{"id":241937,"date":"2025-07-06T05:43:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T05:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/241937\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T05:43:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T05:43:12","slug":"talk-of-revenge-after-acrimonious-week-for-ff-and-fg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/241937\/","title":{"rendered":"Talk of revenge after acrimonious week for FF and FG"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are a few politicians in Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael who will spend this weekend contemplating revenge, maybe even plotting it.<\/p>\n

It is not a huge cohort, but there are enough there to make up a quorum of motivated individuals eager to maintain the internecine warfare of recent days.<\/p>\n

It all stems form the shockwaves generated by James Lawless’ logical but politically unwise answer on RT\u00c9\u2019s This Week programme, that as things stand student fees could rise by \u20ac1,000 this year.<\/p>\n

Although the worried public outbursts from Fine Gael have ceased, the party remains steadfast in its view that Mr Lawless needlessly wounded the entire Government.<\/p>\n

One senior figure summed up the week saying, “we have many issues where we will lose support or struggle politically but this one could have been avoided”.<\/p>\n

There is a feeling in the party too, as constituency office calls and emails are “off the charts,” that it could be difficult to hold the line until October\u2019s Budget.<\/p>\n

Already there are broad hints that the final figure for student fees will be below \u20ac3,000 and the Budget reductions will this time be permanent.<\/p>\n

Fianna F\u00e1il believes it was Simon Harris\u2019 intervention that “escalated” the entire episode into a full-blown crisis which dominated D\u00e1il debate for three days.<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s weekly meeting in Leinster House saw several TDs lash out at what was described as “media posturing” by Fine Gael.<\/p>\n

Those close to Simon Harris contend that he was merely trying to bring clarity to matters given his intricate knowledge of the topic as a former higher education minister himself.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nFianna F\u00e1il believes it was Simon Harris’ intervention that ‘escalated’ the entire episode<\/p>\n

That defence drew nothing but guffaws from both Fianna F\u00e1il ministers and TDs.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s good like that isn\u2019t he,” one scathingly said.<\/p>\n

Then there are those who are intent on settling scores.<\/p>\n

Battle plans from some foot soldiers have identified Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon’s efforts to retain the Nitrates derogation, as a possible point of attack.<\/p>\n

The Fine Gael tactics board has zoned in on Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan’s upcoming decision on whether to accept the Judicial Council guidelines proposing an increase in personal injury awards, against the backdrop of rising insurance costs.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nMinister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless said third level students would have to pay \u20ac1,000 extra in fees<\/p>\n

Throughout the week, Independent ministers like Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran have urged both parties to talk to each other more, and to be mindful of the financial strain many households are experiencing.<\/p>\n

Further up the chain the sores are felt less intensely though and there is a general view that Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael ministers are generally working well together.<\/p>\n

Reports of friction ‘overstated’ – minister<\/b><\/p>\n

Reports of deep friction and lasting damage to the Government\u2019s cohesiveness were “a bit overstated” according to one influential Cabinet minister.<\/p>\n

The switching of portfolios after the general election is even said to have boosted a sense of mutual respect with ministers possessing a greater understanding of their colleagues\u2019 workload.<\/p>\n

There is a view in the higher echelons of Government that in the context of the many challenges it faces, this week amounted to little more than a “bit of pushing and shoving” or good old fashioned “ground hurling”.<\/p>\n

The true measure of the coalition’s sense of unity will be the Budget negotiations.<\/p>\n

These will be framed against the worrying reality that the economic good times are most likely drawing to a close.<\/p>\n

That means caution will be the guiding principle in the months ahead for the Fine Gael’s Minister for Finance and Fianna F\u00e1il’s Minister for Public Expenditure.<\/p>\n

Both Jack Chambers and Paschal Donohoe are said to be of a similar mind about the approach required, and their working relationship is described as close.<\/p>\n

It is that key axis and how it navigates a Budget amid growing uncertainty, and without the option of a cost-of-living package, which will ultimately reveal if the coalition can function collectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are a few politicians in Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael who will spend this weekend contemplating revenge,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-241937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114804700426427868","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}