Micheál Martin defends decision to put ‘national interest’ above party

Those were dark days for the party; its very future hung in the balance. Its first ard fheis in opposition was a heady affair. Anger, bemusement, and fear all combined to make Micheál Martin’s job near impossible.

That was then and this is now. In 2019, Fianna Fáil is no longer toxic, but it is still out of power. The mood at this weekend’s ard fheis was tetchy, but in a different way. Delegates hungry for power are perplexed and angry at Martin’s decision to extend the confidence-and-supply arrangement.

While leading TDs, including John McGuinness, Willie O’Dea, and Niall Collins, as well as MEP hopeful Barry Andrews, have all openly questioned the wisdom of continuing, Martin is unrepentant. In an interview with the Irish Examiner, he says he was right to “give the Government space,” because of Brexit. “A no-brainer,” he describes it.

“My message to delegates was ‘I get it’. I understand the lack of delivery on health and housing, by government, and other issues, like broadband. All the feedback from the ground, in relation to health, is growing frustration with the delay on major projects,” he says.

“There is a lot of anger and people are anxious to move on. We are at a very difficult moment for our country. We have just published legislation which needs to get passed by March 29. That would not have happened if we pulled it.

“We would now be in the middle of the general election, at a time when we need to get this legislation through, had I done that. There is a reason: we need to put the national interest first. People do get it that the national interest comes first,” he says.

Fair enough, the public may accept a stay of execution until March 29, but how far beyond that is Fianna Fáil willing or able to go?

“I am saying you can’t do confidence-and-supply piecemeal. That is not sustainable. Space has to be provided. We did come under strain in the past couple of weeks, because of the National Children’s Hospital.”

He rejects that Fianna Fáil have been rendered political eunuchs, neutered and passive, which some of his party are saying. “No, we are not [eunuchs]. I disagree with that. We changed the budgetary policy after 2016. We went from regressive budgets to budgets which were fairer than before. Likewise, in education, we secured major changes in career guidance and pupil-teacher ratios, which would not have happened but for us,” he says.

“The Government is in place two-and-a-half years. Are people saying we should have elections every two-and-a-half years? People need to weigh that up.

I am not a fan of elections every two years. I was a student in the early 1980s, when we had three elections in 18 months. I don’t agree fully with the British system of fixed-term parliaments, but anything less than three years is not good for stability and not good for decision-making and we are not already at the three-year mark.

Martin says the misleading of his party in relation to the cost overruns at the National Children’s Hospital represents a breach of the terms of the confidence-and-supply deal, akin to the crisis which led to the resignation of Frances Fitzgerald in November 2017.

But he says they abstained on the motion of confidence in Health Minister, Simon Harris, in order to provide stability at such a delicate time for the country.

He insists that in the weeks of talks the parties held in the wake of the budget, the cost overruns at the children’s hospital never came up. “Certainly not to the extent of €400m,” he says. “The big thing when we went in was the current overrun and they could not give us a specific figure on the overrun, because they said the HSE hadn’t come back.”

But Fine Gael says Fianna Fáil never asked the right question. “That’s ridiculous. It doesn’t wash that we didn’t ask the right question. It was only in September when we got the figure. Simon Harris has had to apologise for misleading the Dáil and giving incorrect figures to Barry Cowen. He did not mention the extra €391m/€400m.”

“That was a breach in trust. But because of Brexit, Brexit is an issue that trumps everything,” Martin says.

He has also been locked in a battle with his once-close ally, Billy Kelleher, over the latter’s desire to run for Europe, against his leader’s wishes. Having made it clear he did not want Kelleher to go, Martin now concedes defeat and accepts Kelleher is going.

“He is going, as far I am concerned. I said what I said in the past, and you quoted me accurately. So, the letters have gone out now. I have had an amicable chat with Billy and I understand where he is coming from,” he says.

He says Kelleher is a significant player. “His performance on the Eighth Amendment was one of the best in terms of parliamentary management and putting people together,” he says. Why, then, move him from the portfolio before the abortion legislation was concluded?

“He was in health for six or seven years and I felt we needed to freshen things up. I think you need to get different perspectives. But he had done the business on it, the legislation was not going to change what had been agreed at committee, and it didn’t. The template of which was agreed at the committee and he played a central role in that,” he says.

Martin also rejects the notion that he demoted Kelleher to the “graveyard” of the enterprise portfolio.

“I don’t see it as a graveyard or backwater, because if you look at Ireland.inc, sometimes we don’t match that with our political focus. To me, enterprise is one of the most important departments and should be, along with foreign affairs, because we are a global economy. That is why I put him in there,” he says.

If only Kelleher saw it that way, this whole row could have been avoided.