Enda treads on toes with his grand gesture

MIRIAM LORD'S WEEK:Old hands question Kenny's wisdom; grim up north for Ministers; a Bertie 'retrospective'; Ferris's topical question; guinea pigs weigh in

ENDA KENNY covered himself in glory at the weekend with his pledge to abolish the Seanad and reduce the number of TDs in the Dáil.

As grand gestures go, this was one extravagant election promise and he stood on a lot of party toes in the process. But Enda’s announcement went down well with a grumpy electorate, and he got some great headlines.

Closer to home in Leinster House, experienced political hands are questioning the wisdom of making such a bold move.

In private, Fianna Fáil and Labour have been enjoying a little snigger at Fine Gael’s expense. It’s one thing to pull off a neat populist move and flat-foot your political rival – as Eamon Gilmore did when calling for John O’Donoghue’s resignation – but it’s quite another when you manage to score a hit with the public at the cost of serious collateral damage to your own troops.

At lunchtime on Wednesday, Enda Kenny met with his Senators before they had to go into the chamber and bat for their own destruction. Four of them were going up in the lift to meet him when the doors opened and the Labour leader hopped in.

“You better start praying for an overall majority, lads,” chuckled Eamon Gilmore, as Senators Ciarán Cannon, Jerry Buttimer, Liam Twomey and Paschal Donohoe smiled wanly.

Buttimer was so distracted later in the day that he voted twice in one division, first as Fidelma Healy-Eames (he had been sitting in her vacant chair after she was thrown out for being disruptive) and then as himself, having returned to his rightful berth. He informed the Clerk of the Seanad as soon as he realised and the record was corrected.

Later that evening, the FG parliamentary party held a four-hour meeting. There was skin and hair flying. Mild-mannered Meath East deputy Shane McEntee walked out in high dudgeon amid claims he had been “misled” by the leadership, and had to be persuaded to return.

Kildare’s Bernard Durkan, angered by the lack of consultation with the parliamentary party before Enda made his dramatic announcement, thundered that the leader could not act like a “dictator”. As he saw it, Kenny had ignored the party’s constitution. Echoing comments made earlier in the Seanad by Independent Senator Joe O’Toole, an incandescent Bernard fulminated about “blueshirts” and “fascism”.

Many were disgusted by the fact that journalists knew about Enda’s announcement before they did. They blamed this on the priorities of unelected handlers.

While most attention during the week focused on the future of the Upper Chamber, quite a few deputies are steaming over Enda’s plans for the Dáil. He wants to reduce the number of TDs and also to introduce a list system to select 20 of them. This caused consternation among some FG TDs at the meeting.

Deputy McEntee didn’t want to discuss what happened in the party room. Did he walk out?

“I went out to the toilet,” he insisted.

Did he have to be persuaded to return?

“I went to the toilet.”

The Nobber deputy is saying nothing. “I will not talk about what goes on inside our parliamentary party meeting. What I say in there, stays in there . . . I speak my mind in the interests of everyone, and that was one of the best meetings I was at.”

But whatever he said, it must have been pretty robust. Shane is steeped in Meath GAA – a world not for the faint hearted. “I spent

23 years of my life in dressing rooms and what happened on Wednesday night was a great way to prepare for the fight ahead,” he said. More ructions in store for Enda? “Government,” explained Shane, resolutely on message.

As the man most likely to be the next Taoiseach, Enda can do pretty much what he likes within the party. TDs and deputies, starved of power for so long, are praying for preferment.

But should the Government survive longer than expected and experience a rise in popularity, last weekend’s announcement may come back to haunt him.

No welcome for Ministers in Monaghan

Monaghan is an inhospitable place for Ministers these days. But the local politicians want it that way because they are campaigning for a proper hospital.

Earlier this month, the county council re-confirmed its decision to ask any Minister visiting the county to meet a delegation to discuss the continuing situation at Monaghan general. Invitations will be issued as soon as word reaches them of an official visit.

Now, the council upped the ante. Not only do they require a 10-15-minute meeting on the hospital issue “and other issues relevant to the county” with any Government Minister entering their territory, but a letter has been sent to all Ministers and Ministers of State stating their further decision: “That if the council don’t get a meeting with the particular Minister on the day of his/her visit to the county, then the council members would protest at the event the Minister is attending.”

Sinn Féin love a good protest, so it’s no surprise that the party has the biggest representation on Monaghan County Council, with seven out of twenty seats, compared to 6 for Fine Gael, 2 for independents and just 5 for Fianna Fail.

As the letters have only just arrived in the various Government departments, it’s not known how individual Ministers will react to this unusual threat. What will the councillors do if Ministers decide to drop in unannounced? They’ll have to go on call, like firemen, ready to scramble at the first sign of a State car crossing the county line.

Illustrious past of ye olde free envelopes

Ye olde free envelopes have a long and proud tradition, although once upon a time, free intercourse between politicians and the people was not only enjoyed by both sides, but actively encouraged.

It had to stop. Which it did, evolving into today’s situation where Oireachtas members can make free with the stationary and harass constituents whenever they feel the urge. Their constituents, on the other hand, have to pay if they want to do the same.

Martin Mansergh told the Dáil all about it on Thursday night. "Recently, I reviewed for The Irish Timesthree volumes of the journals of the Irish House of Lords, which were again fascinating. Deputies might not be aware that the origin of the free envelopes scheme is the mid-17th century. It was a measure designed against Charles I to allow free correspondence between MPs and the people, and its effect was extended to Ireland during the Cromwellian period.

