Private angst behind publicly civil frontbench partnership

DAIL SKETCH:IT WAS a day for partnerships, civil and otherwise.

There was the new Fine Gael frontbench partnership, publicly civil but with some considerable private angst.

Then there was the Civil Partnership Bill, which was passed as a group opposed to it carried out a noisy protest outside the Dáil.

As the Order of Business got under way at 10.30am, all eyes were on the Fine Gael benches to discern any signs of who might be in or out when party leader Enda Kenny announced his new line-up at a 2.30pm press conference in a nearby hotel.

Kenny was joined on the party’s front row of seats in the Dáil chamber by some of those certain to be retained or promoted: Alan Shatter, Phil Hogan and Dr James Reilly.

They had steadfastly stood by him in the heave by Richard Bruton and his supporters.

Kieran O’Donnell, appointed by Kenny as acting finance spokesman before he then joined the Bruton camp, had clearly already accepted the inevitable.

He sat on the backbenches.

Olivia Mitchell, another Brutonite, had also accepted the end was near.

The outgoing spokeswoman on arts, sport and tourism entered the chamber at 11.15am, surveyed the ranks of the front benches, but opted to sit on the backbenches.

Olwyn Enright, outgoing social protection spokeswoman, who had backed Bruton and told Kenny she did not want to be reinstated for personal reasons, chatted in the lobby with party colleague Jim O’Keeffe. She looked relaxed.

Michael Noonan, within hours of a Lazarus-like comeback as finance spokesman, beamed and beamed.

Backbencher David Stanton, a Kenny supporter who would be elevated to the defence portfolio, checked his mobile phone messages.

When a vote was called on the Order of Business, TDs filed into the chamber. The electronic voting arrangements required Kenny and Bruton to sit next to each other. They chatted amicably.

Charlie Flanagan, who knew he would be vacating justice for Shatter, looked grim.

Dáil business moved on. The new front bench was announced in the nearby hotel and the details soon spread back to Leinster House.

Brutonite Fergus O’Dowd, who survived with the high-profile education portfolio, was

observed making his way up the stairs to the Dáil chamber with the expression of somebody who had narrowly escaped execution.

Flanagan was back in the Dáil chamber at 5.15pm for his final appearance as justice spokesman. It was to be a long evening debating the final stages of the Civil Partnership Bill.

Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern congratulated him on his new frontbench role. He had survived, but in the admittedly more junior role as spokesman on children.

But he had survived. Elsewhere, there were the strewn political corpses of colleagues.