Mr Michael Noonan's demotion of his leadership rival, Mr Enda Kenny, was the major surprise of an otherwise conservative Fine Gael front-bench reshuffle announced yesterday.
Mr Noonan retained the services of six of Mr John Bruton's strongest supporters in his new team, which, he said, "needs to be unified across the fault line" created by the heave against the ousted leader.
However, Mr Kenny claimed yesterday his demotion sent out "the message that you shouldn't contest democratic decisions to be made by the Fine Gael party". Mr Noonan, who defeated Mr Kenny for the leadership, insisted there was "no personal animus" involved in the decision.
Mr Noonan fulfilled his promise to reduce the front bench from the 23-member team appointed by Mr Bruton. However, with 16 full members and a further four appointed to posts involving regular attendance at front-bench meetings, the promised cull has turned out to be modest. The front bench is dominated by long-serving deputies and its members have an average of 15 years' Dail experience each.
The five promoted are Mr Michael Creed, Mr Dinny McGinley, Ms Olivia Mitchell, Mr Gerry Reynolds and Mr Paul Bradford. Those dropped are Mr Kenny, Ms Nora Owen, Mr Bernard Allen, Mr Paul Connaughton, Ms Avril Doyle and Mr Denis Naughten. Mr John Bruton and Mr Ivan Yates chose not to serve. Senator Maurice Manning and Mr Phil Hogan have been left off the front bench, but retain other responsibilities.
At the press conference yesterday announcing the new team, Mr Noonan distanced himself from the controversy over who paid for the private poll commissioned by supporters of Mr Jim Mitchell. Mr Mitchell said he now knew the identity of the 20 people he says paid for the poll, but would not say last night who they were.
The new system of appointing two TDs as juniors to each front-bench member will allow Mr Noonan give positions to 49 of the party's 53 deputies. It was announced last night that Ms Owen will be a junior spokeswoman for foreign affairs while Mr Paul Connaughton and Mr Seymour Crawford will be junior spokesmen for agriculture. It was not clear last night if Mr Kenny would serve as a junior spokesman.