“Few of us think of that scheme as having its origins back then. An interesting feature of that scheme is that not merely could MPs, now TDs, send post free of charge to their constituents, but their constituents could send letters to them free of charge. Somewhere in the past 300 years, the reciprocal nature of this arrangement has gone missing. Whether it would be worthy of revival or whether we have enough post to deal with is a matter for debate.”

Burning question from finger-on-pulse Ferris

By God, but that Martin Ferris of Sinn Féin is a man with his finger on the pulse. He misses nothing. He recently sent in a topical question to the Minister for Defence asking if he would “supply details of the official report into the deaths of persons (details supplied) . . . eight people at Ballyseedy on March 7th, 1923; of five killed at Bagaghs on March 12th, 1923 and four killed at Countess Bridge on March 7th, 1923.”

In a written reply, Willie O’Dea informed Thoroughly Modern Martin: “I am advised by the military authorities that there are no official reports into the deaths of the three persons as referred to by the deputy. The three areas referred to are referenced in a file (CW/OPS/12/C) in the Civil War Operations collections which is held in Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks. This file is available for inspection with the Military Archives should the deputy so wish.”

Next week, the quick-on-the-draw deputy for Kerry North will be asking for details of the official report on the role played by all the king’s horses and all the king’s men in the untimely death of a Mr H Dumpty, all round good egg.

Michael D takes issue with history according to Bert

“The idea came from somewhere that we should give defaulters one last chance to put their affairs in order,” recalls Bertie Ahern of the controversial 1993 tax amnesty in his highly entertaining autobiography.

Albert was all for the measure, but Bertie “hated it”. He put a “strong paper” to cabinet saying the amnesty should not go ahead. However, he was somewhat reassured the night before the cabinet meeting when he heard that Labour ministers would vote against it.

Imagine his surprise then when those same ministers “sat on their hands looking sheepish”. Nothing for it but to “swallow it” and proceed with the proposal. The alternative for poor Bertie Ahern would have been to resign his position, and “that would have achieved nothing”.

One of those Labour ministers was Michael D Higgins, who disagrees with the Ahern version of what happened. “I didn’t realise that breaking your ankle could do such a disaster to your memory,” he marvels, in reference to the former taoiseach’s decision to write his memoirs while recuperating from a leg injury.

In his version, he recalls that party leader Dick Spring told them, before the full cabinet meeting: “As far as we’re concerned, Bertie won’t be proposing it as Minister for Finance”. But Michael D says when the amnesty came up for discussion, Bertie declared “well taoiseach, if you are going to insist on it” and suddenly caved in. In what the former arts minister describes as an example of “retrospective rationalisation”, he says the strong memo to cabinet came, not from Ahern, but from Revenue.

Lesser-spotted Bull steers clear of chamber

Former ceann comhairle John O’Donoghue may not have been spotted in the Dáil chamber during the week, but he was around Leinster House. On Wednesday night, he was spotted dining in the Oireachtas members’ restaurant with his wife Kate Ann and enjoying some friendly banter with passing FF deputies and Senators.

Fortunately for the Bull, there were no knife-edge votes on that night, so he didn’t have to abandon his knife and fork and return to the scene of his resignation ordeal while the pain is still fresh.

Meanwhile, in UCC on Wednesday night, a “model Dáil” took place, with representatives from the college political societies debating the issues of the day. Dara Murphy, Lord Mayor of Cork, acted as Ceann Comhairle.

The well-travelled Bull will be gratified to know that the event was held under the auspices of the UCC International Relations Society.

Can’t catch a bus, but you might nab a Minister

On Wednesday night in the Seanad, Nicky McFadden asked if the Minister for Transport could reroute the 7am Galway-Dublin bus to stop at the Institute of Technology campus in Athlone. (It isn’t all matters of grave national and international importance in the Seanad, you know.) Minister of State Seán Haughey was filling in for Noel Dempsey – standing in for their seniors in the Seanad is a regular job for our Junior Ministers and a major source of insult to Senators who see this as a snub.

Seán told Nicky that the Department of Transport is still considering the matter and he couldn’t tell her how long it would take to reach a decision. He then gave the Fine Gael Senator some practical advice: “You could nab the Minister in the Dáil later, as I’m sure he’ll be present for the division at half eight.” (Noel will have loved him for that.) Would it be as easy to “nab” a Minister in the Commons? Another reason for keeping our Senators.

As for Minister Dempsey, getting nabbed is better than being incessantly nagged by your own backbenchers over the drink-driving laws.

Alternative plan for a slimmed-down Dáil

Ministers get all sorts of unusual requests, not least the one that landed on their desks during the week from the producers of RTÉ's health and fitness programme Operation Transformationseeking Government guinea-pigs to follow an eight-week weight-loss plan.

Participants in the lifestyle challenge, which is presented by Gerry Ryan, are drawn from the listenership of Ryan's morning radio show. For the forthcoming third series, the makers want to expand the concept to include some groups who will also follow the Operation TransformationHealth Plan. They'd love a few politicians to take part, hence the request to all Oireachtas members.

"The idea is that they will have a group weigh-in each week – no individual's weight will be disclosed unless one wishes it to be, and they will feature in the weekly TV programme and on 2FM's Gerry Ryan Show.

The services of the expert panel will be available to the group and a programme of fitness will be put in place, together with a healthy eating programme for the eight week period.

Apart from the health benefits, what’s in it for your average TD, deputy or minister? Some priceless publicity, that’s what. They went weak at the knees in Leinster House when they read “average TV audience of half a million, with the website having over two million hits”.

Filming takes place next January and February, and any politicians willing to take part will have to commit to a televised weekly weigh-in every Tuesday morning (when neither House sits) and their attendance will also be required at the televised finale.

That’ll be no hardship.