Incurable romantic O'Keeffe sends out an early Valentine

Noting that tomorrow week is St Valentine’s Day, he said it was unfortunate that the Dáil would not be sitting.

“I was hoping the deputy would bring it up,” said fellow incurable romantic, Ceann Comhairle John O’Donoghue.

“There will be roses,” said Fine Gael’s Shane McEntee, joining in the spirit of the exchanges.

O’Keeffe’s Valentine message, which historians will do doubt analyse decades from now, read: “There will be pain ahead, but if we all share this pain evenly, we can look forward to brighter days.”

Earlier, the outspoken Government backbencher must have caused some pain to his colleagues when he criticised the commission, made up of TDs and Senators, which runs the Oireachtas.

“The House has gone out of control,” he declared, adding that he had been laughed at when he warned, some years ago, that the commission would cost a fortune to run.

“I was proven right, but the deputies’ expenses will now pay for it,” said O’Keeffe.

There will be no St Valentine’s Day Massacre of the 20 Ministers of State, despite the political consensus that there are too many of them in these recessionary times.

Labour’s Joan Burton, with a bloodbath in mind, tackled Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan on the issue. “Everybody in the Opposition parties would be happy to sit down and see an across-the-board package that would refer to Ministers of State, because we believe the number could be reduced by one-third or one-half,” she said.

Intimations of mortality swept the junior ministerial ranks as a clearly uncomfortable Minister gave them a reprieve for now.

The Taoiseach, said Lenihan, had made it clear in the House on Wednesday that everybody had to work in the current crisis, including Ministers of State.

“They will have to work in this crisis, but he has no immediate proposals for a reduction in their numbers,” the Minister added.

The word “immediate” was ringing in the ears of the junior ministers as they made their way back to their constituencies in their “half cars” last night.

Burton also called for a culling of the burgeoning Oireachtas committees. It would be better, she said, if almost all the paid positions were abolished or reduced by at least two-thirds.

Many a backbencher, disappointed at being bypassed for the “half car”, has found a comfortable and lucrative refuge in a committee.

The Minister, managing to keep a straight face, said he welcomed the proposal mooted by Burton and he would take it up with the Government.

Meanwhile, Labour’s Kathleen Lynch said she was amazed that the Ceann Comhairle had allowed the “barracking” of party leader Eamon Gilmore by the Government benches on the Order of Business. O’Donoghue, she said, had not protected Gilmore as he would protect her.

“I did not realise Deputy Lynch required protecting,” said O’Donoghue.

“We know one another too well,” observed Lynch.

Indeed they do.