned Pearse. “It’s disgraceful. Disgraceful.”
“Ah, please,” gurgled the Ceann Comhairle, on his feet.
Both sides were now highly affronted and howling.
To try to twist that and make out that somehow I am blaming people for the housing crisis – that’s just fake. That’s populism, that’s misrepresentation and it’s beneath you
— Taoiseach Leo Varadkar
Leo dragged himself to his feet.
“If it would help to contain the Deputy and his outburst, I am happy to rephrase the term ‘plenty’ to ‘some’.”
Because, you see, Pearse got it totally wrong and Leo was being the big man by placating him despite his mistake.
Because, you see, Leo never said “very many people”. He actually said “lots of people”.
The subject matter of this abrasive exchange was a very serious one, but the substance of it was ridiculous.
A row was cleverly manufactured over words but the context in which they were spoken was ignored.
And then Holly Cairns, the Social Democrats leader, got involved.
“I just want to say that I think your comments about homelessness yesterday were shameful and I think they were beneath you and your office,” she told the Taoiseach, before relaying some shocking homelessness statistics she was given earlier in the day at a St Vincent de Paul briefing.
And because he was “apparently outraged” by being misquoted, she gave him the correct quote.
“You said: ‘There are lots of people in emergency accommodation and have refused multiple offers of social housing.’”
She too asked him to reconsider the comment.
“Look, I’m happy to rephrase if it’s helpful. If I said ‘plenty’ or ‘lots of’, I’m happy to use the term ‘some’,” he replied, explaining he had been answering a specific question about cases of people in emergency accommodation for several years.
“To try to twist that and make out that somehow I am blaming people for the housing crisis – that’s just fake. That’s populism, that’s misrepresentation and it’s beneath you.”
Someone on Holly’s team took the time to watch the press conference and get the exact quote. They should also have heard the Taoiseach stress refusals were just one of many contributing factors to the homeless figures.
“You know, it’s a much more complicated picture than people like to make it out to be.”
