The FF kebabs are whispering again; Cuffe doesn’t tweet out of turn; Yates tunes in to new career, perhaps; Minister for Hardship gets fiscal; Stagg wants to make a hash of it; Plane silly business in Shannon; Portrait of an artist leaving Dáil bar; More to Norris than this . . .
THINGS ARE very quiet in Fianna Fáil at the moment. Very quiet. This is seen as an ominous sign in some quarters.
“He’s no idea what’s going on,” one backbencher told us during the week. “He” is Brian Cowen.
Certainly, it seems like the “kebabs”, as Bertie Ahern so memorably called them, may be back in the party. Little huddles, or cabals, of whispering Fianna Fáilers were all over the place.
There didn’t seem to be any major problems with the Budget. Until they return to their constituencies and test the water, deputies aren’t sure what the overall reaction will be from voters. At least, they consoled themselves, they were spared the vicious onslaught that happened immediately after Lenihan’s first budget.
But names are being mentioned. Some crop up almost all the time – but they are mostly the names of the disaffected. Those who have been passed over for preferment or who have fallen out of favour. Nobody will go on the record. But privately, jittery deputies point to the defection of councillors around the country, the dreadful opinion poll ratings and the Taoiseach’s poor media image. Leadership style is also mentioned.
Brian Cowen has a country in crisis to run. He can’t be taking off around the country, opening pubs and community halls every week, the way Bertie did.
Yet, his lack of visibility around the country worries deputies, who would like to see a leader coming down and putting manners on dissidents.
There was an angry outburst from Cork’s Ned O’Keeffe at Tuesday’s parliamentary party meeting, but this was more to do with his views on the banks and the Government’s reliance on economists. Meanwhile, Ministers of State who met the Taoiseach for a pre-Budget session on Monday were stunned when Brian Cowen asked them to submit their resignations in order to give him “a free hand”.
They had expected their positions and salaries to be discussed, but the blanket request to resign floored them.
Meanwhile, Minister of State John McGuinness, who told local radio in Kilkenny that the two Brians had made a mess of their previous budget, pulled out of TV3’s Budget special. Like others, he may be keeping a low profile until the new jobs are handed out. On Tuesday evening, in a quiet corner of the Shelbourne Hotel, a group of Fianna Fáil deputies were having a quiet chat. They left when a journalist entered.
The Easter break will be very welcome for all concerned. Fianna Fáil’s deputies and Senators, if their constituents let them, will be able to enjoy a nicer kind of quiet.
Cuffe all a-twitter
Ciarán “Tweety-Pie” Cuffe was all of a twitter on Budget Day.
As Lenihan read his statement, the Green Party’s spokesman on justice was busy on his mobile phone, tweeting juicy titbits from the Budget to his followers on the web-based message service Twitter.
A half an hour into the speech, Tweety-Pie’s thumbs began to twitch. “Income levies of 2%, 4% or 6% kicking in at €15k, €75k €175k,” he wrote.
Three minutes later, he dispatched a line about property-related acceleration capital schemes.
Six minutes on, and Cuffe was tweeting, “National Asset Management Agency to take over €90bn of loans instead of Zombie banks.”
There were just two more tweets, one about VAT changes on second-hand cars and the other about intellectual property.
Despite his colleague Mary White declaring the Budget had “Green fingerprints” all over it, nothing else in the package seemed to grab Ciarán’s attention.
Oireachtas authorities will be relieved to know that Tweety-Pie Cuffe didn’t tweet out of turn. He sent each message after Brian Lenihan had disclosed the information.
In the interests of confidentiality, deputies were told they couldn’t take their copy of the Budget from the chamber until the speech was over. Yet if they wanted to disclose some of the measures before the Minister, there was nothing to stop them tweeting, texting or sending e-mails from their seats.
Cuffe, meanwhile, didn’t unburden himself again until 12.09am: “After midnight and we’re still voting on bludget [that’s a blogger’s in-joke] resolutions.”
Fascinating.
We checked Tweety-Pie’s Twitter page yesterday. Just one more breathless entry. “Hoping
to make it along to Ruairi’s guerilla gardening on Easter Monday at Booterstown Dart Station at noon.”
Pinching the silver
A cutlery problem has arisen in Leinster House. It seems that visitors to the Members’ Restaurant are stealing the spoons for souvenirs. Salt cellars are another prize item for the memento brigade.
Ladies groups are the main suspects – into the handbags, and nobody is any the wiser.
YouTube battles
Pat Rabbitte’s cheeky swipe at the Green Party during Wednesday’s Budget debate ruffled a lot of compassionately farmed feathers among the junior partners in government.
Labour gleefully put the video of Pat in full flow on YouTube.
The Green Party retaliated, posting up John Gormley’s speech later in the afternoon, when he hit back at Rabbitte.
Younger activists in both parties then took their argument on to the web, and in one case, the popular website, Maman Poulet. In the early hours of Thursday morning, Damian from the Greens posted: “We’ll be picking up tomorrow on at least three of Rabbitte’s inaccurate comments amongst the pun-laden, puerile crock of crap that made up the rest of his speech.”
The broadside continued:
“If they want to steal our voters (if opportunistic MEP candidates aren’t enough for them) they’re not really approaching it very well.”
This is a reference to Nessa Childers, who defected from the party to run for Labour in Ireland East.
A reply winged its way from Labour campaign worker, Keith: “Oooh, Green Party is getting touchy on this one! Didn’t you steal that MEP candidate from us first? “They just came back home.”
Ivor and out
Rumour is rife in Dublin North Central that Senator Ivor “the engine” Callely will hang up his boots after the next election and ride into the political sunset.
