Surrealing in the Years It was a good week for the kind of people who have a lot of good weeks

SOME PEOPLE MIGHT argue that using public money to promote the new book of a former housing minister who oversaw a devastating housing crisis is a strange idea. 

One might even go so far as to ask: ‘Why on earth would such an idea even occur to you in the first place?’ Well, dear reader… You may not have heard about it, but it happened.

Housing champion Eoghan Murphy had a lovely evening out in at the Irish Embassy in London last week, promoting his book Running From Office. The book is primarily about his time as Minister for Housing, during which the number of homeless people in Ireland crossed the 10,000 threshold for the first time, and people made him feel very bad on social media about it.

The event drew the ire of the online commentariat, many of whom cruelly seem to believe that there is something wrong with using an Irish embassy to host a promotional event for a government minister who is now earning royalties on a book about how he failed at being a government minister. On the bright side, Murphy has now got a jumping off point for a sequel.

And, sorry, did I mention that the event was hosted by Ryan Tubridy? The embassy has since confirmed that Tubridy was not paid for his role in hosting the event, which is good to know, because I do seem recall that we’ve had some kind of drama in that sphere before.

The cost of the event to the taxpayer was only around €2,535.77, which doesn’t seem so bad until you remember that we also paid Murphy’s TD and ministerial salaries for ten years, we paid Ryan Tubridy literal millions over the course of his career at RTÉ (though to be fair, Renault footed some of the bill towards the end), and that our money is now also being used to build hype for Eoghan Murphy’s book about how he actually feels quite badly for the whole ‘housing crisis’ thing. There’s also the opportunity cost of missing out on having done, you know, literally anything else with that money.

It’s hard to imagine that the Irish Embassy in London could have put together a more insulting show, at least not without somehow reanimating David Lloyd George. Thankfully, photos from the event show Murphy and Tubridy apparently having a jolly old time. It is a relief to all that they have both overcome their respective low moods brought about by the demands of an unruly public overly concerned with foolish things like ‘homelessness figures’ or ‘transparency in public service broadcasting’. 

On the matter of transparency, boy have we had one heck of a week. An ethics investigation by the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) announced that Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy “acted in good faith” when he failed to declare six properties on his declaration of interests between 2020 and 2022. The report did find, however, that Troy was in breach of the Standards in Public Office Act 2021, meaning his actions were “inconsistent” with the performance of someone in public office or the “maintenance of confidence” from the public. But hey, he meant well. 

SIPO also confirmed, despite completing this report in October, they decided not to publish it until after the general election. How’s that for standards in public office?

The commission’s justification for the move was that: “Mindful of its role as an impartial and independent body, the Commission decided not to publish any non-routine reports in the run-up to the General Election which was then imminent.”

Maybe the ‘non-routine’ thing made more sense in their head. After all, while an investigation into the standards in public office of a sitting TD undertaken by the Standards in Public Office Commission may not technically be ‘routine’, it is also very much what SIPO is there to do. It’s actually kind of the whole point of SIPO.

Another question that comes to mind is: what does ‘impartial’ mean?

On the face of it, one would think that impartiality would mean publishing a report as soon as it’s completed irrespective of the political climate, right? Surely, impartiality would mean not taking into consideration whether the findings of your report would help or hinder someone’s election campaign? 

The Embassy hosted the UK launch of @MurphyEoghan's book 'Running From Office' with an insightful conversation led by Ryan Tubridy.

The book offers an unfiltered gaze into the realities of public life, creating a fascinating topic for discussion! pic.twitter.com/hK2eRO30Q5

— Embassy of Ireland (@IrelandEmbGB) December 5, 2024

If Robert Troy hadn’t been running for election, would SIPO have published the report in October? It seems that by their own admission they would have. To not do so is, believe it or not, the opposite of impartiality. 

Okay, let’s see. That’s Robert Troy, Eoghan Murphy and Ryan Tubridy who are all having a great week. Who else, who else? Any Independent politicians previously found guilty of tax offences and rebuked in the 2011 Moriarty Report in with a chance of shaping the next five years of public policy in Ireland, perhaps?

No, that couldn’t be. There’s only one man who could fit that bill and our soon-to-be Taoiseach Micheál Martin called on him to resign his seat in Dáil Éireann over the Moriarty Report, as did then-Taoiseach Enda Kenny back in 2011. As it stands, however, Michael Lowry is a senior figure in the Regional Independent Group that seems destined to prop up Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil for the next five years. Indeed, should the bloc coalesce further and implement a whip system – as outgoing Taoiseach Simon Harris has called for – it seems eminently plausible that Lowry could be positioned to bargain for a ministerial position, though he says he doesn’t want one.

Lowry rejects the findings of the Moriary Report, and it is worth noting that he was reelected last month with a whopping 27% of first preference votes, suggesting that on a local level, he remains one of the most electable politicians in the country.

It was not such an auspicious week for the Soc Dems. The good feeling around Ireland’s purplest party has fallen away in recent days after one of the worst doorstep interviews in recent memory, which saw newly elected TD Eoin Hayes incorrectly inform the media as to when he sold his shares in Palantir. Hayes used to work for the company, which is a major supplier of military-use tech to the Israeli Defence Force. Hayes benefitted to the tune of around €199,000 from these shares pre-tax, selling them a month after he was elected to Dublin City Council and not “before [he] entered politics,” as he repeatedly told the media, with the backing of his party colleagues, who had also been misled. The press conference, which should have been a victory lap, was a car crash. Only I’ve never seen a car crash take 20 minutes to unfold.

While Hayes did not sell his shares before he entered politics, he has been suspended by the Soc Dems before he’s had the chance to enter the Dáil. Deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan has said that to describe himself as “embarrassed” by the affair would be “an understatement”. Having put his party-mates in the position of defending him over a matter that has proved to be indefensible, one suspects we’ll not be seeing Hayes in purple again any time soon. 

If this week offers him any comfort, however, it’s that Ireland continues to provide more than enough avenues for a comeback.