Coalition exposed on too many fronts to stay out of line of ire

DÁIL SKETCH:IF YOUR Government is  under threat, what strategy should you adopt to survive? One part of the solution is to stay out of the line of fire as much as possible.

But though Taoiseach Brian Cowen had his usual Thursday free of the Dáil and was in Brussels, the call to “consider his position” from former minister John McGuinness was getting attention.

When Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton mentioned it, Ceann Comhairle Séamus Kirk quickly pointed out “this is not contemplated on the Order of Business”.

Richard, however, was still concerned. “When we find that Government backbenchers do not believe the Taoiseach capable of providing fresh leadership for the country, we have a serious and grave situation,” he said, but the issue didn’t take hold.

He then turned to another issue that puts the Government centre and square in the line of public ire.

The Minister for Finance is expected to announce details next week of the €9 billion recapitalisation of Anglo Irish Bank. Mr Bruton insisted “we demand and are entitled to a debate on this”.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore highlighted Government strategy to stay out of the line of ire. Next week is the last Dáil sitting before Easter and what the Government does is bring forward legislation “that was not adequately prepared in the first place” and “introduces a batch of amendments that are larger than the Bill itself”. It takes time and deflects from other controversial topics.

The Government plan is to announce the bank proposals late with no “opportunity to debate it in the House for three weeks”. But if it thinks it can do that “it is very seriously mistaken”.

Of course, there are other ways to attempt to avoid trouble, such as giving “hot potatoes” to others to handle. Minister for the Environment John Gormley has the job of dealing with the Dublin Docklands Development Authority and he was in the House to hear the Opposition demand publication of the report, whose details had already been revealed by a broadcaster, on the “appalling decisions” the authority made.

They included the glass bottle plant site and the “€140 million of State investment now at zero value”, plus the taxpayer caught on the hook for extra costs.

Fine Gael was going to publish the document later and the Minister spoke to reporters to say he had to wait until named individuals in the report had responded, insisting there was nothing “explosive”.

However, it was a Dáil anecdote that revealed how explosive another great institution, Nama, might be. Fine Gael’s Tom Sheahan said a constituent of his who had €2.3 million in “performing loans” from a bank, sought a loan of €300,000. But the bank offered him €2.7 million “if he would go into Nama”.

The bank wanted to remove the loan from its balance sheet, and had to make it up to €5 million to make it eligible.

He may have had it right when he said “Nama is going to be a boys’ club”.