Story of the Week
The shake-up of the Coalition parties continued this week as the country hurtles towards the next general election.
Monday saw Minister for Children and Integration Roderic O’Gorman elected as the new leader of the Green Party. He narrowly enough defeated Senator Pippa Hackett in the contest to replace Eamon Ryan. Harry McGee’s profile of O’Gorman can be found here.
The Dublin West TD soon found himself in the senior hurling of Irish politics when later that evening he participated in his first weekly meeting with the other Coalition party leaders: Taoiseach Simon Harris and Tánaiste Micheál Martin. The topic on the agenda that night was the Summer Economic Statement (SES) – the annual peek at the coffers to see how much might be available to dish out on new spending and tax measures in the upcoming budget. So no biggie then for his first meeting with the other leaders.
Under the SES, the upcoming budget will be framed around a massive tax and spending package of €8.3 billion. This includes additional public spending of €6.9 billion and taxation measures amounting to €1.4 billion.
General election in late November or early December looking increasingly likely
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With numbers like that you might expect this to be a bumper giveaway pre-election budget, but there is a question of how much of the spending will be “running to stand still” given the need to meet existing costs and spending commitments.
While O’Gorman was settling into a new job, another senior figure confirmed his imminent and widely expected departure from politics. Fine Gael’s Simon Coveney, a former tánaiste and minister for foreign affairs, said on Wednesday that he will not be standing in the upcoming general election. The race is already on among Fine Gael politicians hopeful of retaining his seat in Cork South Central.
Coveney is the latest of a string of senior Fine Gael TDs to announce they are bowing out at the election. There may be more to follow, not least former taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who has not yet made his intentions known. He and others will have a bit more time to think about their future with the Dáil now in recess for the summer.
Bust Up
Support for US president Joe Biden to stay in the election battle against former president Donald Trump has been faltering since his disastrous debate performance that saw him stumble over words and lose his train of thought. It led growing numbers of backers to question if, aged 81, he is too old and infirm to be seeking a second term.
This has been compounded by public appearances at the end of the Nato summit on Thursday where he misspoke twice, introducing Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy under the name of his arch-enemy Vladimir Putin, and referring to his own vice-president Kamala Harris as “vice-president Trump”. It may not matter that he put up a forceful defence of himself during an almost hour-long press conference at the summit.
Even ahead of Thursday night it was shaping up to be a bad week for Biden after one of his most high-profile supporters, Hollywood star George Clooney, implored him to step aside. The intervention came in a New York Times article headlined: “George Clooney: I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee”. Clooney wrote that Biden could not prevail in an electoral rematch with Trump, saying: “We are not going to win with this president.”
As the BBC reported, the Biden campaign has pushed back against Clooney’s opinion piece, including noting disagreements with the star and his wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, about his administration’s Gaza policy. Clooney playing a prominent role in potentially torpedoing Biden’s re-election bid is not the US election campaign battle anyone was expecting this year.
Banana Skin
As the Government scrambled to get legislation over the line ahead of the summer recess, the Opposition has claimed that one new piece of legislation passed by the Dáil is a “liquorice allsorts” and “hotchpotch” Bill, warning it will end up in the courts.
As Marie O’Halloran reports, Opposition TDs sharply criticised the criminal justice Bill, which covers a wide range of issues. These include: increasing the number of ordinary judges in the Court of Appeal from 17 to 18; revoking citizenship; larger fines for airlines that carry passengers without appropriate visas; longer maximum sentences for knife-crime offences; and increasing the mandatory retirement age for emergency personnel including gardaí and firefighters.
A number of TDs condemned the practice of rushing through Bills at the end of the Dáil term, with Labour justice spokesman Brendan Howlin saying: “It is bad enough that any legislation would be done this way, but for legislation of this seriousness to be rushed through in this way is completely wrong.”
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee defended the Bill, saying that “certain changes are required that do not naturally fit into other pieces of legislation or they happen at a time when they need to be implemented quickly”.
Independent TD Catherine Connolly said: “I have no doubt that this will end up before the courts”, as she highlighted concerns that “we are creating a two-tier system of citizenship”.
That’s all very well but does any of this affect me?
As the Government tied up as many loose ends as possible before the summer break, one key piece of legislation signed into law by the President was the Auto Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill, 2024. It sounds boring but it is worthy so bear with me.
With many people not signing up for private pensions the aim of the law - driven by Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys - is to improve people’s financial security as they enter their later years.
Under the planned scheme, auto-enrolment will see everyone earning more than €20,000 a year and aged between 23 and 60 enrolled in a private pension scheme by default, though they will be able to opt out. Up to 750,000 workers are likely to be affected initially when the scheme gets up and running.
It is tangible example of a law that will likely have an impact on people for decades to come.
Winners and Losers
There was a major win this week for the power of politicians to make a difference - as well as the strength of Ireland’s diplomat corps - with the successful return to Ireland of Roscommon woman Tori Towey.
Ms Towey had moved to Dubai where she worked for the Emirates airline. She suffered domestic abuse and was subsequently prevented from leaving Dubai over allegations she illegally consumed alcohol and attempted suicide.
Her case was raised in the Dáil on Tuesday by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and Taoiseach Simon Harris promised to intervene. Amid the ensuing diplomatic pressure the charges were dropped by the Dubai authorities and the travel ban was lifted. Ms Towey was home in Ireland by Thursday. A job well done by all involved.
XL Bully dogs - which have been involved in a number of savage attacks on people in recent years - are the losers this week. They are being banned in Ireland in a two-stage process that begins in October.
The Big Read
On The Irish Times app and site this weekend our Political Editor Pat Leahy is casting his eye over how Taoiseach Simon Harris has fared in his first 100 days in office. Meanwhile, Harry McGee considers the chances of far-right candidates winning Dáil seats in the next general election, given the success of a handful of fringe candidates in last month’s local elections.
Hear Here
Film-maker Luke McManus joined Inside Politics presenter Hugh Linehan this week to talk about his documentary following a range of candidates in Dublin’s northside during the local elections. The documentary, The Locals, is on RTÉ One on Monday, July 15th, at 9.35pm and will also be available on the RTÉ player.
A candid look at politics in Dublin's north inner city
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