The Opposition must be loving this.
Following Tuesday’s surprise ministerial resignation drama in the Dáil, there was another treat in store on Wednesday.
If Government leaders were hoping calmer conditions would prevail after team Healy-Rae sensationally exited its corporate merger with the Coalition to resume normal business as a highly flexible independent trading organisation, they were sadly mistaken.
The day after the BOGOF brothers bailed out (Michael and Danny supported the Government through a Buy One minister, Get One backbencher Free promotion), Taoiseach Micheál Martin probably wasn’t anticipating a second surprise attack from within his own ranks.
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But, rather like his administration’s astonishing lack of intelligence about and preparedness for the fuel protest that erupted nationwide last week and almost crippled the country, another surprise was about to come out of the blue.
This time from a creche of baby sharks circling the Fianna Fáil waters beneath him.
At midday, oblivious Micheál got through a testy round of Leaders’ Questions as the Dáil took a slight breather to recover from the previous day’s bruising and acrimonious confidence debate.
Then he settled into an uneventful session of Taoiseach’s questions – a fairly dull affair at the best of times.
So, with Sinn Féin’s no-confidence vote settled in his favour and another one out of the way for the foreseeable future, the Taoiseach with his still-comfortable Dáil majority could look forward to moving on.
But barely 24 hours since the Healy-Raes sensationally bolted on him, his party’s baby sharks jumped from the backbench backwaters and did a Jaws number on their boss’s backside.
Masters O’Connor, O’Meara and Dolan – Fianna Fáil’s three youngest TDs.
Jamesie Shark doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo,
Ryan Shark doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo,
Albert Shark doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo ...
Sorry. Sing along if you like.
The baby sharks unleashed a highly critical statement and they did it on porpoise too, causing quite a splash.
Naturally, it attracted the instant attention of colleagues.
A pair of parliamentary party heavyweights on the opposite end of the age scale surfaced immediately, offering the three disillusioned Childer of Destiny their encouragement and support.
Former two-term ceann comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl and former minister and reigning Father of the Dáil Willie O’Dea had a whale of a time on the teatime airwaves, solemnly and regretfully having to endorse their younger colleagues’ “real and deep concern” over the handling of the fuel protests and what they see as Fianna Fáil’s loss of direction and disconnection from rank-and-file TDs and the “real” people they are elected to serve.
A return to founding values is what they want.
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The baby sharks, while outlining their frustrations on a number of levels – including how they are treated by senior colleagues, didn’t name any names, stressing they were not challenging or singling out any member of Government.
They didn’t have to.
Cue much thrashing around in the FF waters and a gleeful scramble for the popcorn by Opposition politicians and advisers, watching on as cracks in the Government’s resolve to maintain a united front over its handling of the protests deepened.
The statement from James O’Connor, Albert Dolan and Ryan O’Meara added ominously, “our most experienced colleagues share our views”.
Are battle lines about to be drawn between the Soldiers of Destiny?
It would seem so.
As soon as the statement was released, dorsal fins began to break the waves. Some Senators voiced misgivings. Heavy-duty mutterings from the perennially disgruntled were augmented by party members who wouldn’t be considered as paid-up members of the party leadership’s awkward squad.
The party WhatsApp group went into overdrive, with screenshots pinging around of messages sent by people calling for solidarity and unity in the aftermath of the Healy-Rae departures.
Some were forwarded to show how certain party members were allegedly speaking out of both sides of their mouths – calling on the party to stand strong in the face of the walkout while also criticising the party for not listening to the people, the way the Healy-Raes do.
One screenshot is from an angry young backbencher urging colleagues to give the Kerry brothers the cold shoulder.
“Colleagues, please stop being pleasant to the Healy-Raes,” it reads, with the writer witnessing “much of this” in Leinster House and in the media.
Other party members are furious because they say that same person is attacking his colleagues for being nice to the Healy-Raes and then going public and attacking his colleagues for not being more like the Healy-Raes.
So what happened during Leaders’ Questions, then, when the Taoiseach and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald had a particularly acrimonious exchange over what he saw as her party’s reluctance to condemn the actions of some protesters who blockaded the country’s only oil refinery, illegally blocked ports, deprived people of their right of movement and intimidated gardaí.
He found it “disturbing” that so many Opposition speakers seemed unable to call out these tactics. It’s a very good point and, as the session continued, a number of Government TDs picked up on this.
Although it was interesting to hear Eoin Hayes of the Social Democrats preface his contribution during questions on policy by very pointedly expressing his “deep gratitude and support for An Garda Síochána for clearing the disruption and blockades last week”.
But, if truth be told, the proceedings in the chamber were pushed to the background as Leinster House was transfixed by the unfolding events in Fianna Fáil and the baby sharks putting it up to the Taoiseach about the party not “putting people first”.
Chief Whip Mary Butler was rolled out on RTÉ’s Drivetime to pour oil on troubled waters.
It didn’t go well.
Then she said she was going to sit down for a chat with the baby sharks. “They’re very bright and they’re very capable,” she cooed as former ceann Seán and Father of the Dáil Willie were limbering up to further burnish the FF babbies’ brightness and capabilities.
“Is Fianna Fáil in trouble today?” asked Katie Hannon.
“Well, it’s not in rude good health, put it like that.”
You gotta love Willie O’Dea.
So was he, like the baby sharks, going to go all coy about who is responsible for the current state of affairs in the party and not mention the people in charge? No chance. According to Willie, the leadership had to “take a good chunk of responsibility”.
He wasn’t naming specific names either, but neither would he have a bad word said against the leadership contender and Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, who didn’t cover himself in glory during the protests.
Which was interesting.
Seán Ó Fearghaíl also had harsh words for the leadership, which “has demonstrated a particular style and it is not an inclusive style”.
He was “very impressed” by the baby sharks.
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Outside of Leinster House, this also happened to be the time when Jim Gavin – he of Fianna Fáil and Micheál Martin’s presidential campaign fiasco last year – chose to go on radio and talk about his ordeal as the party’s failed candidate.
That’s all the Taoiseach needed.
And even if nobody was mentioning him by name as Fianna Fáil’s internal affairs look set to get even more messy than they already are, Micheál’s ears must have been burning.
And the Opposition is stocking up on that popcorn.
