Swords not quite in scabbards yet, but nearly. Leinster House is living in Limbo – neither in nor out, with everyone all over the place.
The Taoiseach seems ridiculously relaxed for a man presiding over the biggest bailout since Brian Cowen called in the Troika. Although in the case of Simon Harris the loss of over half his sitting TDs in advance of a general election is more of a Fine Gael local difficulty than a national disaster. When he finally sends up the flare over the 33rd Dáil the stampede to the lifeboats will be epic. “Women and Junior Ministers first!”
But if this is a cause for concern he certainly wasn’t showing it when business resumed this week.
In the chamber the sting was gone from Government and Opposition exchanges. Last week’s dramatic scenes, when Sinn Féin was on the ropes for brushing under the carpet the real reason its Seanad leader resigned last year, were not revisited. The party’s self-serving response when informed that Niall Ó Donghaile sent inappropriate messages to a teenager was not addressed again despite an attempt from Fine Gael’s Ciaran Cannon to keep the controversy on the boil.
Instead it was Mary Lou McDonald who had to come in and confront the issue for the second week in a row now that her party could no longer ignore the fact that the youth who received the messages was 16 years old at the time and not 17, as Sinn Féin spokespeople had continued to insist despite reports to the contrary.
When he confirmed this to the Sunday Independent the first thing Mary Lou did before starting Leaders’ Questions was to apologise on the record for giving “the wrong information” about the young person’s age.
The wrong one, it seems, was on the application form he filled out to join Ógra Sinn Féin, and the party leader apologised to him and his mother. Not a GUBU moment but a FUSA moment, with a Sinn Féin leader deviating from the traditional approach to deliver a “Full, Unequivocal, Sincere Apology”.
The Government and other Opposition spokespeople left it that. The events of the past few weeks are in the public domain, and it was enough to just leave it out there.
A short time later a brief procedural motion on the selection and appointment of committee chairpersons was tabled by Sinn Féin chief whip Padraig MacLachlainn, and agreed on the nod by the handful of deputies present. There had been dark mutterings by opponents last week over the party’s intention to replace their Public Accounts Committee chair Brian Stanley, who resigned recently in confusingly controversial circumstances, with his erstwhile colleague Mairead Farrell. Would they block it? Not a peep out of anyone.
Cannon tried to return to the saga of the former Senator Ó Donghaile. “The reputation of this institution is at stake,” cried Ciaran, going a bit overboard on the melodrama. The Ceann Comhairle ruled him out of order.
The Taoiseach said nothing after McDonald issued her apology before moving on to the dire financial situation facing student nurses and midwives. They had a courteous discussion and Mary Lou hoped he would adopt Sinn Féin’s proposal for a €3,000 student bursary, “not least because we will be heading into elections very soon”.
“I’m glad you picked up on my election hints anyway. I thought they were very subtle,” interjected Simon. “There goes the surprise!” Even Mary Lou had to laugh.
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns outlined her party’s housing policy. Her party wants to be in government to implement it.
“I’m interested in what you’re saying now because you’ve set out your stall if you are to be in the next government. Well, if I’m to be in the next government the Help to Buy scheme is staying,” said the Taoiseach, setting out his stall nice and early. If the Social Democrats want to get rid of it “fair play, that’s your position. But I will not go into government with anybody who doesn’t keep it.”
Richard O’Donoghue of the Rural Independents had the interests of Co Limerick to the fore, an area neglected by Cabinet Ministers who all “come from the one base” and don’t give country people “a fair shake”.
The Ministers in his own constituency were not up to much, he implied, referring to “the junior and now the senior since you stepped down”.
“When I stepped up, I think is what you meant,” said Simon. Mattie McGrath couldn’t resist. “It’s like Lanigan’s ball. He stepped out, and I stepped in.”
The junior and the senior would be Minister for Higher Education Patrick O’Donovan and Minister of State Niall Collins, and they both advocate in government for their area, said the Taoiseach.
O’Donoghue begs to differ, believing that all his part of the country ever gets is false promises.
That’s not what Simon Harris sees on regular visits, and he intends “to visit very regularly shortly”.
And they both looked forward to bringing their argument to the people.
Richard’s fellow Rural Independent Mattie is only rarin’ to go too. “Bring it on anois!” Although he was unhappy with the Taoiseach going back on his promise not to hold the election until next year.
“Now we will have a trapeze act with yourself and the Tánaiste and Minister Roderic O’Gorman pulling the curtain together – only one might pull it faster than the other – the curtain on this House. When it is going to be finished after all your machinations? You should be in the circus, I think, rather than here.”
He said Opposition TDs were having a terrible time with the rushed legislation and guillotines and refusing to let people talk and sure “you won’t look after them in any way, shape or form. You won’t even give a date so they can vote you in or out, and now you want to muzzle them…So I think it’s time that you went to the country, it’s time you got off your trapeze and pulled the curtain and let us off.”
The Taoiseach was confused.
One day Mattie is demanding an election and the next he is “very upset” that there might be an election because everything is getting rushed. “But I mean, there will be a general election shortly.”
“Give us the date!” pleaded Danny Healy-Rae.
“You’re here long enough to know that is not how it works at all. But we’ve made it very clear: we pass the Finance Bill and there’ll be an election, it will take place this year and it’ll be on a Friday,” said Simon. “Now it doesn’t take a genius to work that out.”
Danny was on it. “The 29th!”
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