Deputies reminded to watch their steps as Dáil ponders 'Lanigan clause'

DÁIL SKETCH:DECADES FROM now, historians are likely to spend much time and effort examining the "Lanigan clause" in the FF-Green party negotiations for a programme for government in 2007.

Was there an agreement among the Greens that Minister for the Environment John Gormley would step out of his ministry in mid-term to allow party colleague Ciarán Cuffe to step in?

The inspiration for the “Lanigan clause”, a phrase coined by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny yesterday, came from the lively song Lanigan’s Ball, which features a certain amount of stepping in and out.

When Kenny observed that Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey, an FF negotiator of that programme, was taking the Order of Business, he clearly felt that an explanation of the “Lanigan clause” could be secured.

Ceann Comhairle Séamus Kirk was unimpressed by Kenny’s probing, warning him not to be “too facetious”. Some hope in Dáil Éireann!

Kenny ploughed on.

“Was the good Minister from Co Meath called aside and told in sotto voce by Johnny G that, in fact, another deal is going on at the same time, where Deputy Cuffe will be made minister for the environment in two-and-a-half years’ time?” he asked.

“Perhaps it was Deputy [Paul] Gogarty, who is not present. I do not know.”

At the time, the only Green presence in the House was Cuffe, who was busy speaking to FF backbencher Noel Ahern about some matter or other.

Neither Gormley nor the other Green Party Cabinet Minister Eamon Ryan was present.

Kenny’s party colleague Alan Shatter wanted the query expanded.

“Members need to know the reason the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has a rotation exemption,” he said.

FG’s Michael Ring had a further question for Dempsey.

“Did the Minister not tell the Green party that these jobs were like Fás jobs, with one week on and one week off?”

Dempsey remained silent about those events of 2007 and the complexity of the “Lanigan clause”.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore observed that the entire affair was reaching the point of ridicule.

It was, he said, “a bit like having a team on the pitch when a man must go off, but the manager is unable to make up his mind as to who to put on as substitute”.

Gilmore then moved on to a historical matter which continues to haunt the Government.

“It has always troubled me that the Minister, Deputy Martin Cullen, took all the blame for electronic voting as the Minister for Transport, who is taking the Order of Business, was the man who thought up the idea,” he said. A silent Dempsey just about managed a half-smile.

Gilmore urged him to “take full credit and responsibility” for electronic voting and allow “poor Martin Cullen off the hook”.

Labour’s Emmet Stagg lamented Dempsey’s continuing silence.

“Leaving the poor old Minister, Deputy Cullen, on the hook,” he said.

And so the Order of Business petered out, with Cullen continuing to bear the ignominy of the electronic voting fiasco and the “Lanigan clause” still an unsolved political mystery.