Dáil Sketch/Marie O'Halloran: The Dáil chamber was a rather perfumed place yesterday. There was a whiff of dictatorship and more than a scent of resentment. Resentment was the first offering of the day and no better man to express it with sarcastic humour than Labour leader Pat Rabbitte.
The Opposition was not impressed at being given less than four hours' notice of emergency health insurance legislation that was rushed through the Dáil and Seanad late on Wednesday night.
The Labour man asked if the Order of Business, where the Dáil's agenda is set for the day, was the real deal. "We were transparently furnished with an Order of Business yesterday that was fraudulent," because they got another one later. "Can we rely on this as the real Order of Business?" he asked.
It was real, insisted Tánaiste Michael McDowell, rejecting any notion that "fraudulence or sleight of hand was involved".
Resentment appeared to be the dish of the day as the Opposition were put out that a series of Bills was being guillotined. Fine Gael's Liam Twomey criticised a decision that legislation to be taken today on the ethical behaviour of doctors was being stopped after 3½ hours. "For the protection of the country's patients I want a proper discussion on the Bill. We have waited 30 years for this legislation," he said.
Labour's Liz McManus said it was the most important legislation introduced by a Minister for Health. Mary Harney intervened when the Medical Council was mentioned and asked the deputy's view. The Labour spokeswoman said the Minister always interrupted and didn't listen.
That started heckling from all sides. Ms McManus kept talking as the barracking got louder. "Speech, speech, speech," declared Paddy McHugh as he asked the Leas Ceann Comhairle "can I have the next 20 minutes?" The talk continued and only the occasional word could be heard of the Labour deputy's comments.
Eventually she finished her less than brief contribution to the palpable relief of all sides. When the Green Party's John Gormley stood and said "I'll be brief" there were cheers all around and Minister Brian Cowen quipped "that's a first". The Green party TD also criticised the guillotining of legislation and later protested energetically in a row over the arrest of journalist Mick McCaffrey.
Michael McDowell insisted that he had no hand, act or part in the arrest, that the secretary general had independently decided to make a complaint. As the Opposition cited controversies where the only people who got arrested were journalists, Deputy Gormley opined that "if Watergate had happened in this country, Bernstein and Woodward might have been arrested".
He added: "There is a whiff of dictatorship coming from the benches opposite."
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny noted that the Tánaiste "was involved in every story this week, except for the collapse of the Italian government". It was hard to tell if he was outraged or envious.