Willie O’Dea’s claim that he will quit the party rather than support another coalition has sent shockwaves through Fianna Fail – and gave the public a good laugh.
The problem for Micheal Martin is not the potential loss of one of Fianna Fail’s most loyal deputies but the fact that much of the party’s core support will follow his example.
What does it say about Mr Martin’s leadership when a man who has been a Fianna Fail TD for 40 years is threatening to leave the party and run as an independent?
This would suggest the Taoiseach is not just out of touch with the country but oblivious of what is going on in his own party.
If Willie feels Fianna Fail has become a shadow Fine Gael he’s not alone as an entire generation locked out of the property market are of a similar mind.
The sight of Fianna Fail TDs voting to allow tax exempt cuckoo funds buy up entire housing estates depriving young families of a home brings disgrace on a party that once built hundreds of thousands of council houses.
There are many in FF who feel the same way as Mr O’Dea. The question Mr Martin should be asking himself is that if a man who has won 11 successive general elections since 1982 is peed off with his own party what must the general public feel?
Mr O’Dea represents a good proportion of the electorate when he says FF has become “indistinguishable from Fine Gael” or as the saying goes, if you lie down with dogs you get up with (free market) fleas.
The party has donned the Blueshirt when it comes to housing policy. Mr Martin turning on Shinners every time he is questioned about his failed housing policies is embarrassing, even for FF stalwarts.
There is every reason to believe that Mr O’Dea sees another humiliation for the party at the next election because of its abject failure to deliver on housing.
He is right when he says that his party has lost ground since going into coalition and is spot on to fear that another term in such an arrangement would “finish off” the party. No bad thing Generation Rent might say.
It is hard to understand Mr O’Dea’s rationale as he knows, barring a miracle FF won’t form a government on its own after the election.
So what is Willie up to? I believe he knows the game is up for FF and wants an exit strategy as he knows the party can’t fight the next election with the intention of going into opposition.
He also knows that this is not the Government the public voted for. He, like most of the electorate, is also unhappy that FF has been propping up or in coalition with FG since 2016 and that during that time the housing crisis has gone from bad to worse.
In those six years the prospect of ever owning a home has worsened for young people while rents have spiralled out of control. While Leo Varadkar’s party invited the vulture and cuckoo funds to come and prey on the Irish public FF has nurtured them with tax breaks and sweetheart deals.
FF has a credible record of house building in decades when the country was much worse financially than it is today.
But with this tradition of providing affordable homes for ordinary people Mr O’Dea and many other Fianna Fail TDs must feel uncomfortable sharing power with a party that openly admits it is ideologically opposed to building what we once called council houses.
When FF refuses to impose a rent freeze and prevent cuckoo funds from buying up starter homes meant for families we can only assume they have become FG vassals as Mr O’Dea fears.
At a FF parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday evening Mr Martin claimed his party had the policies while others (guess who?) have the slogans.
The Taoiseach may have had Mr O’Dea on his mind when he urged those gathered to “hold your nerve”.
Holding their nerve is the easy part. Holding their seat with Mr Martin as leader will prove a lot more difficult come the next election.
