Mattie goes one way, then the other to tee up solo run in Tipp

DÁIL SKETCH:MATTIE McGRATH crossed the Dáil chamber yesterday to bend the ear of Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan.

It was just after 11am, and a vote had been called on a Fine Gael amendment to defeat the Bill reducing the minimum wage at the end of the second-stage debate.

The Tipperary South TD was clearly using the lull in proceedings to talk to the Minister, his unhappiness with the measure already well known.

One did not have to be a lip reader to observe that McGrath’s overtures to the Minister were getting nowhere.

Lenihan waved his hands in an animated fashion, clearly indicating that there was no way back. McGrath returned to his seat and voted with the Government.

It seemed, despite his threats in recent weeks to vote against the Budget, that he was onside.

When TDs gathered two hours later to vote on the final stages of the Bill, there was considerable surprise that McGrath sided with the Opposition.

Last June, McGrath lost the parliamentary party whip because of his opposition to the Stag Hunting Bill. To defy the Soldiers of Destiny once would be unfortunate, but to do so a second time seemed like carelessness.

Unless, as in McGrath’s case, you are one of two Fianna Fáil TDs in the three-seat Tipperary South constituency and about to face the wrath of voters.

Job security would, inevitably, be a factor in your calculations.

Lenihan was in a combative mood when the debate got under way, rejecting a claim by Labour’s Joe Costello that he was unwilling to tax the €40 million in AIB bonuses. “It is fully taxed,’’ snapped the Minister. “The deputy cannot just come in and talk nonsense all the time.’’

Lenihan was later replaced on the Government benches by Ministers of State Martin Mansergh, a colleague of McGrath’s in Tipperary South, and Dara Calleary. They looked glum.

There was no Fianna Fáil backbencher present.

Paul Gogarty was the sole Green Party TD, working on his laptop and occasionally rising to Opposition bait. He said he agreed with an amendment, moved by Labour’s Willie Penrose, copperfastening the payment of the old minimum wage to people already in employment. However, he said he would have to vote with the Government.

Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty accused him of supporting a “morally corrupt” measure, despite his reservations.

Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar noted that even Reagan and Thatcher had not cut the minimum wage.

“This will be the first government in the history of the world to reduce the minimum wage, with the possible exception of Pinochet’s Chile,” said Varadkar.

The glum Mansergh and Calleary looked as if they had been enveloped in total darkness.

Then came the vote and the McGrath defection, with more grief for the Soldiers of Destiny. McGrath seemed set for a general election solo run in Tipperary.