Next week brings a political showdown in the Dáil, but could Sinn Féin's move to maintain pressure on the Minister for Justice backfire?
Sinn Féin yesterday tabled a no-confidence motion in Helen McEntee citing what the party said was "a spectacular failure" in policing after the shocking stabbing outside a school degenerated into large scale riots in the capital.
The Government will retaliate with its own confidence motion and the issue will be thrashed out and voted on next Tuesday.
This debate will be a tribal, fiery affair, judging by previous no-confidence motions in Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and ministers Simon Coveney and Darragh O’Brien.
Expect a phalanx of Fine Gael ministers to lay into Sinn Féin, relishing the opportunity to put the spotlight on that party’s relationship with law and order.
We got a taste of this earlier this week during the debate on the riots in the capital with Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys taking aim at Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald.
Ms Humphreys accused the party of grandstanding and playing politics at a time when unity was needed.
"To hear it lecturing about the rule of law just sickens me. Mary Lou McDonald says she has no confidence in the Minister for Justice or the Garda Commissioner. This is the same Mary Lou who welcomed Jonathan Dowdall with open arms into her party and, indeed, took donations from him. She had a councillor in her own backyard who was a torturer and who helped to facilitate murder.
"Sinn Féin, more than any other party, has introduced nastiness and divisiveness into Irish politics. We saw it again at the weekend when a member of its front bench said Helen McEntee needed to be taken out. I am around long enough to know what the term "taken out" means, especially as I live on the border."
Once again Fine Gael will line up to lay into Sinn Féin in what it views as an opportunity to galvanise its own support.
While Sinn Féin will repeat some of its well-worn insults for Fine Gael and the "old boys club" creating a narrative of us and them.
Asked whether the motion might backfire and bring the party into uncomfortable territory, Ms McDonald said yesterday that the party had considered the political implications of the move.
"This motion isn't about Sinn Féin. It's not about what the Government benches might say back to us on floor of the Dáil. We fully expect they will stand their ground, fight their corner.
"I think you can fairly expect that they will seek to raise all matters by all means to distract from the fact that this motion is about what happened a week ago ... control was lost of the city centre."
But some in Government and in other opposition parties feel this was the wrong move by Sinn Féin and something of an own goal.
Sinn Féin appeared to back itself into being obliged to table a motion after delaying over the decision for some days.
But it seems that there was some internal discussion about whether it was the right move at the right time.
It also comes after the party was heavily criticised for what many saw as a serious misstep in the Dáil on Wednesday when it proffered a photograph of a vulnerable man in Parnell Square.
Deputy Louise O’Reilly said that was what greeted children at the school where the stabbings took place just a few days after the attack.
But the move was seized on by the Minister for Justice who said everyone had a role to be responsible in the House.
One opposition source said it handed victory to the minister in what had been billed as a showdown for Helen McEntee on her handling of the aftermath of the riots.
Ultimately, despite the expected heat in the Dáil next week, the Government is assured of a win with its counter motion of confidence in the minister.
But what may be more telling is that the vote will illustrate the coalition's increasing reliance on independent votes as its majority has been whittled down over the lifetime of the Government.
Officially, the coalition now commands 80 votes versus 79 for the combined opposition.
This does not include either former Fine Gael minister Joe McHugh who may vote with the government and Green Party TD currently without the whip, Neasa Hourigan, who is unlikely to support her former colleagues.
Fianna Fáil TDs may have somewhat tepid support for Helen McEntee but they will be obliged to back a Cabinet colleague.
This was underlined yesterday by the party's Spokesperson on Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, who accused Sinn Féin of "playing politics" at a time when many other serious issues should be discussed, including policing and immigration.
He said those important debates would be supplanted by political theatre and a "Punch and Judy match" during Tuesday’s debate.
Similarly, Green Party TDs will row in behind their Cabinet colleagues because that is a fundamental rule of being in Government.
Other opposition parties will not back the Minister but they will probably table their own amendments to the Sinn Féin motion rather than give it unqualified support.
Labour’s Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said Sinn Féin’s tactics were "regrettable" and he called for a wider debate about the far right and the Garda issues of under resourcing, poor morale.
Social Democrats TD Róisín Shortall said it was important to have political accountability for what happened recently and over longer period and she also indicated they would not back the Government.
Under Dáil rules, there cannot be another no-confidence motion in a Government minister for another six months.
As it stands, Helen McEntee appears to have survived a difficult political week sustaining some damage but she has regained ground since a shaky initial response to the shocking events.
She will certainly survive the no-confidence motion but the real danger would come from any other major public order disturbance in the capital or elsewhere.
That would seriously undermine her position and that of Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.
