Call of the corncrake takes Bertie's mind off horseplay in the Dail

Dail Sketch: Nobody can accuse this Government of not being kind to animals. Its benevolence to horses is of course famous. But there was a reminder yesterday that two-legged creatures have benefited as well.

It came during questions on Northern Ireland, when Trevor Sargent illustrated that while the North's human communities remain as bitterly divided as Ian Paisley's ears, developments in the natural world are more encouraging.

Quoting the latest issue of Wings, the magazine of Birdwatch Ireland, the Green Party leader announced that for the first time in six years, the corncrake has been heard in Drumcree. News that made Bertie Ahern blush with pride.

In his 1993 budget, the Taoiseach said, he attracted "ridicule" by allocating money to a group promoting corncrake-friendly farming in Border areas. Vindication had taken a while, he added, but it was no less welcome. And as he stood there, under a halo, it struck observers that when they finally add his portrait to the walls of Leinster House, he will be painted like St Francis, with a bird in one hand, and a horse eating oats out of the other.

It's people who don't understand him. Notwithstanding the success of his ten-year plan for cross-Border corncrakes, Fine Gael continued to pour scorn on his similarly long-term vision for hospitals, as represented in the Hanly report. And Labour accused his Government of having four-legged friends in high places, while relegating welfare recipients in the list of priorities.

Clearly stung by Labour's calculated horseplay, the Taoiseach counter-attacked yesterday. There was little to be gained from targeting Pat Rabbitte, the horses in whose constituency are mostly piebald, and unlike to win any Government-subsidised prizes. So he concentrated on another Labour TD, Emmet Stagg, who lives in racing's heartland. Accusing him of "trying, single-handedly, to close the racing industry in Kildare," the Taoiseach pointed out that there were 25,000 jobs involved, many of them around the Curragh. Maybe Mr Stagg's indifference to the industry stemmed from his having no support there, suggested Mr Ahern. A point cheerfully confirmed by Mr Stagg, who quipped: "Magnier doesn't vote for me anyway" [undoubtedly true, since John Magnier lives in Tipperary].

Apart from corncrakes, the good news for the Government is that there have been no Cabinet leaks for over a week now. Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin thought he smelled one from under the door of a meeting held in September between the Taoiseach, two Ministers, and senior executives of Shell Oil, over the Corrib gasfield.

But Mr Ahern insisted there had been no deals done with Shell and that all the Government's decisions were, like natural gas, odourless, colourless, and completely transparent.

It was impossible to ignore the emissions from Kildare, however. Paraphrasing the Taoiseach's claim to be a "left-of-centre" politician, Pat Rabbitte suggested the only centre he was left of was the €15 million one in Punchestown.

The Taoiseach now has to worry about Kildare, where his enemies are waiting in the short grass.