Another grey day for Government backbenchers

Dáil Sketch: It was a day of continuing grief for the Government. Chief whip Tom Kitt's welcome for the 4.7 per cent increase in employment figures was a mere political footnote as the Opposition lambasted the Government over the fall-out from the striking down of the law on statutory rape and the release of Mr A.

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, grim-faced on the Government benches, was the main target as condemnation echoed around the chamber.

Unfolding events had revealed the Government to be a "band of bunglers", declared Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny.

The public was staggered by the "incompetence and lack of care displayed", said Labour leader Pat Rabbitte.

Joe Higgins, of the Socialist Party, claimed the Government was "now a hobbling paragon of incompetence, exceeded only by its arrogance".

And so on it went as Tánaiste Mary Harney stood in for Mr Ahern who was in New York.

It was important that the House move beyond party politics and dealt with the issue, said Ms Harney, attempting to stem the tide entering the political Titanic. She waved the lifebelt that any change in the law at the outset of the court proceedings would not have had a retrospective effect.

She shared the outrage about the release of Mr A. And, of course, she believed Mr McDowell's version of events.

Admitting that there was an "information deficit", Ms Harney said the Department of Justice had been informed in late 2002 by the Chief State Solicitor's office of the move to challenge the rape law. However neither Mr McDowell nor AG Rory Brady had personal knowledge of it.

Referring to another Government woe, Mr Higgins compared the decentralisation "mess" with the media's fascination with the Taoiseach's make-up arrangements.

"I can only equate the mess of decentralisation with a botched make-up job. It was slapped on in a hurry, there was no foundation, with blobs of paint which everyone could see through. Admittedly, there was no blusher, as this Government is incapable of blushing."

The Government backbenchers looked uniformly grey.