SEANAD SKETCH:Lenihan poked fun at Labour and criticised the Greens over decision to leave government
IN THE END, a few jokes were made. So what do Dublin Airport’s terminal two and the Bermuda Triangle have in common? At least one Dublin Dáil constituency, apparently.
Labour Seanad leader and Dublin South election candidate Alex White referred to suggestions that a new candidate would turn up in the by now very well-populated constituency.
“We are thinking of renaming Dublin South terminal two because there are so many arrivals and departures in the constituency in the last year, year and a half that we don’t know where we’re going,” he quipped to much laughter.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan highlighted Dublin South, Dublin South East and Dún Laoghaire. “I’ve always called them the Bermuda Triangle of Irish politics, as political aircraft seem to take off and disappear there at very regular intervals,” he told his appreciative audience.
They were among the few jokes, however, that punctuated a surreal and rare Saturday sitting of the Seanad to deal with the Finance Bill, which was passed by 30 votes to 20. In a combative debate, no Opposition recommendation was accepted, which avoided the Dáil having to be recalled at 8pm on Saturday.
At one point, however, it appeared to be a distinct possibility. The three Green Party Senators voted with the Opposition on a Labour recommendation about identifying bankers from the State-guaranteed financial institutions who had received bonuses since the September 2008 guarantee.
The 60-second vote was taken electronically. The numbers crept up for both sides. The Opposition held the winning margin until almost the very last second, when the Government won by a single vote. At 26 to 25, it was the closest vote of the day.
A number of Senators, including Independent Rónán Mullen, who had already expressed his opposition to the Labour recommendation, were clearly having some voting fun.
The Minister for Finance, despite not winning his party’s leadership contest, was a one-man Fianna Fáil army, lobbing political grenades, poking fun at the Labour Party and observing that “when I pass Liberty Hall, I see Kim Il-sung pictures of Eamon Gilmore”.
He attacked the Opposition’s economic policies and reminded them of some of their hostages to fortune, including Seanad reform.
He first praised the Upper House, then reminded it of Fine Gael’s Seanad plans and warned that reform was “politically inevitable” because “the public will not tolerate a party which enters government and dishonours its word on this particular subject”.
He believes it will be a smaller Seanad, but almost half the 60 members are hoping to have moved House by then, to the Dáil.
The Minister reminded the House that he had set the manifesto for the next four years and they interfered with that at their “peril”. He asked if Fine Gael had mentioned in their Brussels meeting with European Commission president José Manuel Barroso their plan to reverse the minimum wage cut.
And the Minister particularly targeted the Green Party and their decision to pull out of government and warned they would face the “judgment of history”.
Green Party chairman Dan Boyle was not impressed. “To be confronted and told directly that my party is responsible for the state of the country is not something that I want to leave this chamber with.”
This was a “story and a narrative that has gained currency”, but the Greens “have done what we have done in government believing it has been the right thing to do” in “the best interests of the country”. And “if that’s misunderstood, then history will record its verdict”.
