Dáil sketch: Richard Bruton navigates lonely furrow in absence of ploughing championship colleagues

All political roads yesterday led to the National Ploughing Championships in Co Laois.

And so it was that Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton had to plough a lonely furrow on the Government benches when he stood in for Opposition Leaders' Questions. He was the only Minister present, although he had considerable vocal back-up from Government backbenchers.

He had a lot of documentation in front of him in anticipation of what the Opposition might raise.

Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald, repeating her party's call for the abolition of water charges, wondered if Minister for Finance Michael Noonan had gone dancing.

This was a reference to Noonan’s withering rebuke on Tuesday when he said Sinn Féin putting down a red-line issue was “like an old fellow walking up and down the boundaries of the Ballroom of Romance saying he won’t dance with any of those women there”.

McDonald wondered if he was off “wooing some unsuspecting cailín to waltz with him”.

“Not you,” said a voice from the Government backbenches.

"It's all about taking business-class flights," said Labour's Eric Byrne, referring to the Sinn Féin deputy leader's travel arrangements during a recent visit to Australia.

Pension reserve fund

Bruton sang to Noonan’s tune when he repeated the Minister for Finance’s assertion that Sinn Féin opposed everything: “Its proposals would have spent our capital fund, that is, the National Pension Reserve Fund, in the very first couple of years.”

McDonald wondered how next month’s budget could be neutral when water charges were being imposed. She suggested the neutral budget rhetoric was simply a camouflage for more pain for low- and middle- income families.

It was Bruton's turn to reply but Fine Gael backbencher Ray Butler felt he should first impart some travel advice to McDonald. "Do not fly business class to Australia," he said.

Ceann Comhairle Seán Barrett, a TD since the early 1980s and a former minister, had some advice for Butler.

“Allow the Minister to reply,” he said. “The deputy might be a minister some day if he keeps his head.”

Bruton insisted the Government had adopted a “prudent” approach to the economy and people were now seeing the benefits.

“By charging people for water,” said McDonald, shaking her head.

Health services

Bruton also took questions from Fianna Fáil’s

Dara Calleary

on the health services and on US foreign policy from Independent

Mick Wallace

.

The Minister engaged in a verbal foxtrot when Calleary referred to the worsening waiting lists. "I will take no lectures from Fianna Fáil on the issue of health reform," said Bruton. "Deputy Calleary's leader committed in 2004 that he would eliminate waiting lists."

Job done, Bruton waltzed off having politically danced with precision.

Later, TDs met their local GPs on Kildare Street, as doctors protested publicly about pay and conditions outside the Dáil for the first time in the State’s history.

But all Oireachtas members privately agreed that the best gig was the ploughing championships.