Coalition of Conflict — Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Clashes as Advisors Attack Each Other

Growing tensions between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael coalition ministers over media coverage have sparked ‘blazing rows’ among rival party spin doctors,

pinare.online

has learned.

There are also increasing concerns over the relationship between the two most powerful politicians in the country amid a series of housing and health controversies.

One senior Government source said: ‘The Taoiseach [Micheál Martin] and the

Tánaiste

[Simon Harris], it is very polite, but they just aren’t getting on.

‘It didn’t start very well between [former Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader] Leo [Varadkar] and Micheál either, but once it became clear that Leo wasn’t keen on hanging around, they got on much better.

‘Micheál is uneasy about Simon’s ambition. He cleared all that out of Fianna Fáil, so he is not used to dealing with it.’

Another source described the relationship between the leaders of the old Civil War rival parties as ‘very icy, very polite, very formal’.

The deteriorating relations come as the Coalition finds itself under increasing pressure to deliver key pre-election promises, in particular its pledge to significantly increase new home builds.

A senior Coalition figure noted: ‘Sometimes it feels like it’s been five years rather than five months. There’s no bedding in, no sense of cohesion that this is a shared project.’

Other sources pointed to Cabinet tensions over the extent of media coverage ministers from either party are securing. One minister told

pinare.online

: ‘There are bushfires everywhere. There have been blazing rows between advisors.

‘It is coming from the top. The ministers are being told to dominate the [news] agenda, especially in Fine Gael.’

Another Government source added: ‘There are wars between the advisors. They are tearing into each other about lines of demarcation, and that spills over to the ministers. [Media] appearances are being counted up. The spats start before [RTÉ Radio current affairs programme] Morning Ireland is over. It’s total paranoia.’

Sources compared the comparatively better cohesion that existed between the party leaders in the previous administration, which included the Green Party.

One minister noted: ‘In the last administration, we could always blame the Greens, we are almost missing them.

‘The Regional Independents are foxes; they go missing when there’s trouble. Now there’s only Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in the room.’

One senior advisor said the debacle over Dáil speaking rights got the current Coalition off to the worst possible start.

‘The problem is everything has been off kilter from the start.’

Referring to chaotic Dáil scenes during the prolonged row over whether a group of independent TDs, including Michael Lowry, should be granted speaking rights to question the government they support, they added: ‘The Lowry kingpin thing was a disaster. It set the image of the Coalition in stone as a collection of strokers and the do-nothing Dáil.

‘We should have been looking to divide the opposition from the start and get Labour in. We didn’t, and now we have a united opposition thanks to Lowry.’

One Fine Gael minister added: ‘We were drowned in Lowry for three months but what really took the wind out of things was the housing figures. That has put us on the back foot from the start.’

A Fianna Fáil minister said: ‘Everything is polite, but there’s no deep collegiality. There’s a lot of suspicion over Fine Gael’s plans for [Housing Minister] James Browne.’

Referring to the embarrassing U-turn on plans to install the €430,000-a-year Nama boss Brendan McDonagh as

Minister Browne’s housing ‘czar’

, the minister added: ‘They’ve tasted blood once with McDonagh. Will they come for another head, and what will we do if they do?’

The source noted there is no longer a ‘backdoor where [Coalition] difficulties can be ironed over, a sort of Fine Gael minister for dealing with Fianna Fáil, and a Fianna Fáil minister for Fine Gael, but that isn’t there this time.’

They added: ‘The parties are retreating in on themselves. Even there, the parties are divided. Fine Gael are in leadership silly season mode with the [Health Minister] Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and Simon Harris soap opera, and we are no better.

‘Micheál is back to his old tricks, playing one off against the other. The party is already asking, is [Public Expenditure Minister] Jack Chambers or James Browne the real Minister for Housing?’

Referring to the deepening Coalition tensions and fears of an escalating health crisis over revelations about abuses of the State scheme to combat hospital waiting lists, another Cabinet source said: ‘We are facing a poly-crisis scenario. People are genuinely starting to wonder if all this is tenable beyond three years. Five-year governments are not a given, you know.’