Housing, transport, and the next budget: Taoiseach reveals future focus as he marks 40 years in politics 

Now four months into his second term as Taoiseach, June marks Micheál Martin’s 40th anniversary as an elected representative.

It is four decades since Paddy and Lana Martin’s son first stood for election to the then Cork Corporation, knocking on doors in Turner’s Cross and Ballyphehane where all anyone wanted to know was “Are you the Champ’s son?”

When he took over the charred remains of Fianna Fáil in 2011 in the wake of the financial crash, the safe money said that not only was Micheál Martin likely to be its first leader to never be taoiseach, he would probably also be the one to close the curtains on what had been, for most of the history of the State, the natural party of government.

Fully 14 years later, he probably won’t beat the record of party founder Éamon de Valera, who lasted 33 years, but he’s already tied with Bertie Ahern as the second-longest serving Fianna Fáil leader, beating Jack Lynch and Charles Haughey, who are tied on 13 years each.

This summer will also mark Mr Martin’s 65th birthday, an age when most people might at least begin to think about retiring. Not so for the man first elected to Dáil Éireann for Cork South Central in 1989, or at least not so as he’s itting.

“Thanks be to God I have my health, and I keep fit, so chronological age is a completely different animal to how you actually feel at any point in time,” he told The Echo in an interview in his office in Government Buildings this week.

He is due to serve as Taoiseach until November 2027, when the Tánaiste, currently Fine Gael leader Simon Harris, will take over. 

Given that Mr Martin seems to have definitively ruled out any interest in contesting November’s presidential election, there seems no reason not to take him at his word that he will be around until then.

And after that? The received wisdom would be that he might hope to step aside then, and let Jack Chambers — or some other chosen heir —take the party leadership and the role of Tánaiste, while he served out the final years of this Dáil as a backbench TD, perhaps until one of his children might stand in the next general election.

That was why his line about chronological age begged the question as to whether he had another general election in him.

“Oh, of course, general elections don’t faze me at all,” he said, with a straight face.

Would he be leading Fianna Fáil into that election? “That’s my intention,” he replied.

He would say that, wouldn’t he, is probably the most sensible interpretation of that statement, seeing as whenever any leader announces even the vaguest intention of retiring, they become a lame duck. 

On the other hand, it didn’t go down at all well when Charlie Haughey mused that “some Chinese leaders go on into their 80s”. We’ll see.

In the meantime, Mr Martin said his focus is on the next three years in particular, working on policies that will yield dividends for the future of the country.

Housing

Housing remains a key priority for his Government, he said, and he defended its record, citing Cork as an example.

“In the last four and a half years, we doubled housing output in Cork city and doubled housing output in Cork county, compared to the previous five years; we would have had over 9,000 houses delivered in Cork county since July of 2020 — that’s up from 4,900 in the equivalent period before that,” he said.

“And the same in the city, 5,000 new houses, compared to 2,000 four or five years before that. It’s not enough, but nonetheless it is a significant increase and ramping up, and we do want more new builds; we want to get up to at least 10,000 social houses a year nationally.”

He recalled turning the sod in Ballyvolane in 2023 on the “hugely significant” ongoing €9m infrastructure project by Housing Infrastructure Services Company (HISCo), a commercial t venture between the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) and Cork County Council to build ing infrastructure for housing.

“That will pave the way for hundreds and hundreds of houses, and the schemes we turned the sod on last week will create significant housing in Blackpool and on the Old Mallow Rd.”

Mr Martin repeated his commitment that the housing minister would engage with local authorities to ensure that people living in properties which had gone sale-agreed under the tenant-in-situ scheme would not go homeless, and he agreed that certainty was needed on the issue of rent pressure zones.

“We do need a stable and certain environment that can protect renters, but also can bring significantly more private-sector investment into housing; we do need more private finance into housing; and we do need to attract institutional funds back into apartment buildings in particular.

“That’s part of the decision that needs to be made and what everybody is saying is ‘Give us a stable, clear environment for the next decade so we can invest, knowing what potential yields will be, but also that we can create additionality in housebuilding’ — that’s the objective, and that will happen, that will happen shortly.”

Transport

Transport is another big issue, he said, both nationally — “We’ve a big decision on the Metro, I’m fully committed to that” — and locally. “With the National Development Plan being updated, I’ll be strongly advocating for the northern distributor road, to service the Apple site. Apple is the biggest employer in Cork, about 6,000 people employed there.

