FF stands by fiery Willie over his 'mistake'

DÁIL SKETCH:A FLOCK. A raft. A paddling. A team. A flush. All collective nouns for groups of ducks.

Here’s a new one: A cabinet. See it in a sentence: Brian Cowen led his Cabinet of lame ducks into the Dáil yesterday.

And a sorry sight they are, too.

What a collection. Biffo – the less said the better. His Tánaiste, Mary Coughlan, looking very sorry for herself after her Ryanair jobs mauling. Martin Cullen, looking glum for reasons too many to list. Dermot Ahern, snarling. Micheál Martin, who believes all our problems will be solved if we eat more fruit. Mary Harney, nursing a broken wrist and up to her elbow in plaster.

And Willie O’Dea – the latest lame duck. The unsinkable O’Dea has been mercilessly peppered with buckshot since the weekend and is in serious trouble now.

He made a sworn statement to the High Court last year which wasn’t true. Some people might call that perjury, but senior counsel and Government Minister O’Dea knows his way around the law. All those years in the King’s Inns stood to him last night when he explained to the Dáil what happened. He made a “mistake”.

Some of his “recollection” in his original affidavit was “mistaken”. “Unfounded allegations” that he “lied under oath” are just that – unfounded. He made a mistake.

Highly technical stuff, but there you are. Case dismissed.

Not that there has been a perjury case brought against the Minister. He was sued for defamation. The matter was settled; compensation was paid.

The plaintiff, as part of the settlement, accepted that Deputy O’Dea never intended to mislead anyone.

As the Minister pointed out yesterday: “Evidence and testimony is regularly corrected in courts without allegations and assertions of lying and perjury being levelled. People in all walks of life have been obliged to correct testimony they gave in written and oral statements.”

Right enough, Willie, telling a newspaper journalist in the course of an election campaign that a rival candidate is operating the local knocking-shop is the sort of unnecessary detail that would slip anyone’s mind.

Although later on in the evening, Labour’s Pat Rabbitte was less inclined to take the charitable view. “I just heard a pathetically self-exculpatory statement from the Minister for Defence who tells us that he acted innocently, having crawled along Limerick, spreading disgraceful rumours about a rival candidate running a brothel. And he has the cheek to tell us he forgot it. And he has the cheek to came into this house and say it was an innocent misrepresentation.”

Pat’s indignation was lost on an audience of precisely one. Junior minister Martin Mansergh was the only Government member in the chamber.

How different it had been just minutes earlier, when Cpl O’Dea arrived in to make his personal statement.

A large contingent of Government deputies turned up to support him, demonstrating Willie’s popularity in the Fianna Fáil party. As expected, there wasn’t a Green in sight.

It was a short statement. Willie raced down through it like a downhill skier in the Winter Olympics. The Opposition took it with a pinch of salt.

But Willie is a fiery man. His robust approach is celebrated in the party. So what if he accused a rival, in the wrong, of running a house of ill-repute? “It did not pertain to my responsibilities as a Minister in the Government. It did not pertain to Government policies in any shape, way or form. It was born out of heated political exchanges between me and the Sinn Féin candidate in the run up to the local elections.”

Grassroots ground-hurling politics is a vicious game.

Luckily for senior counsel O’Dea, his party stands full square behind him. From the start of business yesterday afternoon, through to the evening, Cowen backed his man to the hilt.

There is a difference between the private TD and the public Minister. Biffo is satisfied that Willie acted properly at all time. “The Minister acted in a private capacity.” Now where have we heard that before. At least one tribunal comes to mind.

“Mr Haughey sacked ministers for less!” spluttered Fine Gael’s Charlie Flanagan – yet another solicitor – as he excoriated his constituency colleague Cowen (solicitor) for standing by O’Dea. “It’s a farce ... I know the way you operate!”

All day, the Opposition returned to the issue of the false affidavit sworn by the senior counsel Minister because he forgot that he called a well-known Sinn Féin politician in his bailiwick a brothel-keeper.

And all day, the Government batted for Willie.

It was Dermot Ahern who struck the requisite Fianna Fáil note, bellowing across the floor in his role of frontbench bruiser.

“Where was George Lee last week? You jettisoned him. We have a bit more loyalty!”

That was the Minister for Justice, sticking up for the Minister for Defence as he stuck it to Fine Gael. Just as the Taoiseach had done before.

After Willie’s statement, the Government benches cleared in a matter of seconds, but not before Enda Kenny stated he intended tabling a motion of no confidence. He was on his feet like lightning, obviously determined not to get gazumped by Eamon Gilmore.

Now, attention will switch to the Green Party. Will they vote confidence in Willie O’Dea and forgive him for his mistake?

Maybe they’ll take on board the words of their Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, when he was defending his predecessor Bertie in the Dáil: “I believe loyalty is a political virtue.”

They learn fast, those Greens.