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The Taoiseach has Mary Lou McDonald as a street angel and a house devil. All sweetness and light when the spotlight is off and total drama queen the moment it is turned on.
According to him, she does not kick in private meetings with party leaders and officials when serious issues such as handling Covid tests are discussed. “Much less heated than he usually is in the public arena,” Micheál Martin commented after a recent confrontation in the Dáil chamber.
There have been exasperated murmurs from his leadership about this trend as of late.
On Wednesday, he suffered another tummy ache in the daily nasty swap. It used to be known as “Questions from the Leaders”.
Micheál looked dangerously close to losing his rag as their latest outing unfolded in the poignant spirit of acrimony that has become a mark of recent encounters. The Sinn Féin leader is really getting upset with her tireless criticism of the government’s performance in the pandemic.
The Taoiseach’s mood may not have been helped by the absence of four of its top cabinet ministers, who are trapped in the Great Lockdown and work from home. Leo Varadkar, Simon Coveney, Paschal Donohoe, and Stephen Donnelly have all been on low-fiber diets and are busily restricting their movements.
The spikes were already flying in their coalition when the sick leave and paternity leave bill was debated during the morning session. The party’s finance spokesman, Ged Nash, was quick to jump on the news that ICTU pulled out of the minimum wage increase talks because the offer on the table was too low.
“Put your money where your applause is,” he told the government, calling for a reasonable raise for the country’s lowest paid workers, many of whom are being praised for their essential contribution during the Covid crisis.
Ged wouldn’t be the only opposition TD to point out that the public sector – “including TDs, by the way” – should increase 2 percent next month, while these workers “don’t deserve a measly raise that will only add 20 cents. extra hour “.
Then Ged, backed by his Labor colleagues, said the fairest thing in these troubling times for so many people in the private sector would be for public service workers to give up their raise until the country comes out of the other side of Covid. tunnel.
Of course they didn’t. That would be like Aengus Ó Snodaigh coming in and suggesting that Ireland rejoin the Commonwealth.
The Taoiseach would later tell Mary Lou McDonald that the Low Pay Commission is an independent body from the government, while the cost of raising the minimum wage is borne by employers, many of whom struggle to stay afloat during Covid restrictions.
The Sinn Féin leader could not have been more impressed if she had been informed that lingering looks of withering disdain will be banned from the Dáil chamber starting next week.
Micheál found his outrage “outrageous”. Mary Lou found it “extraordinary” that her comments were “extraordinary.”
The government, any government, is always going to receive criticism when the public sector, and therefore politicians, raise their salaries. It’s like the traditional form-throwing before the Dáil gets up to take a break – lots of grunting about sticking around to get more work done in the knowledge that they’ll leave happily at the end of the day.
So the surge kicks in anyway.
It doesn’t help to hear that TDs receive pay raises when tens of thousands of workers, laid off because the state closed their workplaces, face reduced state pay. But that’s one thing. The announcement of the appointment of 10 additional special advisers to junior ministers this week was just another example of this administration’s self-inflicted lack of work due to improper timing.
Aontu’s Peadar Tóibín almost danced towards the open net.
The government is cutting family incomes while spending millions of euros on ministerial handlers, he shouted. “It’s reminiscent of the Charlie Haughey days, when he told people to tighten their belts while at the same time shopping for Charvet shirts in Paris.”
It’s not good for the Fianna Fáil-led coalition when a former leader’s famous jerseys can be dredged from the linen basket of infamy to air again. They brought it to them themselves.
And all this when the current leader is increasingly exasperated by the lack of recognition of some sectors of the Opposition to the efforts that he says his Government is making, at an enormous cost for the treasury that will have to face at some point. – to support as many people as possible during the Covid crisis.
Mary Lou McDonald doesn’t see any of that. She saw it fall short on three fronts: the employment wage subsidy scheme, the pandemic unemployment pay cut, and “a low pay commission that will not address low wages.”
Micheál accused her of trying to give the impression that “the government seeks to attract people.” Being accused of not supporting the workers – in response he detailed the measures in force – “is an extraordinary political position that he must carry out.
Mary Lou looked at him with striking disdain.
“Well,” he began, ending with a torrent of outrage. “The only thing that is extraordinary Taoiseach is his extraordinary lack of justice and his even more extraordinary lack of awareness in this regard.”
He sat staring at her, silently simmering.
And you can. . . move beyond your delusional type of daydreaming and enter the real world with the rest of us. “
The contempt that drips from every word.
Check below, Mary Lou. Mark it down.
Micheál replied. Do you want to talk about reality? “You use every occasion and situation to tell lies and not to tell the truth in relation to the reality that exists. . . you’re wrong . ,. you deliberately distort. . . ”
It was hard to tell if the Taoiseach was angrier or more bewildered.
“Can. You. No. Recognize. That one?” she asked, beating every word. “Can’t they recognize that a very substantial, unprecedented intervention is being made by the state, the taxpayer to support unemployment? Why do you always feel the need to distort? ,. to smear people who are definitely trying their best? “
Mary Lou scowled at him across the floor.
“Because you do it out of political outrage. All the time.”
The Taoiseach was irritated.
You know, the Low Pay Commission is not an arm of the government. “You know, though, you’ve come here again this morning trying to pretend” it is.
“It is an independent regulatory body created by this Oireachtas, including you! – but when it suits you, you want to carry out one political charge after another and not deal with reality ”.
The Taoiseach sat down and shuffled some of his papers, his hands shaking with annoyance.
The Sinn Féin leader complained to the Ceann Comhairle.
“I don’t like being accused of putting falsehoods before the House. That is false “.
And she wanted the record.
Things may have calmed down with the return leg next week.
I hope not.
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