Worlds collide as Budget, banks put Dáil in a spin

DÁIL SKETCH:In the real world, Government and Independent TDs were convulsed by the disastrous decision to remove medical cards from the over-70, writes Marie O'Halloran

They were equally stunned by the resignation of of the previously unknown, but now famous, Fianna Fáil TD Joe Behan. The Green were quaking and the Independent deputies were on the brink.

In the alternative world of the Dáil, the global financial crisis was playing equal havoc with party loyalties. A FF TD (Ned O'Keeffe) was praising a Labour party deputy (Pat Rabbitte) rather than his party's Minister for Finance for "knowing more about finance than anyone in this House". He also used some questionable language in excoriating auditors as at fault for the financial crisis and as "lickarses".

Labour praised former PD minister Michael McDowell for his view that financial regulation should have been done in the interests of Joe and Josephine citizen. But he lost that battle and now "we're paying the terrible price", said Labour's Joan Burton.

And Sinn Féin did a U-turn on its surprise original decision "in principle" to support the Government's bank guarantee scheme. It obviously came to the conclusion that opposing rather than supporting Government is safer ground.

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan calmly explained some of the terms of the bank guarantee scheme that would turn the financial system into a "fit-for-purpose" model within two years. Fine Gael supported it.

"We're giving you a big arsenal, but we want to see the rules of engagement", Fine Gael's Richard Bruton stressed. He was concerned too at the sketchiness of the detail. The Minister "needs to furnish the room as well as providing the raw architecture for the building".

Joan Burton had seen the job advert for the new beefed-up bank supervisors but drew up her own requirements. They should be pitbulls - with or without lipstick - rather than the "friendly Labrador" the financial regulator had been, just wanting his tummy rubbed.And Labour's Michael D Higgins literally trembled with rage - at everything including the Minister taking on the bank's language. He described the financial turmoil as a "disturbance" not a "crisis". That was definitely a euphemism.