Ministers wear glum expressions as public waits to wear hairshirt

DÁIL SKETCH:MINISTERS HAD universally glum expressions yesterday when they sat next to an equally glum Taoiseach for Opposition leaders' questions.

Brian Cowen was flanked by the three Marys (Harney, Hanafin and Coughlan) as the Opposition leaders launched some political scud missiles in advance of today’s hairshirt budget which had Labour leader Eamon Gilmore evoking the ghost of Ernest Blythe and the infamous reduction of the old age pension by a shilling.

Brian Lenihan, beavering away in the Department of Finance, was not in the chamber, but he was on Gilmore’s mind.

Castigating the Taoiseach for the breakdown of the public sector pay talks, Gilmore outlined a scenario whereby the Minister for Finance’s hidden agenda was to secure Cowen’s job.

“The bottom line, Taoiseach, is that you have a Minister for Finance who is now so anxious to get this hands on your job that he was prepared to sink this agreement . . .’’ said Gilmore.

The Taoiseach shook his head more in sorrow than in anger. The three Marys smiled. Backbenchers heckled the Labour leader.

Gilmore pressed on. The three Marys began to look glum again.

Responding to the Labour leader, Cowen spoke of how a long-term agenda to transform the public service was now available. The Government, he said, would like to re-engage on that agenda for change.

“With whom will the Government engage ?’’ asked Gilmore. The Taoiseach abandoned his reasonable tone. Clearly irritated, he warned that a failure to take appropriate measures now would “put at risk the ability to maintain present remuneration levels’’.

Gilmore again pressed the Taoiseach to say who the Government would be talking to about public sector reform.

Raising his voice, and speaking with a passion rarely seen these days, Cowen warned against public sector strikes. He urged people to look at a “positive agenda for the future’’ rather than seeking to engage in industrial action. The three Marys continued to look very glum.

Gilmore later accused the Taoiseach of rushing the Social Welfare Bill through the Dáil this week so that backbenchers could say that the tough budgetary measures were a done deal when they returned to their constituencies at the weekend.

The backbenchers smiled ruefully, knowing that they will feel the heat, irrespective of whether the Bill is passed or not.

With an eye to saving money, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny suggested that the €2,000 threshold on the value of gifts purchased by Ministers for dignitaries should be reduced. The Taoiseach replied that it was a judgment call and not an exact science. The Taoiseach and his colleagues know that by this afternoon the only gift Ministers will have for the public is a hairshirt.