Miriam Lord: Coveney like a brickie on piecework in Pompeii

Simon Coveney has been lashing up pillars like a brickie on piecework in Pompeii.

Since July, when the Minister for Housing announced his “Rebuilding Ireland” strategy, he’s been launching different phases of his development off the plans. He launched the fourth pillar yesterday in Government Buildings and within an hour a bidding war had erupted over his residential rental proposals.

Fine Gael is up against formidable opposition in these negotiations, and so will probably end up knocking a point or two off Simon's opening offer of a 4 per cent annual cap on rents in Dublin and Cork. By reputation, Fianna Fáil has legendary expertise in matters of property.

The Taoiseach informed the Dáil almost immediately after Simon’s launch that his rental scheme was “worked on extensively in recent months”.

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Gerry Adams didn't like the look of it at all.

“An ad hoc package by an ad hoc Government supported by an ad hoc Fianna Fáil Party” he pronounced.

Brendan Howlin was also deeply unimpressed.

"An excuse of a strategy" was the Labour leader's verdict.

Gerry and Brendan were relying on media reports to find out what Coveney constructed. Nobody on the Government side deemed opposition leaders and their TDs worthy enough to see details of his actual plan – either before its launch or during subsequent discussion on the floor of the Dáil.

Even the Fianna Fáil leader, who will have a major influence in agreeing a final sales figure if the proposal is to go ahead, hadn’t a clue about what Simon had outlined.

That’s very bad form, particularly when Enda and his Minister are hoping the Dáil will vote through the proposals this Friday. Coveney’s manners are usually impeccable, as one might expect of a Cork merchant prince.

His “Rebuilding Ireland” team was much more open in the lead up to the fourth pillar’s construction. In October, he took careful soundings at “a Stakeholder Consultation Workshop”, bringing together “a diverse group of stakeholders in the residential rental sector ... to discuss and exchange views on the issues, challenges and opportunities that the sector faces, a long-term vision for the sector, the objectives for the rental sector strategy and the measures and actions it will need to encompass”.

The unveiling of Coveney’s latest housing initiative (underpinned by other key pillars, rent pressure zones and a glossy brochure) might have tempted a large crowd of Government deputies to the chamber for Leaders’ Questions – if only to lean supportively against the freshly turned fourth pillar. But the number of backbenchers behind Enda never once rose above half a dozen. (Some, to be fair, were at committee meetings, but not that many.)

Rent certainty

In the unsatisfactory situation of having to discuss a document they didn’t possess, Sinn Féin and Labour attacked the Government for failing to deliver “rent certainty”.

The Taoiseach proudly repeated that the Government is presenting something almost as good: “rent predictability.”

Certainty or predictability? Hard-pressed tenants will have a sinking feeling that whatever cap is imposed by the authorities, most landlords will push rents right up to that limit – with certain predictability.

So the Fianna Fáil supporters of the Fine Gael minority Government will demand that Coveney takes a chisel to his rental pillar and shaves something over his proposed 4 per cent rent hike ceiling. (Suspiciously like the way some property deals are stitched up in advance.)

Howlin was mystified as to why FG and FF appear so set against rent controls, when there is “virtual unanimity” among the other parties and voluntary organisations on the subject. He reminded the Taoiseach that Labour tried to get movement on rent control when they were in government together, adding: “You also know how ferocious the lobby on these issues was and remains. How a concerted campaign waged by Irish and international property and mortgage interests against any form of rent regulation has so far held sway.”

Earlier, at the strategy launch, Simon Coveney remarked: “It’s all about getting that balance right even though sometimes, politically, you only hear one side of the argument, which is about tenants.”

Those guys and gals in the sharp suits we quite often see around the corridors and in the bar of Leinster House must be passing wraiths.

Howlin also pulled up Enda on the “notion” that the rental pressure zones are only in Dublin and Cork.

“You’re famous for talking to people over the garden wall and on your travels around the country. You know that these rental pressures exist in counties Louth, Meath and Kildare and Wicklow and Wexford and probably in Mayo.”

“But they can be designated,” interjected Coveney.

Howlin shook his head. “But they’re not in your plan. The Minister for Housing is arguing about a plan that he published 40 minutes ago! He might at least have given us the chance to debate it.”

Coveney looked a bit hurt. “You’re arguing about it and you haven’t even read it.”

"Well, I read your leaks this morning," huffed Brendan, Joan Burton nodding furiously in agreement. "We'd like the Dáil to be treated with some respect. We would like to see it before you send people out to present it in the media."

After Leaders’ Questions, when the Minister wasn’t needed to pass notes to the Taoiseach, Simon nipped over to the Labour benches and sat in beside Joan, his former Tánaiste. They had an earnest discussion.

At the end of it, she didn’t look convinced.