Fine Gael at war: TD says Paschal Donohoe wasn’t in loop over tax-cut opinion piece because ‘he would have put a stop to it’

Mr Donohoe made the surprise admission yesterday that he was not involved in the drafting of a recent Independent.ie article authored by three Fine Gael junior ministers and endorsed by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, which caused a significant pre-budget row with Fianna Fáil.

“I wasn’t involved in the drafting of that document, but what I would say is that it has been a constant focus of Fine Gael over the last number of years to try and put money back in people’s pockets,” Mr Donohoe, who was responsible for budget tax policy up until last December, told RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne yesterday morning.

The piece led to one of the most bitter disputes between the two main Coalition parties in their three years in office.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin suggested the three ministers – including junior finance minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill as well as ministers Peter Burke and Martin Heydon – had undermined the budgetary process, while Finance Minister Michael McGrath insisted he would not be “bullied” by Fianna Fáil’s Coalition partners.

Mr Donohoe’s close working relationship with Mr McGrath was cited by Fine Gael TDs privately as among the reasons for the minister not being aware of the piece in advance despite the Taoiseach knowing about it in advance.

“I’d say he was deliberately kept out of the loop,” one TD said. “It was done because it gives him the opportunity to say he didn’t know anything about it.” Another TD said: “He wasn’t going to be told about it because he would put a stop to it.”

Three other parliamentary party sources agreed with this view, with one saying: “I think Paschal wasn’t put in the loop because you couldn’t get his agreement for anything. Paschal will be watching the sensitivities of the negotiations.”

However, Mr Donohoe’s allies insisted privately last night that nothing should be read into the fact the minister was unaware of the piece in advance of its publication.

Speaking to RTÉ Radio 1, the Dublin Central TD spoke specifically of his close alliance with Mr McGrath whom he said had responded to the newspaper opinion piece at the time and “made his views known”.

“I take very seriously the relationship that I have with the other two political parties. The relationship that I have with Michael McGrath couldn’t be stronger and couldn’t be more important to me,” said Mr Donohoe.

“Every day I hear different views regarding how money should be spent.

“What myself and Minister McGrath will do is continue to work very, very closely together to look at how we can prepare a good budget.”

Mr Donohoe was criticised by many within Fine Gael privately after the 2020 general election for failing to oversee a pre-election budget spending splurge in order to win votes.

The minister’s prudence is frequently bemoaned by Fine Gael colleagues, both at ministerial and backbench level.

However, Mr Donohoe and his supporters have argued that his management of the public finances has led to unprecedented budget surpluses and given successive governments the financial firepower to react to economic shocks such as Covid-19, the Ukraine war, and the cost-of-living crisis.

Speaking to RTÉ, Mr Donohoe said of the controversial opinion piece: “If you look at the principle of what they’re arguing about, I think it’s appropriate to look at how we can help with the cost of living.

“We are not going to do anything that would put our public finances at risk.

“I think the op-ed is the kind of thing that does happen when political parties are making points about their own political identity.”