Simon Harris: ‘I can’t give the whole manifesto away, but should early childhood be part of the education system in a more formal way?’

It can’t have been much of a holiday. A few days in Portugal. A spell in Fota. Pleasant no doubt. But the phone doesn’t stop ringing. Neither does the incessant haring around the country.
In recent weeks, Taoiseach Simon Harris has attended agricultural shows in Tinahely, Tullamore, Dungarvan, Tullow and Virginia. He’s been at the Fleadh Cheoil, the Rose of Tralee, the Kilkenny Arts Festival and the MacGill Summer School. There were the Olympics and the All-Ireland finals.
No Fine Gael Minister has been safe from a sudden appearance in their constituency. Tomorrow Harris will deliver the annual Michael Collins oration at Béal na Bláth, stopping by at the Inniscarra Agricultural Show for good measure.
When he became Taoiseach, Harris promised to bring “a new energy” and to “hit the ground running”. On that, at least, he has been as good as his word.
But what does it all amount to, all this criss-crossing the country, the social-media updates (“Hi! Just keeping you up to date on some of the things …”), the constant media appearances?
“I think it’s really important that politics, politicians and Government reconnect with the public,” he says when we meet in his office in Government Buildings this week in his first big interview with a newspaper.
“And I feel very strongly about that. I work very hard. But I think in addition to working very hard behind the desk or working very hard in an office, I do think it’s also important, to bring the office of Taoiseach out and about around the country to listen and engage with people. And that’s very much part of my style as a politician.”
[ 100 days of Simon Harris as Taoiseach: Early starts, Enda Kenny influence and Coalition strainsOpens in new window ]
It’s not all just running around the country, he says. He rattles off a number of decisions his Government has taken – on the Stardust victims, Palestine, support for small business, disabilities and so on.
Harris has brought empathy to these issues, but most of them were already in train when he took over. And he acknowledges that a significant part of his job was to “keep the show on the road, to ensure this Government serves out its mandate”.
The other part of the job, he says, “beyond that, will be to go before the people of Ireland and outline to them where I want to take Ireland over the next five years, should they give me a mandate to do so”.
“People want to know: what are you going to do? How are you going to fix the housing crisis for once and for all? What is the scale of ambition that you have? Where do you want to bring childcare? How are you going to get on top of migration?”
His approach in Government so far, he says, has been to “bring people together, bang heads together, come up with solutions and say: ‘Hang on, don’t be saying that’s a matter for another department’.
“The people of Ireland want to know what are we going to do to fix X issue. So that’s the sort of approach that I intend to take,” he says.
“And I have a number of big ideas, many of which will be for my manifesto, whether that’s around disability, whether it’s about how we reform childcare, whether it’s about how we actually show the people of Ireland that we can sustainably fix housing in terms of delivering 250,000 more homes over the next five years, the tax reforms that I think we have to make, how we can use the tax credit system in terms of supporting people with the cost of raising a family and indeed the cost of caring for a relative. So there’s a number of areas that we’re working on currently.”
In a speech to the MacGill summer school last month, Harris spoke about pragmatism as a key political virtue for him – the sort of “what matters is what works” approach favoured by both Barack Obama and, earlier, Tony Blair.
But what are the objectives that he wants to be pragmatic in achieving? What does he believe in politically?
“It’s really simple for me,” he says. “Every child in this country has to be able to reach their full potential regardless of their background. And it’s something I’m absolutely passionate about.
“I’m influenced by my own upbringing, by how I was reared,” he says, reflecting that “a stone’s throw from here today, there would be babies born in Holles Street Hospital … for a moment in time, everything is equal.”
“I think the job of government is to make sure that it is a force for good in terms of their progression through life. And I think we should never be prisoners to ideological labels. I think we live in a wealthy, prosperous, successful country. This is a great country. I passionately believe that. I love this country. And we have so much to be proud of. But. But it is still an unfinished republic in terms of reaching its full potential.
“And I want the grounding principle that I believe in is equality of opportunity and making sure that the Government can be a bridge to overcoming gaps that can exist.
