There was a gloomy air about a listless Leinster House as yet another day was spent talking about the housing situation.
The Taoiseach talked of Government action.
The Opposition talked of continuing catastrophe.
And a fox drowned in the fountain in front of Government Buildings.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s Cork office vandalised amid ‘personal threats’
Will rent reform hitting holiday lets irk Coalition’s own Ministers?
Appeals against initial refusal of Domiciliary Care Allowance successful 60% of time
House not private for drowned Leinster House fox as TDs serve up groundhog day of Dáil sniping
The talk went on all day – inside and outside the Dáil.
The fox lay dead in the water while Ministers, oblivious, conducted press briefings in the courtyard before parliamentary business resumed.
During a fractious Leaders’ Questions, as Opposition TDs sniped at the Taoiseach, and the Taoiseach poked back, maintenance staff removed the fox’s body while staff watched sadly from the windows above.
“We need to hit the ground running, so to speak, in respect of any additional reforms that we have,” said Micheál Martin, who is now “engaging key stakeholders” in his infrastructure improvement crusade.
Dáil observers could have written the script for Tuesday’s session. It mirrored so many discussions from sittings past
The Opposition urged him to rethink and change his approach.
It’s depressing.
Dáil observers could have written the script for Tuesday’s session. It mirrored so many discussions from sittings past.
There were the usual testing exchanges between the Taoiseach and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald.
Micheál gave up on Mary Lou a long time ago.
The feeling is mutual.
A tart “blah, blah, blah” was her response to one of his replies on Tuesday.
But Labour leader Ivana Bacik remains a terrible disappointment to him.
Micheál says he understands – she’s part of the Opposition, so it’s in the game plan to give him a hard time. But he gets very ratty when she criticises his Government’s efforts to ease the housing crisis – “chaotic” was what she called them.
In fairness, she had a point.
Whatever about the merit of the parcel of proposals dropped last week by Minister for Housing James Browne, the method of their delivery was a mess.
Naturally, Opposition leaders went to town on the communications confusion as the Dáil returned, holding it out as yet further evidence of the Government’s failure to get to grips with this seemingly intractable problem.
You’ve been planning these rental reforms for months and yet you made an absolute hames of them last week. Even your own Cabinet colleagues couldn’t make sense of them
— Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore
Jennifer Whitmore of the Social Democrats (standing in for deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan, who has been standing in for leader Holly Cairns) summed up the feeling when telling the Taoiseach: “You’ve been planning these rental reforms for months and yet you made an absolute hames of them last week. Even your own Cabinet colleagues couldn’t make sense of them.”
Fortunately, they are queuing up on the other side of the house to tell the Taoiseach how to sort things out.
“It’s time for a radical reset of housing policy,” said Bacik. “No more incoherent policy changes.”
She said the Government must “scale up its effort and ambition” if it is to make any impact on the situation. What he should not do is “waste time and money on Bertienomics era tax breaks for developers”.
There are plenty of excellent suggestions he could take on board from Ivana’s party, for example. Why not consider “other urgent and ambitious proposals” for fixing the crisis?
“Why do you not adopt our policies on protection for renters?” she asked.
There endeth the lesson from Dublin Bay South.
Micheál wasn’t having this, no more than he was accepting accusations that he is not taking political responsibility for driving housing reform.
He listed all their early achievements on the housing front “since the Government came in a number of months ago, in January”.
Only a wet weekend in the job and they’re flying. It’s not easy, coming fresh into a new managerial position and having to clean up after the previous occupant.
It seems the last shower did damn all because they were too busy preparing for the general election, but new boy Micheál wouldn’t know anything about that.
Rent reform: is immediate pain worth uncertain gains?
Now we have a brand new iteration of the Forever Formation of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and it’s an entirely new proposition to what went before.
No, really. It only looks the same.
There’s even an “accelerating infrastructure taskforce!” chaired by Jack Chambers, which will concentrate on delivering high-impact reforms and speed up delivery of key deliverables before the end of next month.
Micheál is blue in the face reciting the list of projects and programmes in the pipeline for social and affordable housing. They passed the national planning framework and nobody wants to hear about that. House completions in the first part of this year are the highest on record since 2011.
“We have to keep going and get the job done … There is a lot of delivery happening,” he told the Dáil.
What is Ivana and her party doing?
This gave Micheál the chance to express his disappointment yet again in Ivana, who would have the world at her feet now had she gone into Coalition with the Forever Formation
“We’re Opposition,” she reminded him. “You’re the Taoiseach. You’re in Government.”
The Taoiseach said he has no problem in taking responsibility and they are “taking decisions”. All the Labour leader is doing is “criticising decisions” while protesting she has no power to act because her party is in Opposition.
This gave Micheál the chance to express his disappointment yet again in Ivana, who would have the world at her feet now had she gone into Coalition with the Forever Formation.
It’s only a matter of time before he goes the full Marlon Brando.
“You coulda had class. You coulda been a contender. You coulda been somebody, instead of a bum Opposition leader, which is what you are.”
Instead, Micheál cried: “You coulda been in Government. You coulda been in Government. You coulda been in Government, but you didn’t have the courage!”
Ivana bristled.
“You didn’t give us the chance. You had the deal done with Michael Lowry.”
The Taoiseach dispensed a few finishing digs.
“You and many in the party didn’t have the courage. And why?” he asked, as Labour howled. “Look, I know it hurts … it hurts the party,” he murmured, noting that their former leader, Alan Kelly, wasn’t in the chamber.
“To be fair to him, he wanted to go into Government, but the others did not.”
The Taoiseach looked across at the Labour TDs and the Social Democrat TDs seated next to them.
“And the reason you didn’t want to go into Government was because you’re afraid of the people alongside you. You were afraid to jump in case they wouldn’t jump and vice versa.”
In the ensuing tumult, he surveyed the scene opposite.
“Aah, but you’ve all joined forces now.”
It may have been a joint effort, but Sinn Féin easily won the battle of the banners with party flags, placards and a waving sea of pristine Tricolours
Speaking of joining forces, a number of deputies trailed the Raise the Roof housing protest, which was due to take place outside the gates at teatime.
Supported by all the Opposition parties, and timed to coincide with Sinn Féin’s motion calling for emergency action on housing and homelessness, a smaller group than might have been expected massed at the end of Molesworth Street opposite Leinster House in brilliant sunshine.
It may have been a joint effort, but Sinn Féin easily won the battle of the banners with party flags, placards and a waving sea of pristine Tricolours. All the Opposition leaders marched their troops out to the demo before taking their place on the platform.
Mary Lou was one of the first to greet Paul Murphy of People Before Profit-Solidarity, back from Egypt where he was detained twice by the authorities while attempting to take part in the Global March to Gaza.
Back inside, the housing debate continued.
And we thought of our lovely Leinster House fox died at home.
House not private.
