Kenny one-liner turns tables on Mary Lou's irregulars

DÁIL SKETCH:POLITICAL PASTS were far from being a foreign country in the Dáil yesterday.

As insults were traded, history was invoked.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin was the first target, when Government backbenchers reminded him of his party’s period in office and the economic tsunami that engulfed the country.

Shortly before the official release of the Keane report on distressed mortgages, Martin had asked Taoiseach Enda Kenny, with an almost boyish enthusiasm, to take a Bill his party had drafted into account when framing legislation on the issue. While Kenny kept a straight face, no such restraint was shown by his backbenchers who heaped scorn on Martin for his party’s record in office.

Labour’s Emmet Stagg said it was a pity Fianna Fáil had not published the Bill last year.

“There would be no need for legislation if you did not cause the problem,” said Fine Gael’s Simon Harris.

Martin said it was no laughing matter. But an unsmiling Kenny seemed to give the Fianna Fáil chief some initial hope that his suggestion would be taken seriously. He commended Martin’s colleague, Michael McGrath, on his initiative in tabling the Bill about a serious matter. But there was a sting in the tail. He did not know, he said, if Fianna Fáil had seen a leaked version of the report and that its Bill would include all the measures proposed in it.

Martin insisted that the Fianna Fáil Bill was based on a Law Reform Commission report from last December and he expressed annoyance that TDs had not received a copy of the report in advance of its publication.

Government Chief Whip Paul Kehoe recalled Martin’s fondness for commissioning reports when minister for health: “Deputy Martin is a quare man to talk about published reports.”

Independent TD Shane Ross was next to see his past surface in stark terms.

Ross wanted candidates from the private sector considered for the job of Department of Finance secretary and to have the appointee appear before a committee. Insisting that the selection process would be open, Kenny reached for his bulging file: “This will be nothing like the recommendation in 2004 by Deputy Ross, following the appointment of Mr Burrows to the Bank of Ireland, at which time the deputy, in criticism of that appointment, suggested that Seán Fitzpatrick of Anglo Irish Bank would be far too dynamic for the role,” he declared.

Whoops of joy from the Government backbenchers.

Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald was also reminded of her party’s political evolution.

McDonald had said that what the Government was calling social welfare fraud was in fact irregular payments.

“Deputy McDonald speaks of irregulars,” said Kenny. “She would know something about that, I suppose.”

More backbench bliss.