DÁIL SKETCH:THE WIND died down in the Budget storm and the politicians were quiet. It was a case of Listless in Leinster House all afternoon as deputies and Senators anticipated a sleepless night in front of the telly, writes Miriam Lord
Oh, how they love elections when it isn't their necks that are on the line. With the American election count just hours away, TDs were like toddlers on Christmas Eve, full of the joys of what the early morning might bring. And consequently, fit for nothing.
No point in the Opposition putting on a big show yesterday. Their big hitters knew they would be fighting for column inches and airtime with the next president of the United States, no matter what they said. They knew it would be an uneven contest and decided to keep their powder dry until the height of Obama mania is past.
As for the Taoiseach, he was so dull during Leaders' Questions there was a very real danger he might be stumbled upon by a passing astronomer and declared a black hole.
Enda Kenny stuck with the economy, his question proving only marginally less boring than Brian Cowen's reply. In an effort to inject a little liveliness into the unfolding snoozeathon, the Fine Gael leader wondered if the Two Brians were drifting apart.
The Taoiseach, as Enda had it, was standing by the Budget figures, while his Minister for Finance was going around saying there would have to be more cutbacks.
"Is this evidence of a split?" Last week, such a prospect would have had the hacks belting out of the gallery in order to see how far the wedge could be driven. The entire place would have been in a ferment of speculation.
Nobody was bothered yesterday. Enda only said it to show willing.
Even the protesters stayed away. You'd miss the crowds howling outside the gates.
It was supposed to be the farmers this week. No reason, except everybody around Leinster House was of the opinion that it was agriculture's turn in the post-Budget protest queue. Have they lost their slot now?
Earlier in the afternoon, Shanghai Batt (recently returned from the Orient after he was press-ganged on to an airplane and woke up in China as Brian Cowen's stand-in) suffered a slight reversal of fortunes. The Minister for Education has impressed with his handling of the Budget cuts in his department, steadfastly holding the line in the face of stern opposition.
However, thanks to some adroit questioning from Fine Gael's Brian Hayes, Batt was forced into conceding that the measures would lead to the loss of far more than the 200 teachers he had originally stated. Nearer to the primary teachers' figure of 1,000, it seems. Although last night, Shanghai Batt was still insisting that his numbers are right.
Speaking of figures, over on Merrion Street, the word from the mandarins was not good.
This month's exchequer returns show we are now in the red by €11 billion. Luckily for the Government, the story would be swamped by the election of the 44th president of the USA.
God Bless America.