Opposition caught out as sunny Enda cancels hols

DÁIL SKETCH:They heckled and made demands – and were stunned when the Taoiseach acquiesced

ENDA STARED into the abyss – and then retreated. He saw the landmine, almost too late. But just in time he avoided comparisons, again, with Fianna Fáil. And it was hard to know who was more shocked, his own backbenchers or the Opposition.

It would have been a major miscalculation, shutting down the Dáil for almost two weeks. But the situation turned into a bona fide coup for the Taoiseach. And rather than egg on his face, it was the smile of the victor at a stunned Opposition – and Government backbenchers.

There was a gobsmacked reaction when after Opposition demands that the Dáil sit next week, the Taoiseach said “okay we’ll sit at 10.30am next Wednesday and 10.30am next Thursday”. TDs on both sides had been shouting each other down, heckling and hectoring. But when Enda said the Dáil would sit for the two days, there was an infinitesimal pause in the noise (cue shell-shocked TDs on all sides) and then Government and Opposition roared at each other again.

“There you are now, that’s what you get.” But there were lots of unhappy campers and there can be no doubt that a number of TDs had booked holidays.

The Dáil timetable for the year had listed that the House would not be in session next week, school mid-term.

The House had been due to sit today. On Tuesday a schedule for a three-day Dáil week had been circulated. Then yesterday it changed. And the proposal the Taoiseach put to the House was that the Dáil would go into recess from yesterday until Tuesday, November 8th, – a 12-day hiatus.

There had been hints several weeks ago that the Dáil timetable for the year, might not be adhered to. Several Ministers muttered quietly that timetables are subject to change.

“Don’t book anything,” suggested at least one Minister. But it was written in on the official timetable that there would be a mid-term break.

And then unexpectedly yesterday it was announced the Dáil would not sit today.

No official explanation was given for today’s non-sitting but everyone said it was to allow TDs to get home to vote in the presidential election. It would not have been a problem for them anyway because on a Thursday there is usually no vote in the Dáil after 12 noon when most non-Dublin TDs leave Leinster House to return to their constituencies.

But maybe Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin got to the Taoiseach. He pointed out that it was a “moment of unparalleled crisis in Europe”. The whole of Europe and the world was taking about Europe’s banking debt crisis.

“It is imminent and it is at a level similar to the 2008 collapse. It is that serious,” he said. And what did the House propose? “To take next week off.”

Fine Gael and Labour, with all their talk of reform and extra sittings were going to take almost 12 days off. They were behaving like the previous government.

Perhaps Enda and Government Chief Whip Paul Kehoe had planned the about turn. Perhaps not. “A good U-turn,” quipped Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen.

A classic and effective stroke.