Kirk thrown in at deep end as brief honeymoon ends

DÁIL SKETCH:POLITICAL HONEYMOONS generally do not last long. Séamus Kirk's as Ceann Comhairle ended yesterday amid heated exchanges about the status of the Nama draft business plan.

Proceedings had a low-key start. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny congratulated Kirk on his productivity in turning down four requests for emergency debates on various issues.

Kenny questioned Tánaiste Mary Coughlan about the Fás scandal in Kirk’s native Louth, where, he said, course results were doctored so students could pass examinations they had failed.

Kirk noted that there was no provision for Opposition leaders’ questions on Thursdays, but this did not stop Kenny, who went on to also raise Nama.

Coughlan, who was taking the order of business, was clearly irritated by what she considered to be the Ceann Comhairle’s latitude with the Opposition.

“I preface my remarks by noting that as there is no leaders’ questions today, I will be outside the order of the House in the context of replying to these questions,” she remarked.

Labour’s Joan Burton wanted to know who had written the draft business plan, as she waved a copy at the Ceann Comhairle.

Party colleague Michael D Higgins said: “With respect to the Ceann Comhairle,” TDs needed to know its status.

“I would not accept this document from a first-year university student,” said Higgins, a UCG-based academic for many years.

“Fás would have given a doctorate,” observed Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton.

Kirk said Higgins would have ample opportunity to make his points at the committee stage debate on Nama next week.

Fine Gael’s Lucinda Creighton, visibly angry, said many TDs would want to attend that debate, given that the Nama legislation was the most important in the State’s history.

“The reality is that we will not fit in the committee rooms below in the bunker of Leinster House 2000,” she added.

Labour’s Emmet Stagg claimed the Government wanted the debate “in the dungeons so that no one can hear it”.

It emerged later in the afternoon that the Government had agreed to the Opposition’s request that it be held in the Dáil chamber.

As Opposition TDs continued to wave copies of the draft business plan, raging about its questionable origin, Kirk said it had come from the Department of Finance.

“How does the Ceann Comhairle know that?” asked Burton.

“That is what it is,” replied Kirk.

The political honeymoon had lasted all of two days.