Well, Alleluia Alleluia, Hurrah Hurrah – we have a Government!
After 140 days, as of last Saturday, we have a Government of three parties – Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party. I listened with interest last week when John Bruton was on a late-night TV show. He was part of a three-party Government from 1994-1997. Albert Reynolds had been in Government with Dick Spring in a Fianna Fáil/Labour Government, but Albert and Dick just didn’t get on and finally it all grew very testing between them.
However, John Bruton from Fine Gael, Proinsias de Rossa for Democratic Left, and Dick Spring for Labour joined together in what seemed at the time a most unlikely alliance. I remember everyone gave them three months, six months perhaps, but they kept going and in retrospect they made a very good Government with some very good decisions.
Fianna Fáil were in opposition at that time, and I know we kept waiting for the Government to trip themselves up, but somehow they never did.
Anyway, back to the point: John Bruton said that in his estimation it was easier to be in a Government with three parties rather than two. If there were two, one was always pitted against the other, whereas if there were three there was kind of a movement between the three of them.
Be that as it may, yes, we have a Government, and I make no apologies for watching entranced all day on TV and listening on radio last Saturday to the announcements from the Convention Centre.
The first thing to notice was it was so surreal to see the size of that massive centre, and the way all of the elected TDs were so spread out across the whole huge room.
The election by the TDs of Micheál Martin as Taoiseach had to be done out loud, with each TD standing up and saying ‘Tá’ or ‘Níl’. I had a twinge of sympathy for Peter Finnegan, whom I remember so well; he now is the Clerk of the Dáil, and he had to keep moving his eyes around, trying to peer and to see where the voice was coming from. Micheál had gone out and got some of the Independents to also vote for him, so in fact he ended up with 93 votes as Taoiseach.
I was so excited and interested in it all, as if I was back in the days myself when I was running and so involved. I am so pleased that I have kept that huge interest in politics and also that I am well and am able to absorb it all as it is happening, and keep thinking of what happened to such and such a person, and where is such and such a person.
Then we had Micheál’s trip to Áras an Uachtaráin and the signing of the book, and back again then to the Dáil where he outlined his Cabinet.
Now that is, of course, where it all began to get really interesting. I am very happy for Norma Foley of Tralee. She has been made Minister for Education on her first day in Dáil Éireann.
As I know, Education is a very tricky department, but I have no doubt her years in local Government (she has been a Kerry councillor since 1994 ) and her upbringing as the daughter of a politician will have equipped her with many of the strengths she will need.
The first thing she will need in Education is to set about arranging for the schools to be ready to open on September 1, both for primary and secondary level. The teachers’ unions have said, quite rightly, that the schools must operate according to the health guidelines. I have no doubt that this is where Dr Tony Holohan will come into his own again, and we will have proper guidelines, hopefully of one metre apart, which will enable the children to come back. However, there will be need for good funding for all of the sanitation arrangements to be put into every school. We will need to have lots of other changes, but that is all ahead of Norma Foley and I wish her the best of good luck as she starts into Marlborough Street this week.
How well I remember my first days there, and my worry that I would never get to know all of the officials and their names, as they kept coming to and fro with files of important documentation for me to read, to note and to remember.
Norma Foley was a secondary teacher herself, like I was, so she will have some knowledge of how the system works.
Stephen Donnelly will be a good Minister for Health, but of course it’s all before them. What a task this Government has to undertake. At least they all know how bad matters are, how unemployment is huge, and how each day is a worry – will coronavirus come back, are we ready for another outbreak?
Anyway, a Government is formed, Hurrah Hurrah! It will be no bed of roses, but at least each person going in as part of that Government knows that the way will be hard and stony, and that there is huge work to be done.
I wish Mary Lou McDonald well in opposition. She has promised to be a strong opposition leader, but also that she will praise and commend where work done is good, and where she thinks it is not so, well, she will duly heap blame on the Government.
I am sure many of the Advertiser readers are planning holidays, or have had holiday plans upended because of coronavirus. I have been talking on the telephone to my niece Anita Lenihan in Dublin, whom readers may remember from other columns. For the last few years we have gone off together to different places in Ireland for a week of enjoyment. Last year we were in Portmagee in Kerry, the year before we were in Wexford, and the year before that we were in Connemara.
Right throughout the newspapers, TV and radio, Irish people are being urged to have a vacation at home – they call it ‘staycation’. I would agree with that, but it is going to be so odd going into hotels with staff with masks on, no buffet breakfast, and lots of other differences in how hotels run themselves. It will be very difficult all round.
Will people go abroad? It remains to be seen, though Ryanair and all of the airlines are heavily advertising that yes, they are offering flights. But imagine going on holiday and then having to come back and self-isolate in quarantine for two weeks on your return!
And finally, we come to Brexit. It appears that talks in Brussels between Michel Barnier for the EU and David Frost for the UK have reached an intense stage. Because of all of the recent political debate, it appears that the importance of the outcome of the Brexit talks has been overlooked. But not now; it really is decision time, and the wishes and hopes of the Irish people are that there will be, in the end, a trade deal of some sort between the UK and Brussels which will allow decent arrangements for Irish trade.
Let’s wait and see.
So the Government has faced into work with great dedication and determination. Let’s wish them well for the difficult road which lies ahead.
That’s my lot for this week. Talk with you all next week.
In the meantime, go safely, stay at home as much as you can, and mind yourself.
Slán go fóill.
Mary O’Rourke
