Last night we were treated to a classic example of the fantasy world in which our Irish national parliament exists.
There was a debate in the Dáil over a Sinn Fein motion of no confidence in the government, of which the highlight was a remarkable bit of attempted political chicanery by former minister under Bertie Ahern and current Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin.
Somehow he managed to (1) berate Sinn Féin for having brought the motion in the first place and (2) attack the government for their (admittedly shocking) handling of the Maurice McCabe situation, before his party proceeded to abstain from the vote altogether, effectively helping Kenny’s government survive.
Just in case you are a little bit behind the curve on what has happened with McCabe, the New York Times offers a brief refresher course with this article posted yesterday. And as part of it, there is a glaring error that demands immediate correction. Or IS IT an error?
Both Mr. Kenny’s party, Fine Gael, and its coalition partner, Fianna Fail, had little appetite for fresh elections that could unsettle their fragile government.
Earlier in the article, a sentence which would make Gerry Adams very happy…
There were heated exchanges between Mr. Kenny and Gerry Adams, the leader of the opposition Sinn Fein party.
Naturally the Civil War duopoly would object to this depiction, as last year they somehow managed to cobble together a government with sticky plaster in an attempt to keep Fianna Fail on the opposition benches at the expense of Adams & his posse.
I’m no fan of Sinn Féin, but I’m not so sure this article has gotten anything wrong. It’s more like that kid in the story who points out the Emperor has no clothes.
First and foremost, the McCabe family, and anyone else brave enough to come forward and call out corruption among their superiors for that matter, deserves to have their shocking treatment dealt with fairly and publicly, not just for their sake, but also for anyone who might wish to do similar in the future.
Next there is the matter of Martin, Simon Coveney and Leo Varadkar – the three men best poised to bring down Enda Kenny. If this government must stay in place going forward, it needs some semblence of stability, and statements from each of them are the only way to bring that.
By saying nothing, they are demonstrating that they don’t want to deal with what the Taoiseach has on his plate right now (this whistleblower crisis, #RepealThe8th and #Right2Water to name just three), thus showing themselves to be cowards. JLP
First Person Plural 