Tireless self-promoter and former FF junior minister, Ivor lost out to Finian McGrath when the constituency went down to a three seater. He was appointed to the Seanad by Bertie Ahern after he failed to win a seat on the industrial and commercial panel.
Now, the word around Leinster House is that Ivor’s son Ronan is being considered by party headquarters as a possible local election candidate. He would be the replacement for Lord Mayor of Dublin Eibhlin Byrne, who has been chosen to contest the European elections alongside sitting MEP Eoin Ryan.
We contacted a rather startled Ronan yesterday. “I’m not exactly sure what the situation is at the moment,” he said, declining to confirm whether he has been interviewed by headquarters. “Maybe you should talk to my Dad.”
Ivan ambition
Former Fine Gael minister Ivan Yates has been carving out quite a career for himself as a political pundit and radio presenter.
Already a successful bookie, we understand that the affable Wexfordman is about to take the plunge and front his own daily radio show on Newstalk.
Full details have yet to emerge, but Ivan, who is a regular stand-in for drivetime host George Hook, is set to join the staff shortly.
Station chief executive Frank Cronin didn’t want to comment yesterday when asked if Ivan was about to join the station. “There are many things possible,” he said rather cryptically.
But where will Ivan go? What slot will he be given? Check out the odds at Celtic Bookmakers – they might have the word from the horse’s mouth.
We’re poor, it’s Richie
The sight of Richie Ryan, aka The Minister for Hardship, sent a shiver down a few old spines in Leinster House on Budget Day. Former Fine Gael finance minister Richie, who battled a recession when he held the job back in the 1970s, looked hale and hearty as he was welcomed by friends from all parties. He was met by deputies Charlie Flanagan and Brian Hayes, and doubtless, gave the whippersnappers some advice on matters fiscal.
Stone me, Stagg
How times have changed. Labour’s Emmet Stagg suggested in the Dáil on Tuesday that cannabis should be legalised. Nobody batted an eyelid. (Mind you, hardly anyone was in the chamber at the time.)
Emmet loves his ciggies, and thinks smokers are a persecuted race. “The Government should respect the one million smokers in the country and not denigrate them at every turn,” he huffed to the House. “They are good cash cows for revenue and should be treated with respect and not as the Government usually treats them in this House.
“I also suggest the Minister consider legalising cannabis and taxing it in the same way as cigarettes. The Government might then be able to meet some of the other costs it has that it has not been able to meet because cannabis is nearly as widely used as tobacco and alcohol, despite the best efforts of the authorities to prevent it.”
Return ticket, please
Fianna Fáil young blood Timmy Dooley is a man in a hurry. There are no flies on the deputy from Clare. The affable Timmy likes nothing better than to sit up the back with the party hard-chaws during Leaders’ Questions, heckling Enda Kenny.
During a recent exchange, Fine Gael chief whip Paul Kehoe silenced Dooley with a well-aimed barb – something to do with Pat Breen wiping his eye.
What did this mean? It had to do with the return of the Aer Lingus Shannon/Heathrow route, which was a matter of much celebration in Co Clare. Indeed, we recall getting a press release from the Fianna Fáil press office, telling us that Timmy himself would be boarding the inaugural flight in Shannon on Sunday, March 30th, to officially mark the occasion.
Meanwhile, his Fine Gael constituency rival, Pat Breen, discovered the first flight on the reconstituted route would depart from from London. He travelled by Ryanair to Gatwick the night before and caught the Shannon flight back from Heathrow the following day.
When he landed in Clare, Pat was first off the plane with the former Mayor of Shannon, Seán McLoughlin. They arrived in the terminal building to cheers from the flight crew and ground staff, who had lined up to greet them, along with airport workers.
And in the corner, with his little overnight bag in his hand and a crestfallen expression on his face, was Timmy Dooley, waiting for his flight to Heathrow.
Fingleton makes way
Another hanging offence. We hear that the photograph hanging on the wall in the Members’ Bar, showing a happy Michael Fingleton with members of the Oireachtas golf society, has been quietly removed from its spot since we mentioned it a few weeks ago. Did the Government press secretary make a call?
Donohoe’s dash
One of the big questions after the Fine Gael Ardfheis was: how did Senator Paschal Donohoe manage to be first to reach the party leader’s shoulder after he finished his keynote address? Paschal was seated in the middle of the second row. Apparently, deputies Leo Varadkar and Brian Hayes agreed to move their chairs aside as the speech reached its climax, thus leaving a small gap.
Speed was the last thing on deputy PJ Sheehan’s mind during the televised question and answer sessions in the afternoon. Speakers sat in an informal arrangement of armchairs, but who sat where, and when, was down to a strict rota. This didn’t stop 73-year-old PJ. He gave security the slip, managed somehow to climb up on to the stage, and settled comfortably into one of the armchairs while the live session continued apace and the backroom boys tore their hair out.
Norris wants notices
David Norris was giving out again on Thursday about nobody paying a blind bit of notice to the Seanad, and more importantly, to the pearls of oratorical brilliance and searing insights that fall from his lips. “If I am permitted to be heard by being reported,” he said sulkily, “I wish to point out that I initiated and ran successfully two businesses in this city for many years, yet in many quarters I seem to be heard only if I am talking about James Joyce or buggery, and I am fed up to my back teeth with it. Ooops.
And finally...
Finally, some wisdom for Easter time from Seanad leader Donie Cassidy. “Senator Donohoe mentioned this historic week, Holy Week, the week the good Lord brought us all back to the possibility of another life. As Jim Reeves said, ‘This world is not my home; I’m just a-passing through’.”