Dail Sketch:The misery, and mystery, goes on and on ... and on . . . The long election-campaign-in-all-but-name continues until at least April 24th, before the election "proper" begins. Or so it would seem.
Tánaiste Michael McDowell told the Dáil on Wednesday, and repeated it yesterday as the House adjourned for the Easter recess, that the Oireachtas would return on Tuesday, April 24th.
An auspicious date is April 24th. On that date exactly five years ago, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern slipped quietly into the Dáil at about 9pm and as the adjournment debates ended he uttered the magic words to a virtually empty chamber that he had made an appointment to see the President. Cue three-week campaign and election.
So for analysts, pundits and tea-leaf readers, the date could be significant. Then again it might not. After all, Bertie has since informed people on numerous occasions that he intends to see out his full five years in office.
If he remains true to that date, we're into June. At least it will be June before an election but the date will be named in May.
Thus the possible combinations and permutations that inspire a Taoiseach to call an election are so many that to predict the correct date is like predicting when the first corncrake of summer will be seen and heard. The "put-us-out-of-our-misery" feeling was perhaps best spelled out yesterday by Green Party finance spokesman Dan Boyle, who asked "why we should bother coming back after the Easter recess. The Dáil has reached the end of its natural life. It's time to go to the people."
There are others who believe the Dáil will not be back after Easter. One observer pointed to the financial considerations and the requirement that from the moment the election is called, parties must account for every penny spent.
So in theory Bertie could upset Fine Gael by calling time before their pre-election poster campaign, launched yesterday, is finished. Fianna Fáil launched a three-week poster campaign the day after its ardfheis which would bring it to April 15th.
That might upset Tánaiste Michael McDowell, who surprised the Opposition by agreeing to a proposal to defer the final stages of the hugely controversial Criminal Justice Bill, to which he is committed, until the return date of April 24th.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the Dáil should come back a week earlier on April 17th and 18th for a full two-day debate on the issue.
It would be wrong to rush it through the way it was, he pointed out. Other opposition parties agreed.
And the Minister, modest man that he is, modestly pointed out that he has been reasonable at all points. He would be willing to devote the first day of the returned Dáil to the final stages of the Bill "on one condition", he emphasised.
And that was that "we get the business done that day and deputies do not engage in the usual antics in respect of guillotines and mock posturing on that subject".
"It's called parliamentary democracy," suggested Labour's Ruairí Quinn.
The Tánaiste told them the other option was that he would finish the Bill yesterday, bring it to the Seanad and then return it to the Dáil for a final look.
"I am being reasonable. If others are willing to play ball, that's fine, but I'm not willing to have the worst of both worlds."
Enda pointed out that the Tánaiste "doesn't know whether the Taoiseach intends to dissolve the Dáil on April 24th".
There was some verbal jostling over what the proposal was until the fairly placid Tánaiste warned that "there is no point playing the gom".
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte could see no reason for not resuming on April 17th "other than to free up the Taoiseach to wander the highways and byways for 20 days, canvassing unimpededly". "And yourself," said the Tánaiste.
When Dan Boyle spoke of the natural end of the Dáil, the Tánaiste suggested "no one is keeping members in the House who no longer have an appetite for doing business. They can go wherever they want." Quick as a flash, Pat quipped: "that's no way to refer to the Taoiseach".