Michael McGrath, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, administered a bracing laxative after lunch on Sunday to a very constipated Fine Gael party. Speaking on RTÉ's This Week he insisted the Department of Finance would not be salami-sliced, to allow its Minister, Paschal Donohoe, continue to nibble at the buffet as President of the Euroroup, after he ceases to be minister on December 15th. It was a message of the una voce, una duce sort thought lost from the Fianna Fáil lexicon. There would be one minister for finance and no division of his responsibilities.
McGrath only enlarged on similar sentiments from Taoiseach Micheál Martin. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil did a deal with each other and the Greens at the formation of the Government. The larger parties spent the political capital left over after their botched general election campaigns. Their purchase was ministerial office. Unlike the Greens, there was no bigger vision. It was last orders in the last-chance saloon.
Strategic thinking
As election results became clear on Sunday, February 9th, 2020, Leo Varadkar admitted “We were defeated so that means that people are saying to us that Fine Gael should go into opposition and we are absolutely willing to do that.” That wasn’t just defeatism on its second-worst result ever, it was a shocking setback. It was Fine Gael’s last attempt at strategic thinking. Fine Gael in opposition would force Fianna Fáil into government with Sinn Féin and regroup as a clear centre-right alternative.
[ Discord over finance minister as McGrath concerned over diminution of roleOpens in new window ]
[ FF cool on Varadkar suggestion that Donohoe could remain Eurogroup presidentOpens in new window ]
What changed in Fine Gael over the following weeks was the lure of opportunity for its three key figures, Varadkar, Donohoe and Simon Coveney. For Varadkar the office of taoiseach beckoned. The alternative was rebuilding Fine Gael, with no certainty of either personal survival or ultimate success. And that assumes, which I don’t, that he was interested in leading his party in opposition anyway.
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For Donohoe, he could be minister for finance again and if so have an opportunity to become president of the Eurogroup. He did both. For Coveney, Ireland was well-set through the spring of 2020 to get elected to the UN Security Council. It did, nine days before the Government was formed. It was a smorgasbord of opportunity which wrapped in the national interest perfectly aligned opportunism with office, for the troika at the top of Fine Gael.
Cack-handed intervention
Fine Gael and specifically Varadkar knew exactly the terms on which they took office. There would be a rotation of taoiseach and finance on December 15th, 2022, as well as other consequential moves. When the reinstalled Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe became Eurogroup president, he knew the rules of the game he helped write.
What is extraordinary is the cack-handed public intervention of Varadkar, purportedly on Donohoe’s behalf. In publicly demanding special consideration for his party colleague, before privately consulting with Martin, he jinxed him. The Eurogroup presidency may be “the most important position that any Irishman or woman holds at the moment in the world”, as Varadkar said earlier this month. Or at least it is since Phil Hogan was EU trade commissioner. It is an incredibly casual handling of national treasure for Varadkar to have shafted Hogan and perhaps performed the same service for Donohoe.
It is questionable if there is a way to ensure Fianna Fáil gets in full the finance department Fine Gael agreed was theirs, and still enable Donohoe be an eligible candidate for the Eurogroup job. Varadkar is now in the odd position of being leader of his party because he has no rivals, but with few remaining supporters. If there is sincerity in his concerns on Donohoe’s behalf, he could offer the obvious sacrifice to keep him in post at finance and president of the Eurogroup and ask Fianna Fáil to postpone the transfer of office. If it succeeded in keeping Donohoe in “the most important position that any Irishman or woman holds at the moment in the world” surely he would be content as Tánaiste?
[ Eurogroup dispute suggests Coalition switchover in December will be rockyOpens in new window ]
The swirl of interventions from Varadkar are increasingly reactive and opportunistic but not strategic. The reality of his party in government is that its spending makes what Sinn Féin promised at the last election seem parsimonious. There was the extraordinary circumstance of Covid-19, but it has washed away what was once a clear difference economically. Varadkar’s dismissal of proposals from the Commission on Taxation as “straight out of the Sinn Féin manifesto” further mainstreamed them politically. His attempt to embarrass Fianna Fáil out of taking the turn they waited for, momentarily reignited their once-keen appetite for power. Astonishingly, it highlighted after a long interval an actual difference between the two parties.
It is fine to be contemptuous of your colleagues, but it is not smart to show it. As taoiseach, Varadkar will have a special responsibility for looking out for his partners in government. Occasionally a star performer as a solo artist, he is a poor team leader. Now Fine Gael faces the most testing time in government since the economic crash. Simultaneously, they have developed an identity crisis. It is a party out of touch with its own voters. It suffers from the symptoms of being too long in office, with little purpose left except to be in government. But perhaps after December 15th, there is a better second act to follow.