DAIL SKETCH: Bertie Ahern faced the Opposition yesterday for the first time since the Government published its controversial plan to restrict the Freedom of Information Act.
Days of unbroken fury had not quelled the appetite of his rivals to condemn the changes, but the Taoiseach brushed aside their anger.
In the manner of a Government backbencher keen to impress his senior colleagues with the zeal of his support, he claimed the regime would be even more liberal when the new Bill became law.
It was with this exaggeration that the Taoiseach entered the Freedom from Reality zone. Black must indeed be white if he regards the Freedom of Information Amendment Bill as a masterpiece of libertarian transparency.
But Mr Ahern ploughed on, arguing that key parts of the Act and its spirit were not diminished by the restrictions.
There followed an attack of finger-wagging from Enda Kenny and a lecture from Pat Rabbitte on the contempt, remoteness and arrogance of the Government.
Yet Mr Ahern was not for giving in, fielding attacks unheard by the absentee Ministers McCreevy and Tom Parlon, who chose to do the business of State at Cheltenham yesterday. Politicians have been criticised in the past for not being at the races. Now being at the races is punishable by verbal onslaught.
There was war talk too. With Mr Ahern preparing for the pre-St Patrick's Day celebration in the White House, Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party said there was a moral void at the heart of the Government. Suggesting that the shamrock in the ritual bowl be replaced with fuchsia branches, he said this would signify the blood likely to be shed in an attack on Iraq.
Mr Higgins, who is given to sweeping statements, all but invoked Armageddon in his vision of the "greatest number of missiles falling in the shortest period" on the people of Iraq.
Still, Mr Ahern was not going to offend his American hosts but repeated his belief in the primacy of the United Nations in international affairs.
If Saddam Hussein was willing to listen to a quiet word in the ear from the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern said he would muster all his energy to the task.
Amid such talk on the affairs of nations, the priority of certain TDs zeroed in on local issues.
The Cork Fine Gael TD, Bernard Allen, unsuccessfully attempted to raise the imminent closure of his local Teagasc office on the order of business. The service had been "butchered", he said.
