Fianna Fáil has no respect for the Greens

COMMENT

IF you were to ask any group of TDs to name the most honourable deputy among them, at least nine out of 10 would nominate Trevor Sargent.
I have known the former junior minister for many years and have known him as a man of great integrity. I was, therefore, astonished when I heard about the events which led to his shock resignation on Tuesday evening.  He would be the last TD I would expect to do anything that might cause his resignation. But by the manner of his going he has shown what must be done when a mistake has been made. Hopefully, he will stay on as a TD for Dublin North.
Meanwhile, and this has nothing to do with Trevor Sargent’s error of judgement or resignation, a major problem with this Government is that Fianna Fáil has no respect for the Green Party.
That was clearly shown during the week at the height of the Willie O’Dea controversy.
Fianna Fáil is inclined to take the Greens for granted as it did when putting down the confidence motion in O’Dea and expecting the Greens to troop through the Tá lobby with their tails between their legs.
Which the Greens did until pressure from rank-and-file members and from the general public forced a change of mind.
But the Fianna Fáil attitude in general to the Green Party needs to change fundamentally.  That attitude was displayed by O’Dea himself when referring to Senator Dan Boyle as one who “footed” the poll at the European elections last summer.
It is a typical sneering Fianna Fáil attitude to smaller parties. I saw that attitude over the years in Clare in particular.  While Fianna Fáil might have had no love for Fine Gael, they had a certain grudging regard for that party because Fine Gael was able to stand up to them in the battle for people’s votes.
But Fianna Fáil has never had any regard or respect at all for the smaller parties, which they looked on as groups that were getting in the way of the real contest that was between themselves and Fine Gael.
You could see the same attitude in sport where, for example, Kerry football fans might treat with derision the footballers of ‘weak’ counties such as Clare, Waterford or wherever.
But that attitude to the Green Party very nearly caused the collapse of the Government last Thursday.
And last week’s events in the Dáil will have strained relations between the two Government parties. However, it might teach Fianna Fáil to cop themselves on and to treat their partners with a little more respect.
Normally, Fianna Fáil would have no concern about the fortunes of the smaller parties in the Dáil. But their whole survival in office depends on the support of the Green Party. So they will have to be concerned about any problems the Green Party has. They might not have taken the Greens too seriously prior to last week but from now on, if the Government is to survive, they will have to listen very carefully to what the Greens say.
The Green Party has its own agenda and the party has to be able to show members and supporters certain goals reached in office. Fianna Fáil believes – or believed up to last week – that the Greens had no choice but to remain in Government.
Everybody knows that the Greens face wipe-out at an election.  So their only chance is to stay in there as long as possible in the hope that things might change. The longer they stay in power the better hope there is of putting Green policies into action.
Of course, there is another school of thought that believes the Greens will have to pick an issue with Fianna Fáil that will force them to walk and fight the subsequent election on an anti-Fianna Fáil platform.
There is and always was a strong anti-Fianna Fáil attitude among rank-and-file Green Party members and supporters.  But the majority of them seem to be happy to go along with the notion that they are better off inside the corridors of power than outside without any power. 
The party has supported some of the most controversial pieces of legislation, which it would in other more normal circumstances oppose such as the Lisbon Treaty, various budgets over the past two years, along with the Bill setting up NAMA, not to mention issues such as allowing Shannon Airport to be used by US troops going to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Because of that apparently blind support, Fianna Fáil has taken them for granted.  And that has to change.
The Greens will never again want to be put in the position of calling for a Government Minister’s head a few hours after supporting a motion of confidence in him in the Dáil.  And Fianna Fáil will need to recognise that.  Otherwise we are going to have a general election far sooner than any one of us would have expected a week ago.
It is going to be extremely difficult to keep this Government together. We do not know what might be coming down the tracks. But it is events like the O’Dea issue that you never expect that can cause shaky governments to fall.
Brian Cowen showed a lack of leadership by not moving immediately to fill the vacancy caused by O’Dea’s resignation. Back in the early 1960s,  the then Minister for Agriculture, Paddy Smith,  resigned in protest over the Government’s perceived surrender in the face of trade union pressure.  The then Taoiseach, Seán Lemass, immediately appointed Smith’s successor.  So there was as much talk about the new minister as there was about the causes of Smith’s resignation.
Cowen could have helped to bury the embarrassment about O’Dea by announcing last Thursday night or Friday morning the appointment of, say, Tony Killeen, as the new Minister for Defence.  The good image of Killeen would have deflected the spotlight away from the bad image of Willie O’Dea.