Controversies fill vacuum as Dáil pulls into dry dock

Looking at the Republic of Ireland game against Denmark on Monday night, I was reminded of one of the great quotes no-nonsense straight-talking manager, Mick McCarthy, gave during his playing career.

Asked why he often blasted the ball into the nearest stand instead of passing it, he responded in his Barnsley accent: “I’ve never seen anybody score a goal from Row G.”

It’s late November and if the denizens of Leinster House are kicking around a political football, the air has long escaped from it.

They are also using the McCarthy tactic of kicking everything as far out of play as they can manage.

Once Leo Varadkar announced he was not going to hold an early election, the 32nd Dáil lost its sense of purpose. The year-long extension of the confidence and supply agreement between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil is over.

There is no programme, no deal. The Dáil will limp along for the next six months like a tramp steamer searching for a port.

The schedule of the Dáil was threadbare this week. Other than the Finance Bill (which implements decisions from last month’s Budget) there was only one other piece of legislation before the Lower House. They are running out of ideas, out of energy, and out of time.

And so the focus has veered away from the usual business and the usual issues of government. The big political stories involved individual TDs and their personal actions and behaviour, or about internal party matter. There was little or none of the kind of big-issue stuff we normally expect from parliament.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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