Wily Spring outwits enemies in Round 1

THE names on the "no confidence" motion in the Dail yesterday may have been those of Nora Owen, Dermot Gleeson and John Bruton but Fianna Fail's real political target became Dick Spring.

It was pay back time. The man who had played avenging conscience to Fianna Fail in the dog days of 1994 and had driven that party from power was going to get his come uppance. The notion of the Labour leader's head adorning a Fianna Fail pike created delicious ripples of anticipation.

Labour saw it coming. From last week, the nature of the Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrats, plan was obvious. Political circumstances might be different - in terms of cohesion between the Government parties - but there were certain satisfying similarities between 1994 and 1996 involving competence, stupidity and an undisclosed letter.

Dick Spring, the expert on the high moral ground last time round, faced a tricky dilemma on the Judge Lynch affair. He had no choice but to support a beleaguered Minister. The alternative was surely worse. A Government defeat in a "no confidence" vote and an unthinkable general election.

Fianna Fail set the scene slowly. Even as Mr Spring jetted in from, Africa on Tuesday, Bertie Ahern and John O'Donoghue drew parallels with the events of 1994 and concluded that Mr Spring had no option but to withhold support from Mrs Owen and the Government.

John Bruton was aware of the dangers, too. The Taoiseach accused Bertie Ahern of faulty political recall and of being "in denial" over the events of 1994. The reason the Fianna Fail/Labour Party government fell, he insisted was not over a controversial letter in the Brendan Smyth case but because of a total failure of trust between the Government parties.

The explanation cut no ice with Fianna Fail. Standards had been demanded, set and implemented in 1994 which were not now being applied. Their expulsion from the Garden of Government rankled.

Just how deep the wound went became apparent when the Fianna Fail Whip stood up. John Bruton, who had promised his Government would operate "behind a pane of glass" was, Dermot Ahern said nothing but a hypocrite". Mrs Owen was "a hapless and hopeless Minister". And Dermot Gleeson had "failed in his duty".

THERE was, he suggested, a coincidence of interests involved. The Taoiseach owed his position to Mrs Owen. And the Government, would not have been formed without Mr Gleeson, who "brokered the deal" - between Mr Bruton and Mr Spring bat his private house. As a result the Taoiseach was "prepared to put his loyalty to the Attorney General and the Minister for Justice before the common good".

Then he moved to the main course: Mr Spring. The hypocrisy of the Labour Party was "breathtaking", Mr Ahern declared. "This," he said, "is the party which, through its ventriloquist leader, Fergus Finlay, lectured us about accountability and high standards. "Even if the roof was caving in on the Government, the Labour Party would do all in its power to stay in office."

Contrast the current political controversy with 1994, he invited, when "come hell or high water, Labour was going to screw Deputy Albert Reynolds and his government". Mr Ahern left it there.

Some of Labour's defensive network was already in place when Mr Spring rose to speak in the Dail. On Tuesday, he took out personal insurance by consulting fully with his Ministerial colleagues. And then he offered his complete support to Mrs Owen. That pre emptive strike seriously deflated the political potential of the special two day debate.

LAST night, the Tanaiste came out fighting. And there was a strong whiff of the "Finlay factor" in the phrases used to defend his honour and integrity. Carefully crafted prose and quarried metaphors were delivered with the usual strength and style. What he had sought in 1994, he insisted, was political accountability. And when that was refused, the Government fell. Contrast that, he invited, with Mrs Owen's "true and fair accounting" of this affair.

And yet there was a fuzzy element at the centre of Mr Spring's defence; a hole carefully and painstakingly excavated over years by Fianna Fail. This wasn't just business for them. There was an element of Sicilian vendetta in it; retribution by a party humbled and wronged and a leader laid low. In Irish terms vingence, bejasus!

In political terms, there are few things more satisfying than having your cake and eating it. And the Opposition parties find themselves in that happy position. When the inquiry into the Judge Dominic Lynch fiasco reports to the Minister for Justice next Monday, it will fuel, a second week of controversy and, recrimination.

The exchanges should spark enthusiasm for the PDs annual conference, on the following weekend, as the party prepares to take on Labour in the general election. And, if Fianna Fail's luck holds, there is, every possibility the controversy will bury Fine Gael's efforts to build public support on the strength of the bail referendum at the end of November.