Shatter strikes again and Enda’s good day is over

The Taoiseach came out on radio yesterday. It was a very brave thing to do. He is to be commended. It was known for some time among certain people in the political loop that he was considering doing an interview outside of the occasional, controlled appearance.

For one thing, the media pressure was increasing, with journalists sending in queries to his office, asking about his intentions. Why won’t he come out and talk more?

Rightly or wrongly, Enda was beginning to earn a reputation for running shy. Some said his handlers were afraid to let him out on his own before a live microphone, or a live current affairs interviewer, which is a bit unfair.

But with an election coming up – not to mention important referendums which the Taoiseach can ill-afford to lose with his track record in this regard, it was not so much a question of “will he or won’t he?” but a case of “when?”

Pat Kenny bagged the scoop. And so it was, for the second time in as many weeks, the nation stopped in its mid- morning tracks and turned up the volume. (Or in some cases, hurled their radios out the window.)

Enda Kenny was about to throw caution to the wind on Newstalk and offer himself up in a one-to-one interview about all sorts of political issues. Pat was firm but fair and, given that his guest was on his equivalent of the nursery slopes, he wasn't as forensic or hard-hitting as he might have been.

It went well. Enda and his handlers will have been pleased with his upbeat and informed performance.

A good morning for him, all in all, and this on top of yet another member of the public belting up to him before he went on air to tell him nice things. A young man, it seems, who was anxious to let the Taoiseach know of his happiness upon finding an extra €35 a week in his wage packet.

If only Michael D were so fortunate. The poor President had to endure people roaring at him after a function in Dublin on Friday, calling him terrible names.

The fallout from that incident continued yesterday, with anti-austerity TD Paul Murphy most annoyed that certain media outlets had concluded that his support for legitimate protests (up to and including loudly berating the President or trapping the Tánaiste in her car for nearly two hours) meant that he supported one anti-water charges campaigner calling our First Citizen “a midget”.

Certainly not. As he told the Irish Examiner, that sort of language is "ableist" and he is totally against it. Ableist. That's a new one on us.

Leaders’ Questions

The Taoiseach’s good day continued into the afternoon, when he sailed through Leaders’ Questions without shipping much damage.

As he told the listeners earlier, things are looking up and, having just come out to Pat, it must have been a weight off his shoulders.

But then, when it had been going so well, things became slightly unstuck in the early afternoon when a minor controversy blew up during the Order of Business.

It had to do with the Commission of Inquiry into the findings of the Guerin Report into alleged Garda malpractice in the Cavan-Monaghan division. The Dáil was due to debate the terms of reference, but word came at a late hour that this would not happen.

Enda said it was nothing to do with him. On foot of legal advice, the Ceann Comhairle had ruled that the Dáil could not have a debate on setting up the inquiry. However, the Taoiseach stressed that the actual inquiry would go ahead.

Opposition noses started to twitch. Some, in must be said, were twitching earlier than others. Claire Daly and Mick Wallace thought something odd was going on before the rest of them cottoned on, and they mentioned their misgivings on Tuesday.

Yesterday – as is increasingly the case in the Dáil – the rest of the Opposition bloodhounds picked up the scent after Daly and Wallace flagged it.

The reasons advanced by the Taoiseach (who had justice minister Frances Fitzgerald urgently whispering in his ear for most of the exchanges) for the scrapping of the debate were sketchy at first.

There hadn't been much worry about discussing the terms of reference in the Dáil until the last few days. Now though, because former minister Alan Shatter is involved in litigation over certain parts of the Guerin report, the debate is off.

Inconsistencies

Micheál Martin and

Gerry Adams

pointed to inconsistencies, as they see it, in the Ceann Comhairle’s ruling.

Debates about the terms of reference of other inquiries were able to proceed even though the courts were involved. They also pointed out that Shatter’s case did not involve a jury, so what’s the problem?

The Fianna Fáil leader asked if the removal of the debate was "as a result of a court order or a letter from Deputy Shatter's solicitor?"

After more going around the houses from the Taoiseach, he confirmed that Shatter wrote to the Ceann Comhairle on November 25th. Later in December, that same letter, with a covering letter from Shatter’s legal firm, was sent to his own office.

“Aha,” trumpeted Claire Daly. “Now we get it!”

“That man again,” roared Mattie McGrath, saying what everyone was thinking – Shatter again.

Micheál Martin wondered why Enda didn’t say anything earlier. “I asked about that five or 10 minutes ago.”

“I asked it too,” said Gerry Adams. “I asked yesterday,” shouted Mick Wallace. “We asked yesterday,” cried Claire Daly.

Wallace was astonished. He had asked the Taoiseach and Minister for Justice about the existence of a letter from Shatter on Tuesday.“And both of you shook your heads. You didn’t say anything. You just shook your heads.”

Enda and Frances said nothing. They just shook their heads, slightly.

Amid loud protests, Government TDs prepared to vote through the terms of reference without debate.

Gerry Adams stood up. “I think we should leave. This is a farce,” he harrumphed, and he marched out with his TDs, as Micheál Martin and his crew did the same.

They all landed out on the plinth. Two Sinn Féin press officers, standing on a bench, took photos of the event. Micheál and Gerry, standing shoulder to shoulder in front of the press outside Leinster House. Whatever about Sinn Féin, those photos will hardly be pride of place in Fianna Fáil's album.