A WEEK ago the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, stood up in the Dáil during a debate on – what else? – housing. He used the occasion to criticise Sinn Féin  for receiving financial contributions from the US through its US fundraising arm, Friends of Sinn Fein. In all, Sinn Féin raised €366,000, the bulk of that said to come from builders and construction companies in the US. Simon took a seriously dim view of that.

“You are the party of taking big money from big American building companies," he said. "You tell the young people of Ireland you’re on the side of the working people, and Mary Lou flies out to America to take the dollars from the big businesses, big builders”. 

Simon was being either deliberately misleading or A1 stupid in making that statement. There can be few people in Ireland who don’t realise that Fine Gael has for a long time been associated with low-tax, pro-enterprise policies, and that it has a close relationship with business groups in Ireland like Ibec. 

So that makes Simon and his FG mates  cosy with business in Ireland, and Mary Lou friends with housing business in the US. Does one cancel the other? FG are cheek-by -jowl with Irish businesses, SF is cheek-by-jowl with US businesses.  A balance?

Uh-uh. The whole basis on which FG’s association with Irish business interests is that FG, as part of the government, could do overt or covert deals in the Dáil and pass laws that would favour their mates in business. When FG tackle the housing problem, they might – note, I just say they might – be tempted to nudge the law so big building companies... how shall I put it... don't suffer any disadvantages.  

Sinn Féin, however many Friends it may have in the US, is in no position  to pass laws that would smooth the path of big US  building companies. That’s done by American politicians, just as laws are passed by Irish politicians which appear to give a leg up the businesses which build homes rather than to  the people who are desperate for homes. In short, Simon’s sphere of influence is with people in Ireland, Sinn Féin’s sphere of influence is with  American people.

You see the difference? Sinn Féin’s US friends can raise money for them, not because Sinn Féin is in a position to do them any favours in exchange, but because... Why?

Because there are an awful lot of Irish people in the US, some first generation, others going back decades and even centuries. Many of these people have strong feelings about Ireland and in many cases about the partition of Ireland. They know that Irish reunification is the core principle that drives Sinn Féin, and that is why they support that party. There is no question of Sinn Féin influencing politicians like Donald Trump or Zohran Mamdani. Fine Gael, by contrast,  are capable of attracting votes and support from big companies in Ireland for the very good reason that that’s where the companies are and that’s where Fine Gael is part of government.

Looked at like that, Simon is busy making a  false comparison and hoping  the Irish electorate don’t spot what he’s up to. If  Simon ever studied Logic at school, he’d know that  getting money from companies in the US is a very different matter from getting money from companies in Ireland. Crucially, Sinn Féin can do nothing for US companies; Fine Gael can do lots for companies in Ireland.

There’s a word for putting out claims of misdeeds and hoping they’ll stick: it’s called smearing. Ask newly-installed president Catherine Connolly.