The Fine Gael leader has finally found a way of projecting his natural warmth and authority, writes KATHY SHERIDAN
THERE WERE folk, as we know, who sneered at the notion of Enda jetting off in the heat of an election campaign to meet the German chancellor. Trying to look prime ministerial, they sniffed.
Well, he was still at it yesterday. "I told Chancellor Merkel in Berlin . . ." he said early on to a roomful of notoriously sneery media types. Did anyone snigger? They certainly didn't. They listened with intense interest.
"I responded to the invitation from the chancellor to go and speak to her in Berlin . . ." he dropped casually, later on. Hah. So he wasn't door-stepping the chancellor then, praise the Lord.
"As you know, I meet these leaders on a regular basis at European People's Party meetings in Brussels . . ."
So Angela knew there would be no awkward silences because she
knows
Enda. In fact, Terry Prone - who seems to know a lot about the pair of them - told Pat Kenny earlier that they know one another so well, that, okay, Angela's not exactly a threat to his wife Fionnuala or anything, but the chancellor and Enda are very fond of each other.
So we might infer that Angela was indeed doing a favour for a friend. In any event, here was Enda, looking quite prime ministerial, calmly reprising how he fronted up to the German chancellor about the corporation tax rate and how the EU-IMF deal was bad for Ireland.
That was rather bold of you, said RTÉ's Fergal Keane, what did Angela say? Or did she say anything at all?
"She did," he said jauntily. Pregnant pause. "And it wasn't in German."
Some Anglo-Saxon profanity, perhaps - such as, "WTF, Enda?" (in a German accent)
He didn't say, sadly.
Anyway, he wasn't in the stately College of Physicians to discuss Angela but to launch the 80-page Fine Gael manifesto, flanked by five party spokesmen. Yep. All men. Health expert Sara Burke wondered if the gender profile on the top table was a good indicator of the gender profile Enda intended for the next government.
The answer was hardly designed to gladden female hearts despite the earlier top billing given to a German chancellor called, eh, something suspiciously female. "The reason the people are at this particular table is that they are the spokespeople in respect of the five points of the plan," explained Enda, adding: "Catherine Byrne is down there. Deirdre Clune didn't get here on time although she's on the way . . . Frances Fitzgerald's here as well . . ."
Oh, well that's all right then.
The Bash Street kids, James Reilly and Phil Hogan, were to his right, the "Feelin' lucky, punk?" expressions firmly in place. Michael Noonan sat to his left, his solemnity softened, as always, by his pronunciation and willingness to try something risky in a packed hall.
"I'm always intrigued by the phrase 'unilateral negotiation'," he ventured, "because that's a good example of ox-ymoron - if that's the way you pronounce it".
Next to him, the patrician, determined Richard Bruton, whose plans for five billion worth of public sector reform sees him once again up front and centre in the party, and - depending on the area you happen to be canvassing - not always in a good way.
And out on the left wing - rather inappropriately - sat the pale and uncharacteristically silent Leo Varadkar. Then again, no one asked him a question and, being mannerly and grown up, he wasn't going to crash anyone else's brief.
The problem for the media nerds present was that they knew the policies backwards already. Was there anything new, or completely and utterly novel at all in the document, asked Harry McGee.
Enda felt there was; something about the party's Irish language policy, which has been stirring up another rumpus around the hustings. But he's up for the fight.
"I left the section as Gaeilge here entirely as Gaeilge because there's been a bit of a row around the country for a number of weeks about Fine Gael's position on Irish policy. It's very clear there. There
is
something new in it for those who don't want to see it - and that is that we support the language very strongly and the advantages built in here will deal in many ways with what is a movement that is far more concerned with money than with language . . ." That's sure to placate the rumpled ones.
In other news, he soundly dismissed any suggestion of Michael Lowry rejoining Fine Gael, and any proposal - from the likes of Dermot Desmond and Fianna Fáil - for unelected people to serve in government. And no one was surprised to hear that 19 years on and one European court decision on abortion later, he plans to appoint an all-party committee etc etc.
That's "
if
Fine Gael are elected to government", he says, ever mindful of the "taking the electorate for granted" trap.
It's common currency now that Enda has found his stride, shaken off his handlers (apart from the redoubtable Mark Mortell), finally found a way of projecting his natural warmth and authority. It was evident again yesterday when he confidently passed economic questions to Michael Noonan. Or the wry, honest way he handled questions about the leaders' debates.
"In a way, they're like church gates - we used do all the church gate meetings years ago and if you didn't do them, you'd think you had missed something critical. But in all the church gate meetings that I ever did, I'm not sure that I converted a single soul. So I suppose the same applies in debates . . ."
And that picture of him hanging tight with Gerry Adams?
"When I arrived in the line, it was already filled despite the fact that I'd been drawn in the centre position - and he kinda jumped out at me from the side . . ."