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Gormley and Greens to Raise Concerns over ABA with Mary Hanafin
Read more about: Disabilities, Dublin, Education, Fianna Fail, Government, Green Party, Irish Election, Irish Politics
There is a constant ratcheting up of pressure on this issue for Hanafin. This afternoon John Gormley and some Green paty representatives met parents of autistic children and promised to raise the issue of provision for ABA with Minister Hanafin (link once I get one-heard on radio). Niall’s ABA post is still very active over the topic of ABA provision and this story has hit a major nerve.
It seems without doubt that backbenchers and Greens feel emboldened to act on this issue, it is popular and has enough support to allow them to pressure the Minister. This is due in no small part to what looks like some bad handling of the issue by the Minister.
The image has been projected that she is unlikely to be moving on this, such a position has allowed for her to appear uncaring and unsympathetic. Moments like yesterday where her performance when doorstepped was, at best, tetchy only underline this problem. She may well be digging in on this but a look to her boss shows that there is a right way and wrong way to go about this. An issue like this is one that demands constant engagement, listening and discussion. The appearance by the Minister on Monday in two national newspapers outlining a fairly robust position was unlikely to cope with this problem.
I appreciate people are wary of allowing parents, or pester power, to determine policy but the point is that it does it in almost all policy areas. Those who are affected by policy are invited to make their case known and inform policy as best as possible. Parents are those stakeholders in this issue and are playing the only cards they have in keeping this out there. TDs hate nothing more than a bad story that refuses to go away and this one has got traction for all the right reasons IMHO. If O’Rourke is right and the Department do have a lingering animosity to ABA,, something will have to give.
With such dissent within Fianna Fáil itself, Gormley is free to raise his own concerns without it being seen as a coalition crisis.
If anyone suggests this could be the end of the Government as stands, Gormley could just say that it is as much the end of the Government as it is the end of the Fianna Fáil party.
wouldnt think this is a coalition breaker but certainly the minister herself is a target.
True - there’s a lot of pressure on her over this and it will certainly undermine her if (or some might say when) she has to acquiesce to pressure.
I think Hanafin must be praying for a new scandal to appear just so some other cabinet member would face the spotlight. She’s already played her hand, and not particularly well. The media isn’t sympathetic, the parents are infuriated, the opposition see an opportunity to score points and the Greens see an opportunity to prove that they aren’t Berite’s poodle by actually delivering on one of the promises they made in the run up to the election.
The parent organisations have had to fight Hanafin tooth and nail for some time now, and they’ll appreciate seeing her on the back foot. I’ve been critical of Mary O’Rourke for her decision to vote against the Fine Gael motion on ABA education in spite of support for its substance, but her comments in the Dail have thrown just enough fuel on the fire to give the story a new life in the press. I’m starting to think there’s a possibility I underestimated O’Rourke.