Fine Gael chief Simon Harris cannot have enjoyed reading Sunday’s newspapers

For someone who is sensitive to media criticism, the Sunday newspapers cannot have made pleasant reading for Tánaiste and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris.The fallout from Harris’s less than adept handling of the recent political controversy – and then illness – centred on Minister for Culture Patrick O’Donovan continues to rumble on in the political coverage and commentary.Most worrying for Harris – who brings his party’s ardfheis to Cork next weekend – is the latest edition of the Sunday Independent’s monthly Ireland Thinks poll, which shows his personal rating has fallen to its lowest level since he became leader in 2024. And although he retains the backing of three-quarters of Fine Gael supporters to remain as party leader, there are plenty of other unflattering findings for Harris to mull over – including, but not limited to, the finding that six out of 10 voters consider him unqualified to be Minister for Finance.READ MOREA recent column in the Irish Independent by satirist and RTÉ Radio presenter Oliver Callan making just this point (albeit in highly pungent terms) caused utter fury in Fine Gael. The Sunday Independent’s editorial today described him as “a leader for easy rather than hard times”, warning: “He who lives by the media inevitably risks dying by it too.” Various columnists lined up to have a pop. [ Controversy between Simon Harris and Patrick O’Donovan was a badly handled storm in a teacupOpens in new window ]They were not confined to the Sunday Indo. In the Business Post, John Deasy (a former Fine Gael TD) reckoned the drop in Government support in recent polls was “entirely self-inflicted”.In the Irish Mail on Sunday, Ger Colleran reckoned the whole O’Donovan farrago was down to Harris’s “political spinelessness”. In the Sunday Times, Gary Murphy wondered if Harris’s handling of the affair now meant that O’Donovan could never be sacked or demoted, no matter what he did. Next weekend’s ardfheis now assumes a new importance for Harris, whose performance will be more closely scrutinised; as will the mood of delegates and the content of quiet conversations around the conference venue in UCC, and in the pubs and restaurants around it.There is not a sense that Harris’s leadership is in danger at this stage. The party’s poll ratings are hardly stellar (Fine Gael support remains unchanged at 18 per cent in the Sunday Independent poll today and has been mostly in the late teens all year) but they are not catastrophic, especially for a party in Government midterm. He can point to a big morale-boosting victory in the Galway West byelection at the start of the summer. Taoiseach doing some ‘deep thinking’ about Irish unity with creation of new Government bodyFor all the rave reviews – inside and outside Government – that Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll-MacNeill has received, she is not yet a fully formed leadership contender. And Harris is, remember, due to ascend once again to the taoiseach’s office in just over a year’s time.So there is not a sense among Fine Gael TDs that they are itching for a change at the top. There is, however, a belief that recent troubles have been largely self-inflicted and a sense that the party is sort of going through the motions in Government.A proposed motion for the ardfheis seeks to emphasise the party’s centre-right identity, amid fears that 15 years in Government has meant the party has melted into the squishy centre-left, tax-and-spend consensus. Harris’s leadership is not on the brink – but his party is jittery and looking for strategic direction. Next weekend’s ardfheis has suddenly become the most important test for him since the general election.