There is “real anger ” in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael this week after party leaders supported Sinn Féin’s abortion proposal – with a feeling that Micheál Martin and Simon Harris “rescued” Mary Lou McDonald “after two bad bye-elections”, sources have told Gript.
The Sinn Féin private members bill seeking to scrap the 3-day wait before abortion passed second stage in the Dáil Wednesday by 86 votes to 70 – with critics pointing out that it would not have passed but for the support of TDs from the main Government parties, including an Taoiseach and an Tánaiste.
11 Fine Gael TDs voted for the abortion proposal, with 23 opposing – while 30 Fianna Fáil TDs voted against the bill, 12 voted for it,
One source told Gript that that there was an anger amongst members of the government parties that they had been “totally blindsided” by the decision of Martin and Harris to support Sinn Féin and grant them a “rare legislative victory”.
“They are totally pissed off. Mary Lou’s leadership was on the ropes after two bad bye-elections, and in swoops the two lads to rescue her and send her stock rising again,” the source said.
“The video of Mary Lou and a posse of Sinn Féiners strutting out from the vote cock-a-hoop because of the support they had got from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael should be all the evidence that’s needed as to how badly they played this,” they added.
Online commentary was both strongly critical and supportive of Sinn Féin – with some former party supporters invoking some of movement’s most iconic figures to hit out at the abortion expansion.
Aontú leader, Peadar Tóibín said this week that the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael leaders had shown they had more in common with Sinn Féin than with their own backbenchers and members after the abortion vote – adding that there was no public demand to remove the 3-day wait before abortion, and that the government party TDs who supported the measure are “living in a bubble”.
He said that he believes “there is a real anger that Micheál Martin especially continues to ignore the parliamentary party – and the ordinary membership. People I’m speaking to feel his time his up: he is considered a lame duck and I’m hearing that a lot of people think he will be gone before long.”
“One Fianna Fáil TD told me that increasing frustration was being felt because a lot of Fianna Fáil feel this is not unusual – Martin has repeatedly shown he never listens to the parliamentary party or his members, giving the abortion vote and the Presidential race as recent examples,” Deputy Tóibín said.
“Those government TDs who voted against the majority of their party look like they have more in common with the far-left and people like Ruth Coppinger and Sinn Féin than their own members,” he added.
POTENTIAL LEADERSHIP
The Meath West TD said said it was interesting that Fianna Fáil ministers, Jim O’Callaghan and Dara Calleary had voted against the measure supported by Micheál Martin. “They have a better understanding of how the wind is blowing damage – both in the party and amongst voters,” he said. “2018 was peak woke, but the 2024 referendums showed that we are past that.
“What potential leadership candidates understand is that, however much the media might applaud supporting the removal of the 3-day wait, a leader seeking support can’t be at odds with their own party, their own membership. No potential leader wants to be disconnected from their own members on a fundamental issue, to be this out of step. The majority of Fine Gael TDs also voted against Simon Harris on this scrapping of one the very few restrictions of the abortion law,” he said.
Both Deputy Tóibín and other sources said that they had been told that Micheál Martin had put pressure on Ministers and some of the younger TDs to vote for the abortion bill, but “the majority didn’t listen to that, which is obvious from the vote.”
He said that he had spoken to Sinn Féin representatives who were unhappy that the party is being distracted by woke issues and ignoring the bread and butter issues that mattered most to the party’s voters.
Speaking in the Seanad this week, Fianna Fáil Senator Robbie Gallagher said that “the three day mandatory reflection period” had been “central” to the decision of the electorate to vote to remove the 8th amendment in 2018. “I’m disappointed that Sinn Féin is the latest party to come forward proposing to move that mandatory wait,” he said.
Independent TD, Carol Nolan, said that Micheál Martin had “handed Sinn Fein a ridiculous pyrrhic victory while convincing the doubters in his own party of Fianna Fáil that his leadership is out of kilter with the parliamentary party and local councillors is a spectacular act of political self-harm.”
“This was a grubby little deal that has left a very bitter taste in the mouth of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael members,” she said.
The Offaly TD, who left Sinn Féin over the abortion issue in 2018, said that “People on the ground in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have personally told me that they are devastated. They feel utterly betrayed by a leadership that has chosen to align itself with the kind of extreme abortion advocacy that the Dáil only recently voted to reject when the Social Democrat Bill on the same issue came before us.”
“I have been contacted by members and supporters who simply cannot understand how their parties have allowed themselves to be manoeuvred or rather, out- manoeuvred, into facilitating the Bill.”
Deputy Nolan said she would continue to oppose any attempt to remove the three‑day waiting period, arguing that it remains “a vital safeguard that reflects the seriousness of the life-ending and life-altering decision involved and the need to ensure women are fully supported.”
“The Government may have chosen to facilitate Sinn Féin’s Bill for now, but when it goes to Committee Stage the public will expect far more honesty, far more political courage, and far more integrity from those who claim to lead,” Deputy Nolan concluded
Amongst those commenting online was journalist Michael Kelly, who said: “I am done with Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin members telling me they’re socially conservative or pro-life. Stop lying to yourselves.”
30 Fianna Fáil TDs voted against the bill, 12 voted for it, while six others were absent.
Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary, Minister for Housing James Browne, Minister for Children Norma Foley, and Government Chief Whip Mary Butler voted against the bill.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers and Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien voted for the proposal.
Twenty-three Fine Gael TDs voted against the proposed legislation on abortion, with Tánaiste Simon Harris and Minister Carroll MacNeill the only Cabinet ministers to support it.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee, Minister for Communications Patrick O’Donovan and Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton were among four absentees from the Fine Gael bench. Eleven TDs voted for the proposal.
