Decision to go west pays off for Taoiseach's pet

FINE GAEL TD for Dublin Mid-West Derek Keating was the only deputy from outside Mayo who attended last week’s first anniversary knees-up for the Taoiseach in Castlebar.

Derek was singled out for special praise from the top table for making the arduous journey all the way from Lucan. The Taoiseach remarked that a year ago, everyone would have turned up for his party (when he still had the big Government jobs to share around.) But apart from Derek, it seems the rest of them stayed in to wash their hair on Saturday night.

Keating was instantly dubbed “Taoiseach’s pet” by the rest of his colleagues when news of his attendance at their leader’s big dinner-dance reached Leinster House.

Meanwhile, another Fine Gael bash took place during the week, and we hear some noses are out of joint as a result.

Former party chairman Tom Hayes celebrated his 60th birthday with a dinner for friends in Dax Restaurant, which is near the Dáil, on Pembroke Street.

A small group joined the TD for Tipperary South for the evening. “Oh, very select,” sniffed one parliamentary party animal who didn’t receive an invite. “It was kept very hush-hush all week. There was a bit of a guessing game going on over who was invited. I heard nothing myself. I’m a bit put out.” The favoured few included Tom’s best buddy, Clare TD Pat Breen; Olivia Mitchell; and Michael Creed. Big Phil made a grand entrance later on.

We hope there was a nice selection of fish on the menu. We see from Hayes's biography on the Fine Gael website that "he loves eating fish and his favourite is lemon sole". The biogs are fascinating. We discover Leo Varadkar "cannot survive without Diet Coke", Dublin Central's Paschal Donohoe is a fan of artist Martin Gale, Meath East TD Regina Doherty treasures a photograph of herself on her Communion Day sitting on John Bruton's knee, and Brendan Griffin of Kerry South "doesn't consider himself much of a singer, but when forced he can do a rendition of My Lovely Horse".