Coughlan in lonely place as Opposition tees up more awkward questions

DÁIL SKETCH:Fianna Fáil was on its own and Ministers and backbenchers were in sombre mood

THE TURMOIL within Fianna Fáil was reflected on the Government benches when the Dáil met yesterday morning.

Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, who was taking the Order of Business, was joined by three Ministers, four Ministers of State and seven backbenchers. All bore sombre expressions, as the Opposition again focused on the infamous game of golf and dinner in Druids Glen in July 2008. No one from the Green Party was present. Fianna Fáil was on its own, and it seemed a lonely place.

As rumours circulated that Taoiseach Brian Cowen was about to be clubbed to political death, golf inevitably featured in the Dáil exchanges.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny noted that the Taoiseach’s golf partner, Seán FitzPatrick, had said publicly on a number of occasions that his favourite sources of investment advice were the Financial Times website and Economist – but “for the real McCoy one cannot beat the 19th hole on the golf course”.

The Tánaiste did not respond.

Labour’s Kathleen Lynch suggested the need for a gender balance on the golf course.

“As a woman, does she feel she should take up golf,” asked Lynch. “It is clearly where the power is.”

The Tánaiste smiled.

Coughlan, a Cowen loyalist, was clearly irritated by the attempts by Kenny, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore and Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin to score political points on the issue.

Attempting to move it off the parliamentary fairway, she said: “The Taoiseach dealt with this matter yesterday and I will not add to it. End of story.”

But the Opposition continued to demand a sequel.

Gilmore wanted to know about the timetable for legislation between now and the general election. “This matter was outlined by the Taoiseach yesterday,” snapped Coughlan. “He indicated that once the Finance Bill was completed in the spring of this year, the dissolution of the House would occur.”

Labour’s Michael D Higgins attempted to be helpful. “When the Taoiseach hears the first cuckoo, he will call the general election,” he said.

Fine Gael’s James Reilly, conscious of the rumours of an imminent heave against the Taoiseach, remarked: “Is that before or after he has gone cuckoo?”

Ó Caoláin, who encountered the Taoiseach with his dinner companions in Druids Glen on that fateful July evening, demanded that Cowen and Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan come before the House and make “a clean breast” of all they knew in advance of the bank bailout.

“The deputy could do that himself,” observed Fianna Fáil’s Seán Power from deep on the Government backbenches. It was the only backbench swipe at the Opposition.

Later, Minister for Health Mary Harney and Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews were the only presence on the Government benches for health questions.

By then, Fianna Fáil had gathered for its postponed parliamentary party meeting on the fifth floor against a background of electoral health warnings from a succession of opinion polls.