The Government came within one vote of a sensational defeat in the Dáil on the Shannon issue yesterday only a day after it survived a motion of no confidence in the Taoiseach.
The Opposition claimed that the close vote showed instability in the Coalition, but the Government Chief Whip, Tom Kitt, was adamant that he always knew the Coalition would have the numbers to win.
The wafer-thin margin on three successive votes on the Shannon issue has put the Fianna Fáil TDs in Clare and Limerick under pressure, as they all voted against forcing the Government to intervene with Aer Lingus management to reverse the decision to end the Shannon-Heathrow service.
Mr Kitt told The Irish Times he knew that a number of TDs would be unavoidably absent. However, Cork East TD Ned O'Keeffe, who missed Wednesday's confidence motion and yesterday's vote, was not included in this group.
When contacted by The Irish Times Mr O'Keeffe refused to explain his absence. Mr Kitt said that he had formally written to Mr O'Keeffe about his absence from the Dáil for important votes and had asked for a meeting next week to discuss the matter.
Green TD Mary White and Independent TD Jackie Healy-Rae were among those who did not turn up.
The Government had a majority of 13 when the Taoiseach was elected in June and it should have had a majority of about 10 yesterday. Acting Fine Gael whip Dan Neville said that all the ministers abroad on business had been paired, but this did not apply to the Taoiseach, who was at the National Ploughing Championships.
"There seems to have been disarray on the Fianna Fáil benches as just 68 of a possible 89 Government TDs voted on the Government's amendment to a Fine Gael motion on the retention of the Shannon-Heathrow slots," Fine Gael transport spokesman Fergus O'Dowd said.
His Clare colleague, Pat Breen, said that if his two Fianna Fáil constituency colleagues had abstained the Government would have been forced to intervene with Aer Lingus to save the Heathrow service.
Mr Kitt put the close vote down to Fine Gael and Labour being determined to make their presence felt in the early days of this Dáil and the fact that there were so few Independents compared with the last Dáil. "The key point for me is we were in control of the situation and there were no disagreements over policy issues on our side," he added.
