Labour Senators see red over whip's poor voting record

THERE’S BLUE murder in the red corner of the Seanad at the moment, with mutiny afoot in the ranks of Labour’s Senators.

On Wednesday morning, a move will be made to oust Susan O’Keeffe as the group’s whip in the Upper House. “Battle lines are drawn now. The only thing that will prevent a motion of no confidence against the whip is if she steps down” said one Labour Senator yesterday.

Ms O’Keeffe, who stood unsuccessfully for Sligo/North Leitrim in the general election, has apparently not endeared herself to a number of colleagues, who claim she is “not a team player.”

She has the backing of the party’s leader in the Seanad, Ivana Bacik, who appointed her to the position of whip.

It seems “the straw that broke the camel’s back” came when Paul Coghlan [the Fine Gael whip] drew up a list of people’s voting records in the period between Christmas and Easter, in an effort to improve their attendance rate.

He included Labour Senators and gave that list to Susan O’Keeffe.

“We only knew about it when the Fine Gael lads told us.

“ It was a pure fluke – we just happened to see they had a list and wondered if there was one for us” the discontented Senator tells us.

“When we finally got the list, she had the worst voting record.”

We understand there is some disquiet at “her extreme liberal feminist agenda,” as our informant put it.

The Labour Senators’ group meetings sound fascinating.

We await developments.