LAST UPDATE | 3 Nov
TÁNAISTE MICHEÁL MARTIN has hit back at unattributed briefings he claims are coming from Fine Gael headquarters that refer to him as tetchy and grumpy.
Speaking to reporters in Bodenstown today at the annual Fianna Fáil Wolfetone Commemoration, Martin said he was seeing a pattern of briefings emerging, stating:
“It’s quite amusing at one level, but I would say to people to cop on a bit. It’s silly… and it’s not something that makes any sense.”
With an election expected to be called next week, tensions are appearing between the three coalition parties.
Martin referred to ageism in some of the Fine Gael sources being cited in some media articles recently, which referred to him as a grumpy old man.
He said there is no truth in such remarks, pointing to his interview in The Sunday Independent today, in which he refers to himself as a “pleasant and good-humoured guy”.
In the same interview he said those briefings are a “political strategy by the mandarins in Fine Gael headquarters”.
In his speech today, the Tánaiste laid out some of his party’s election ambitions, particularly on housing.
In doing so, Martin seized on the new book by a former Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy called ‘Running from Office’.
The former minister recounts how former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe and the Attorney General at the time appeared to block some of the housing policy changes he wanted to achieve.
“As the former Fine Gael Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy bravely said, in the previous Government radical reforms were blocked in favour of a narrow focus on smaller actions,” said Martin, adding:
“Well, we changed when we took over responsibility for housing,” said Martin today, referring Fianna Fáil taking over the housing brief after Murphy’s departure.
“Over the past four and a half years we have implemented a relentless programme of reforms and developing new actions,” he said.
Speaking more about the book in his interview with The Sunday Independent today, Martin said:
It told me about that [Fine Gael-led] government’s lack of radicalism and prioritisation on housing. That is the big reveal.
He went on to outline one housing policy measure contained in the Fianna Fáil election manifesto.
The party pledges to expand the government’s home equity programme, called the First Home Scheme, to second hand homes. Currently the scheme is only available for new builds.
The First Home Scheme provides first-time buyers an option for the government and certain banks to pay up to 30% of the cost of a new home in return for a stake in the property.
Martin said today that housing remains one of the defining issues of this generation.
“A rising population and other factors mean that demand for housing is and will remain high – so we have to deliver a permanent acceleration of homebuilding. This is what we will do. Ireland missed years because of past failures,” he said.
He pledged to reduce construction costs through investment in critical infrastructure stating Fianna Fáil will “directly help people who want a home to buy or rent”.
Speaking in Monaghan this evening, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil “need to grow-up and cop-on”.
“The truth is Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are now the same,” she said, adding that “sham rows” on the eve of the general election are “not fooling anyone”.
McDonald said that both parties’ five years in government have “wasted” the opportunity to make a “lasting difference” in people’s lives.
“The sharpest example of this is Micheál Martin’s claim that they’ve turned the corner on housing when they built fewer homes this year than last year,” she said. “We are now asking voters to call time on the cosy club. To finally end the dominance of Irish politics by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.”
Includes reporting by Emma Hickey.
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