TOMORROW night’s The Week in Politics on RTÉ 1 is doing a special programme on the Lowry and Healy-Rae deals with the last government. In it, Michael and Jackie look back on all they “delivered”, giving some new detail on where exactly the money was spent in Tipperary North and Kerry South.
Lowry expresses the view that if an Independent is supporting the government, your constituency “can expect a little extra”.
No better man than Healy-Rae when it came to extracting that little extra.
He tells with no small amount of pride about one of his many triumphs: the Lissivigeen roundabout in Killarney.
“Coming into Killarney different evenings from funerals to the east, there was no bother in the world giving 20 to 25 minutes there. You’d start queuing over at the Two Mile Inn. You can drive straight from Rathmore any evening now,” said the man in the cap.
One of the few men left standing for that former administration is Éamon Ó Cuív, who seems to have had a new lease of life since he lost the FF deputy leader’s job. Not only has he started blogging, but he made a joke in the chamber on Wednesday morning.
The Taoiseach took a little cut at Dev Óg when he asked a question that had already been raised by Micheál Martin. “I note Deputy Ó Cuív waited until his leader left before he came in here,” said Enda.
“I was here a long time before he left,” insisted Dev Óg, before harrumphing at the Taoiseach: “You should have gone to Specsavers!” Not hilarious, but coming as it did from Ó Cuív, the entire chamber nearly passed out from the laughter.
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