Harris is all charged up, but can Duracell Bunny routine last the course?
● Immigration crisis aside, the Taoiseach is having an easy ride so far and has yet to face any serious issues
We are nearing five months since Simon Harris moved into the Taoiseach’s Office but what, if anything, has changed?
The Fine Gael leader certainly gives the impression of being very active. It’s hard to turn on the TV or open up a newspaper without seeing him. He is doing laps of the country appearing at any number of events. His staff and civil servants are worked to the bone preparing for functions and drafting speeches or comments for this, that and the other.
Just ask the adviser who was recently picked up from a music festival to accompany the Taoiseach to an event. In the last week he attended the Tullow Agricultural Show in Carlow, the Rose of Tralee in Kerry, the Virginia Show in Cavan and a Fine Gael event in Dublin.
He also had to deal with his first coalition row over a Fianna Fáil decision to stall the introduction of Residential Zoned Land Tax and even a mini-spat with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.
The Budget is less than six weeks away so you can look forward to a few more internal coalition disagreements over how they spend all our money before the general election.
There was no push for Leo Varadkar to quit when he decided to leave but there are also no complaints within Fine Gael now he’s gone. In fact, Varadkar’s departure was a well-timed political decision but the former taoiseach’s constant media appearances since he stepped down has earned him the title of “the new Ivan Yates” among his Fine Gael colleagues.
It’s hard to speak to anyone across the government parties or in the civil service who doesn’t use the words “energy” or “Duracell Bunny” when talking about Harris. There are some concerns about how long he can maintain the pace at which he is currently operating. Some also question what he will be like when he is put under serious pressure.
The main advantage of the Harris leadership for the Fine Gael faithful is the party outperformed expectations in the local and European elections and the hope is that will translate to the general election, too. There is some disquiet that, while Harris has breathed new life into the party, the Fine Gael backroom operation is still very much a creation of Varadkar.
There’s not much Harris can do about that but he did appoint former Fine Gael TD Olwyn Enright as the party’s director of operations, which will see her centrally involved in the election preparations. The role was once held by Fine Gael election guru Frank Flannery, who was a key member of Enda Kenny’s backroom staff.
Party members say there is far more interaction with the Harris team than there was under Varadkar. “You could be talking to Leo and it was like talking to a brick wall,” a Fine Gael source said, adding: “Harris’s people always follow up.”
In the Department of Taoiseach, there have been changes, too. “Things were passive under Leo, but things have to happen now,” a source said.
Harris insists on at least three action points being set out before the end of every meeting which are followed up at the next one. Civil servants also realise Harris is operating under a clock that is always ticking down. “It’s an unusual situation in that it’s a Taoiseach that knows he only has a few months so he has to make decisions quick and grab every opportunity he can,” a source said.
He’s had an easy rise so far and hasn’t faced the same kind of challenges Varadkar handled during his two terms.
The immigration crisis has been the only real political problem Harris has contended with. Fine Gael cabinet ministers regularly complained their warnings on illegal migration were falling on deaf ears before Harris took over. “Varadkar would say there was nothing Fine Gael could do as migration was being overseen by a Green Party minister, Roderic O’Gorman,” a source said.
Harris compiled an immigration taskforce involving various state agencies and insisted on finding a response from all involved on how to tackle the rising levels of illegal migration. The early morning removal of tents from the streets of Dublin certainly looked like he was taking action. Official figures for asylum-seekers coming to Ireland dipped slightly in June but spiked again in July. Migrant tents are still popping up around the canal so the jury is still out on whether he has made any impact.
“One of the biggest issues in government is getting everyone into a room and saying this is not just one minister’s problem — it’s everyone’s problem,” a team Harris source said. “The response is always ‘that’s not my problem that’s someone else’s problem’ and you need to say, stop passing the buck lads, what’s the solution?”
He has taken to lambasting “Official Ireland” since he took office, which is pretty much the same as Donald Trump attacking the “Deep State”.
It’s not a bad ploy as things go and he has knocked a few heads together at high-level meetings with senior civil servants. “There’s been at least two occasions when I’ve had to keep looking at the table as he was criticising officials,” a government source said. “His tolerance is very low for people trying to shirk responsibility and the system is beginning to react to that.”
However, not everyone in Government buys the Taoiseach’s war on Official Ireland. “He’s been a politician since he left school — he’s the very definition of Official Ireland,” a Fianna Fáil cabinet minister said.
The view of Harris in Fianna Fáil is naturally bit more jaundiced than it is in Fine Gael. In saying that, there is also a realisation that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have become eternally intertwined following the recent elections which saw significant voter transfers between the two government parties.
A video posted on social media by Fianna Fáil TD Niamh Smyth after the Virginia Show was illustrative of the bond between the parties. It featured so many photographs of the Taoiseach some in the party were questioning if Smyth had jumped ship and joined Fine Gael.
However, Fianna Fáil ministers have noticed the Department of the Taoiseach appears to be more focused on promoting Fine Gael rather than the work of Government since Harris took over. “They are trying to claim a lot of work that was done by Fianna Fáil and Green Party ministers,” a Fianna Fáil source said.
Things were passive under Leo, but things have to happen now
The Taoiseach’s apparent slight on Donnelly over comments about an unpublished report on paedophile Michael Shine irked some in Fianna Fáil. But the Taoiseach later insisted he was talking about the minister’s department rather than the minister personally and by the end of the week they were turning the sod on a new school in Wicklow.
Budget negotiations will intensify in the coming weeks and Harris will have to address the Green’s problems with the zoned land tax deferral and put together an election-winning package of measures that doesn’t risk collapsing the economy.
And then there is the election date. While he continues to insist the Dáil will run its full term, there are few in Government who believe it will. However, this would mean he potentially loses out on three months in the Taoiseach’s Office in which he could further distinguish himself from his predecessor.
The risk, as one Fianna Fáil minister put it, is that if he stays around too long he might just “get found out”.