“So on a domestic level, the country that I want to live in is one that uses its resources to make sure that if you want to work hard, if you’re willing to play by the rules, that you can reach your full potential … On a more macro level, I want this country to proudly continue to be pro-European, outward looking, a believer in multilateralism.”
He pauses to reflect that “the main opposition party in Ireland has voted against every referendum in Europe, including the one to join it” before going on to hint that he is mulling the establishment of a State-run early childhood education service.
“I can’t give the whole manifesto away today … [but] what’s our vision for early childhood education? We have done a lot around reducing the cost of education, the cost of childhood care, that’s important. But, you know, should early childhood education be part of that, be a part of the education system in a more formal way?”
For all the ready citation of the achievements of the State and the Government, Harris acknowledges – when the experience of children with scoliosis is put to him as an example – that the State’s provision has failed many people.
“And we need to continue to be restless every single day in wanting to do better in all of these areas. And I’m restless. That’s the sort of person that I am,” he says.
The Government will deliver the budget on October 1st. It will be Harris’s first as Taoiseach and this Coalition’s last. He acknowledges that for all the customary secrecy and behind-closed-doors wrangling, a package of similar structure and size can be expected this year. There will be tax reductions, permanent spending increases, including in social welfare rates, and there will be package of “one-off” (for the third year in a row) giveaways – “all of which,” he adds, “will be delivered this year”.
This is necessary, he says, because cost-of-living pressures on people continue to be acute. “Because the cost-of-living crisis is still very real for people who say to me, hang on a second, I’m working really hard. But the cost of A, B and C is still very high and a hell of a lot higher than it was in the not-too-distant past.”
A fourth element, he says, will be a package of infrastructure-spending increases funded by the proceeds of the State’s ownership of AIB, currently sitting in the Government’s strategic investment fund and amounting to about €2 billion. He wants to look at that to help meet infrastructural deficits in the areas of “water, energy and housing”, he says.
In the future, he would like to see a dedicated Department of Infrastructure to manage spending in the area.
He is proud that Anglo-Irish relations have been improved, though in reality the change of government in Downing Street had more to do with that than the change in Government Buildings. He is pleased with the pledge by new UK prime minister Keir Starmer to repeal the controversial Troubles legacy legislation, which protects former British soldiers from prosecution and annoyed all sides in Northern Ireland. Harris says the Government will drop its legal action against the UK government over the legistiation in due course.
On a possible future united Ireland, Harris strongly defends the aspiration, but does not see planning for a referendum – as urged by Sinn Féin and civic nationalist groups – to be an immediate priority.
“I think the most important thing we have to do right now is not just make preparations for anything, but actually get on with utilising the [Belfast] Agreement to bring about its full potential,” he says.
On the conflict in Gaza, he is critical of the EU but does not see scope for Ireland to take unilateral action against Israel.
And then there is the issue of when the next general election will be held.
“So I smile when I’m asked this question for two reasons. One, the only people who ever ask it to me are journalists, and the odd colleague … I don’t think any member of the public has ever asked me: ‘When are we going to have that election?’ And that’s the truth,” he says.
“The second thing is, you will recall that I became the Taoiseach in April and you will recall the leaders of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party at the time, their kind of one demand of me was that I would commit to this Government running its full term into next year, and you will also recall because it was widely reported on at the time that I, of course, agreed to that.
“And we haven’t had any further conversations in relation to it. So, that is, my position hasn’t changed in relation to this.”
Does it matter whether the next election is in November or in March, the latest point at which it can be held at the end of the five-year Government term?
“Well, it seems to matter to you,” he says. “And I don’t mean that rudely, but it seems to matter to political journalists who like to ask the question, and pundits and commentators.
“I think people are quite happy for this Government to go full term. That is the intention, the publicly expressed view of the three parties in Government. I take the other party leaders at their word, that that is their wish. They asked me to give them my word, so that was my wish. We have all done that.”
This appears to leave open at least the possibility – should his Coalition partners wish to discuss it – of an autumn election. In reality, that is the expectation of just about everybody in Irish politics. Either way, expect Harris to be on the road again.