Oh brother! Fianna Fáiler scotches idea of relative values

DÁIL SKETCH:THE BROTHER of a former taoiseach committed political fratricide in the Dáil yesterday, when he effectively disowned the last Fianna Fáil-led government.

“I carry no candle for the previous administration,” said Laois-Offaly FF TD Barry Cowen, who succeeded his brother, outgoing taoiseach Brian Cowen, in the February general election.

To soften the blow, Barry emphasised this was no reflection on the many improvements achieved during its time in office.

He was responding to Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton, who said Fianna Fáil had singular responsibility for the unemployed and those with failed businesses.

“If the Deputy is going to lash out, perhaps he should look in the mirror on the bank guarantee,” she declared.

It was all too much for Cowen, who made it clear he was not his brother’s keeper and reminded the Minister that she and her colleagues were now in power.

The exchanges briefly took the focus off the presidential election, which inevitably casts its shadow over Dáil business these days.

Although without a candidate in the field, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, anxious to protect his party’s republican base, targeted Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness. Expressing concern about McGuinness’s absence from his post in the Northern Ireland Executive, Martin recalled that when Peter Robinson stood down for a time it had caused inaction and drift.

Putting the boot in, he observed that ministers in the executive tended to come and go, “which seems to be more about electoral advancement than doing things”.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams smiled. Taoiseach Enda Kenny, whose colleagues have been hammering McGuinness, was happy to concur.

Adams said it was a bit rich to hear a lecture on what was happening in the North, adding that he was the only TD who had also served people in the Assembly.

Insults were traded with abandon. Adams claimed a Fianna Fáil taoiseach had refused to raise the issue of Irish language rights with unionists.

“That is not true,” said Martin. “It is so untrue it is unbelievable.” Calling for a truce, the Taoiseach advised: “Easy, lads.”

The presidential election gave way to the Dublin West byelection when the writ was moved.

As speaker after speaker eulogised their candidates, the party political broadcasts began to make the presidential election seem riveting.

By then, Fianna Fáil observers were analysing the earlier act of political fratricide and wondering if there would be more killings on the party’s road to recovery.

The consensus was that Bertie Ahern must be shaking in his Drumcondra boots.