ANALYSIS:As scapegoating begins, Mary Harney's days in the Cabinet are likely to be numbered, writes Stephen Collins
THE DISPLAY of "people power" on the streets outside Dáil Éireann yesterday brought home to Government TDs the depth of the hostility towards them that has been generated by the badly bungled budget decision to abolish the automatic entitlement of the over-70s to a medical card.
Fianna Fáil Minister of State for Older People Máire Hoctor was shouted down and the Green Party TD Ciarán Cuffe found out what it was like to be on the receiving end from a hostile crowd.
By contrast Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore were greeted like heroes and they responded like men who sniffed the prospect of power finally coming their way.
There was an uncomfortable element of mob rule in yesterday's demonstration and there was no room for reason in the proceedings. The majority of elderly people who gathered in Kildare Street and Molesworth Street are almost certainly not going to lose their medical cards under the Government's amended scheme, and many were probably never going to lose them in the first place.
That didn't dampen the sense of outrage one whit or their demand for universal entitlement regardless of income. It appears that the hurt inflicted by the original decision just won't go away and many pensioners are still fearful that thresholds could be changed or that other entitlements they have may be taken away in the future.
Fianna Fáil TDs safely inside the gates of Leinster House winced as they heard the mob baying for blood.
Some of them advised Hoctor not to go near the platform but she braved the hostility and attempted to speak.
The fact that she was given such a hostile reaction from such a large crowd, many of whom must have voted for Fianna Fáil a little over a year ago, left her colleagues gasping.
It was one thing to survive last night's vote in the Dáil but quite another to contemplate the kind of reaction they are going to get from the electorate next time they venture out on the doorsteps. Fianna Fáil TDs are now terrified about the long-term political implications of the decision.
Mary Harney has become the scapegoat for some of the Fianna Fáil TDs. Mattie McGrath from Tipperary South reflected this mood in an interview on Newstalk yesterday.
"I was encouraged, if you don't mind, during the week to go easy, be careful because Mary Harney might walk . . . my God, if that's what we are reduced to, if someone wants to walk then let them walk . I don't want to blame Mary Harney for everything. There were 16 Ministers around Cabinet but it was brought forward by the Department of Health."
There is now a clear mood on the Fianna Fáil backbenches that Harney should not remain as Minister for Health for very much longer. If the Progressive Democrats are wound up as planned next month her days in the Cabinet as an Independent Minister could be numbered. It has suited Fianna Fáil over the past few years that Harney has occupied the health portfolio and taken all the brickbats for the things that have gone wrong in the health service.
Soon it will be one of their own number who gets that unenviable task.
Blaming Harney for what has happened won't make the problem disappear. The political reputations of Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan have also suffered terribly as a result of the budget and the Government will struggle to try and recapture some of the authority it has lost over the past week.
The deep financial crisis facing the country hasn't gone away as a result of the climbdowns on medical cards and the income levy. The Government will need all its nerve and the support of all its backbenchers to carry through the measures needed to bring the country through the challenges ahead.
The impact of the crisis on the Green Party is another factor in the equation. Initially the party appeared to be quite relaxed about the budget but in recent days the nerve of its TDs has also begun to fray.
The level of sheer hostility to all Government TDs on the streets yesterday came as a rude awakening and the Greens may never be as comfortable in Government again as they were on Budget day.