Curious phraseology from An Taoiseach in interview with the IT.
[he] doesn't want to be "goaded" into "heightening tensions" during an election campaign in Northern Ireland, he says.
So he is hesitant answering questions about the DUP's ambiguity on whether it would join a powersharing administration in Stormont in the event it was headed by a Sinn Féin first minister.
And he is careful when asked about Sinn Féin's reported soft-pedalling on a Border poll during that election campaign.
If 'goading' is a soft interview in the IT then one wonders how he would be faced with anything more robust. And moreover, how can he be goaded by the IT? Anyhow that aside, check out the following disparity:
On the DUP's choices, he says failure to participate in the Good Friday institutions after Assembly elections would be a denial of democracy.
On Sinn Féin, he says: "I don't want to get into the election campaign right now and be accused of interfering", but adds that the party's perceived reluctance to put its campaign for a Border poll at the centre of its election campaign in Northern Ireland is "telling in itself".
He says it shows Sinn Féin realises that the public in the North is more interested in hearing about healthcare and the cost of living and other "bread and butter" issues than endlessly focusing on the constitutional question.
So there you have it. One party appears unwilling to share power if the democratic vote delivers a Republican/Nationalist First Minister and that draws the response that it would be a 'denial of democracy'. But the other party, which is willing to participate - indeed has served in the DFM role - gets much more attention. Useful to know.
It doesn't end there. The leader of a self-avowed Republican party is cheered by the following:
But politics in the North is no longer just about the two traditions. "You can see the shifting sands," he says. "People are moving in different directions."
Martin dwells on this growth in the proportion of the population in the North who refuse to define themselves by the old allegiances, and knows that they will be crucial to the way politics develops. Along with many people in the North, he says, they "want their politics to work on a day-to-day basis".
And:
Might the binary vision of the Belfast Agreement have to be revisited to take account of this emerging reality? Martin is cautious here. "In the fullness of time, yes." But in the meantime, the agreement has to be worked.
So, the old allegiances - of which the Taoiseach is representative of a strand within one, are superfluous to requirements and the GFA/BA should be revisited? Really? And how? Of this, perhaps mercifully, we learn no more.
He does raise the old bromide:
Martin is eager to talk about the Shared Island initiative, likely to form part of his political legacy. He says Fianna Fáil is entirely comfortable with the Shared Island agenda, rather than following Sinn Féin's lead of prioritising a Border poll.
Shared Island, he says, is "both in the De Valera and the Lemass tradition" in the party – it doesn't ignore the constitutional question but it concentrates on practical day-to-day co-operation across a wide range of areas.
Well, it kind of does ignore the constitutional question. But even before we get to that here's a few practical steps he might consider. Actually working the GFA/BA in all its areas, not least cross-border and all-island. That'd be a start.
Anyhow, to any of us who value neutrality he's remarkably ambiguous about it:
"Do people have a full appreciation of the degree to which we've been evolving our participation in European Union security and defence issues over the last 10-15 years? Probably not."
He cites the honourable tradition of neutrality and its role in allowing Ireland to develop an independent foreign policy. But he clearly believes the war in Ukraine has changed the situation in Europe, and Ireland can't bury its head in the sand. When he met Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin recently, he says, she told him: "Basically everything we were taught as schoolchildren to fear or to be worried about has come to pass. So this changes everything."
That's all very well, but what is he suggesting? This can't be sub-contracted solely to a citizen's assembly, useful though that might be. It would be good to know what he thinks is a useful way forward.
Meanwhile, seven more months, seven more months, goes up the cry. For:
Martin will leave the office of taoiseach in seven months' time. Between now and then, he says, his priority is to keep the pressure on delivering housing. He acknowledges that this is not a problem that will be solved by the time he leaves office but insists that "the Fianna Fáil contribution will be that we started building houses at scale again. But we've got to do it in a way that sustains for 10 years."
Notwithstanding the Government's difficulties on turf, he cites climate action as a priority and says, "We held the line on the carbon tax". Isn't this the key challenge for centrist politicians – to know when to hold the line on reforms, but also to know when to compromise to maintain public assent? He agrees enthusiastically.
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