Mayo minister in the mix to rescue Fianna Fáil for utter disarray

The youth of Mayo have either gone to Australia or are sweating it out in barrel saunas.

Whether that’s in sticky solidarity with their peers down under remains to be seen, but the long, hot steam sessions followed by cold plunges have done little to cool the heads of young people, despite the thermal shock of Budget 2026.

It takes a long time for the rubber to hit the road, but this infrastructural investment in housing involving tax breaks for the old and wealthy from last week’s budget needs to start clicking soon if Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are to preserve their future electoral viability.

Demographics are not on their side. The parties of home ownership know that the housing crisis will cost them seats at the next general election. Indeed, it looks like it has already cost Fianna Fáil the presidency.

Many at grassroots level in both parties fear the all-consuming reality: it may be too little, too late.

Much like Micheál Martin feared rehashing the economic crash by allowing Bertie Ahern a free run at the Áras on a Fianna Fáil ticket, the ghosts of that crash came back to haunt him in the most Irish of ways.

A former tenant, a national journalist with a leading Sunday tabloid, was once his tenant, and according to the well throttled story, Jim Gavin failed to repay him €3,300 in rent.

When entering politics, Gavin would have been asked by individuals in sleek suits who identify as ‘gurus’ to disclose all of his dirty laundry.

It is, in my view, on Gavin that he didn’t inform his party or director of elections, Jack Chambers, that he was once a landlord and, crucially, that his tenant was a national journalist.

That should have been forthcoming. Even if the information seemed innocent, given the housing crisis, any seasoned campaign team would have enacted a contingency plan to mitigate the fallout of any landlord-related story.

Could you imagine the fury and collective gulping when Fianna Fáil HQ learned that the aggrieved tenant was Neil Donald? The deputy editor of the Sunday World.

Ultimately, the buck stops with those who christened Gavin. The celebrity candidate has failed Fianna Fáil and, under Martin, the party looks bereft of ideas and even more grey, male and pale than before he took charge.

No contender within the top ranks stands out from the betting odds, a testament to how tightly Martin has wielded power in the party.

Fianna Fáil succumbed to a similar story in Mayo last year: another Gavin broke from party lines and transferred his vote to the technical independent group, leaving Fianna Fáil with just one representative in the Castlebar Municipal District.

A sorry state of affairs, but one that reflects a party failing to look to the future on multiple fronts.

Micheál Martin’s reluctance to engage with the inevitable future border poll will be another black mark on his copybook, especially with Leo Varadkar remarkably usurping the leader of the so-called Republican Party on that issue.

Any insurgency will weaponise that weakness on Irish unity to rally Fianna Fail’s disenchanted grassroots.

Here in Mayo, much attention will focus on whether Minister Dara Calleary will be in the shake-up for the next Fianna Fáil leadership come January 2027.

He seems to be enjoying his role as Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, and who could blame him?

The former Michael Ring department has long been a launching pad for ministers who know the value of keeping colleagues sweet.

It’s a unique role looked upon with envy by those in Health, Housing or Justice.

There is the hard brass of Social Protection mixed in but the opportunity to traverse the country with a healthy allocation of grant funding, from CLÁR to Town and Village Renewal, makes Calleary the best friend of Fianna Fáil backbenchers.

They’ll trumpet those funding streams to their grassroots come election time, and they won’t forget where the money came from.

If the Ballina man ever needs to make phone calls to sure up votes, all he has to do is pick up the phone and send a gentle reminder.

Jim O’Callaghan, as a Dublin-based candidate, will find it harder to connect with community groups across rural Ireland. As Minister for Justice, he won’t get to see every parish playground or shake hands with the hardnecks of the hinterlands like Calleary will.

I recall current Minister for Sport Patrick O’Donovan turning the sod on the new athletics track in Westport a few months back.

With a grin, he called out to the present but happily retired Michael Ring: “You thought you gave out a lot of money, Michael — then Heather came along and blew you out of the water.”

Calleary’s budget this year is almost €140 million larger than the one announced by Heather Humphreys last year.

Is it now Fianna Fáil’s turn to express the largesse?