John Deasy fought the law - and lost. Sacked from the Fine Gael front bench after smoking in the Dáil bar, the Waterford TD now faces the prospect of a prolonged period on the back benches.
A restless politician with an appetite for publicity, he is unlikely to be silenced by his demotion. But will anyone be listening? The justice job in Fine Gael gave him an audience. Now he is just another TD - but without a portfolio and with a career that has taken a serious turn for the worse.
At 36, Deasy is the angry young man in a Dáil of few young men and not a lot of anger. He may have been seen as a candidate for Cabinet in a future Rainbow coalition, but his open defiance of the smoking ban led many yesterday to question his judgement.
After all, basic political nous demands that an ambitious TD must always think of the consequences when contemplating action.
The sacking was inevitable, for no party which aims to be strong on law and order can stand by when its pretender to the Minister for Justice chooses to break the law. There was a consensus yesterday that Enda Kenny had no choice but to fire him.
The incident was the culmination of a testy relationship between the Fine Gael leader and his front-bencher. Deasy was already on borrowed time, having survived in his job last July when he disobeyed the party whip to vote with the Government.
He implicitly questioned the abilities of his own front-bench colleagues by calling for changes in the line-up, and criticised his party for failing to develop a clear political identity. Still, Deasy himself was forced to apologise after he received a severe drubbing on the floor of the Dáil by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell.
Deasy has made no secret of his frustration with the structures and rhythms of life in the Dáil. But, while he was never averse to the grandstanding political gesture, his smoking in the Dáil has raised major issues about his credibility in grown-up politics.
First, he voted for the ban on the floor of the Dáil. In addition, smoking in the bar led to a confrontation with bar staff who were merely doing their job.
Engaged to marry the TV3 news reporter, Ms Maura Derrane, Deasy is the son of former Fine Gael TD Austin Deasy. After a 10-year stint working in the US, he entered Waterford County Council in 1999, and was elected to the Dáil in 2002. He was courted to join the PDs by Michael McDowell but insisted he was not interested. He immediate successor on the Fine Gael front bench, Jim O'Keeffe TD, said yesterday that the time had come to concentrate on order. There was enough law, he said. Deasy might agree, even if he feels the smoking ban is like something out of the school rulebook.