“Also, I’ll be looking to ensure progress on the northern ring road, which is a longstanding issue, and that will be of significant importance in of the road infrastructure in Cork, and in many ways will complete the loop and will be of significant value for the developing urban areas across the northside, particularly Glanmire across, and that will ease congestion.”

He described commuter rail as another key issue, saying he had been instrumental, with then transport minister Eamon Ryan, in securing European next-generation funding to upgrade Kent Station, ensuring unprecedented connectivity from Cobh and Midleton, across to Mallow. 

“That will be of significant service to people all over the city, particularly the northside, and the agenda there now is to enhance the speed and reduce the times between trains,” he said.

Carers’ allowance

Before last November’s election, Mr Martin said a red line for him would be the removal of means-testing for the carers’ allowance.

The 2021 Indecon survey showed that the cost of having a disability in Ireland was between €8,700 and €12,300 per year. Four years later, inflation likely means that figure has increased significantly.

With that in mind, the children’s allowance is not means-tested, so why, then, is the disability allowance means-tested?

Mr Martin replied: “I set up a disability unit within this department, to give a national and all-of-Government focus on disability, and we have a Cabinet sub-committee on disability with all of the Government departments, particularly the major ones, Health, Education, Transport, Children, but it relates to all departments, and I want demonstrable, definitive progress on all fronts on disability. I made it an election platform of mine that we would have a national therapy service in schools, beginning with special schools.

“I said it was a red line, and thankfully that has been agreed in the programme for government, and I’ve agreed with [education] minister Helen McEntee and minister [of state for special education and inclusion] Michael Moynihan, who are now developing a programme to bring the therapists into special schools, recruited by Education, and the National Education Council, so we’re making progress already.

“The Budget will be an important moment for us to improve from the financial perspective the lives of people who have a disability, and we are looking at the carers’ allowance; we made a specific commitment on that, that will cost, but I think we have to do that, over time.”

On disability allowance, Mr Martin said he has asked social protection minister Dara Calleary to look at the disincentives facing people who go into work, and their fears that they will lose that allowance if their wages increase.

“I’ve discussed this with Deaf Enterprises in Cork. I had a very good meeting with them before I became Taoiseach; they’re on my doorstep for quite a long time. 

“Their workers are of a fantastically high standard, but they are restricted somewhat in that if they increase their salaries, they get stopped off the disability allowance, so those thresholds are causing them difficulties,” he said.

Describing what Deaf Enterprises does as “real work, that’s substantive, that’s adding to the circular economy”, Mr Martin said his Government was looking at ways to help people with disabilities get employment.

“I take your point; we are looking at all payments, domiciliary care allowance, for example. Can we increase that in the next budget significantly? We did, in the last budget, do a reasonable increase on it.

“So we will be looking at all income-related disability payments, what we can do to make life better for families, for parents, for children, for people generally, with a disability. 

“We’ll work on what’s the best way to do it; obviously everything is dependent on resources, but we do want to have a budget that speaks to disability, and to child poverty.”

He added that universality of payments of children’s allowance had historically been beneficial to women in particular, but he accepted that benefits needed to be targeted, “for children with particular needs, be it disability, or be it poverty”.

Infrastructure

Looking to the future, Mr Martin said he was about big projects, instancing again his home city. “We launched the [Cork] Luas public consultation with a view to try and modernise and have a vision for the future of Cork. It was fantastic; we had the €200m announcement for Cork Airport, which of course serves the whole city, the whole county, and the region.

“So I’m thinking of the big decisions that will take time to materialise, but that’ll position Cork well for the next three, four decades, the same with the Docklands development, and there’s been greater development on the northern quays so far than there has on the south, particularly on Horgan’s Quay — that whole area has been transformed.”

Whether he does lead Fianna Fáil into the next election or not, would Micheál Áodh, Aoibhe, or Cillian likely follow him into politics? 

Mr Martin laughed and said that while his children are very interested in politics, and he was of the view that politics needed young people “who are interested in the country, in society, and in the community”, his wife had different thoughts on the matter.

“Mary feels politics is becoming more pressurising, more difficult for people, and she feels they’re all doing quite well in their individual areas of life,” he said.

However, he added: “I can’t have gone through a lifetime in politics and say ‘Well, I don’t feel anybody else should’.”