Gavan Reilly: Curb your enthusiasm? That’s the last thing politics needs

Good broadcasting should make you stop and think; it should encourage a train of thought that didn’t already exist, and prompt deeper reflection on the nature of things. I’d like to think that I was part of some good broadcasting in that mould last week – the snag being, it wasn’t me who made the salient point.

As we recorded last week’s episode of The Group Chat, my colleague Zara King remarked that the new Taoiseach was being unfairly infantilised in the media, and even by some of his Dáil colleagues. While his age is certainly a novelty – it is merely a statement of fact that nobody has ever held the office while as young as him – even his cabinet colleagues were making a joke of his age: his new deputy leader in Fine Gael, Heather Humphreys, made quips about mistaking him for a school tour visitor when they both first showed up for work in 2011.

The thought hadn’t occurred to me before Zara said it, but she is completely right. Perhaps it strikes a particular chord with me, as the new Taoiseach is only six weeks older than I am, but if I had 13 years of experience as a TD – and eight years of experience in cabinet – I’d certainly feel I was being unfairly written off by people continually making light of my age.

That’s not to say that his youth should be universally applauded: it is absolutely fair to criticise Simon Harris for his lack of ‘real world’, private sector employment experience. Part of what has brought him to the pinnacle of his vocation, aged just 37, is that his passion for politics was so strong he dropped out of his college degree to take a job in Frances Fitzgerald’s Seanad office. Someone who has never held down a ‘regular’ job, or had a career anywhere else, can rightly be questioned on their empathy for average workers.

Nonetheless there is a needlessly hostile tone to some of the coverage, and a determination form some to drain any energy and enthusiasm out of him. In the Sunday Independent, Shane Ross seemed to draw comfort that running the country would quickly rinse Harris of any idealism - gleefully anticipating how his own former cabinet colleague might be taken down a peg or two when he realised what the job really entailed.

That was both mean spirited and unnecessary. Ross and Simon Harris were elected to the Dáil on the same day in 2011, appointed to the cabinet on the same day in 2016 - yet Ross (who is now twice Harris’ age) was the one unable to convert his wisdom and experience into re-election in 2020. No Taoiseach deserves an easy ride, and as he begins to exert his influence on power, Simon Harris will certainly be scrutinised. But when so many lament the overriding cynicism in politics, it is beneath us to wish for anyone’s enthusiasm to wane. Even Harris’ most strident opponents are better off if the clouds of gloom are blown away from the skies over Leinster House.