MIRIAM LORD's WEEK:Nama's a cabaret old chum; busy week for Boyle baiting; Brian's intellect; Dáil chamber of horrors; Gormley keeps it diplomatic
CRACKING ENTERTAINMENT, as usual, at Naoise Nunn’s Leviathan political cabaret in Temple Bar’s Button Factory on Wednesday night. Nama was up for dissection, with David McWilliams hosting and politicians Frank Fahey and Dan Boyle among the panellists.
Dan is a chronic tweeter. “Getting ready to appear tonight at Leviathan on Nama,” he tells his Twitter followers before the off. “Not exactly delighted being paired with Frank Fahey.” Bet Frank didn’t know that.
There was a full house for the Nama special. “It was one of the most emotionally charged and controversial shows we had,” says producer Nunn. “People are exceedingly exercised by the subject.” In a show of hands, only four or five people in the 500-strong audience were against holding a referendum on the controversial bank plan.
At the end of the night, a man sitting in the front row, who had been very vocal during the debate, fired a brace of eggs at Dan and Frank. It is not known if Dan ducked, but he managed to avoid the missile. Frank, on the other hand, was struck on the arm. Their assailant – “a mystery man in his 40s” – left quietly after he was approached by security and asked to leave.
“This kind of thing has never happened before. Leviathan is usually very civilised, although the debate can be very robust and audience participation is very much encouraged. Frank took what happened fairly light heartedly and everyone stayed behind for a drink,” adds Nunn.
“I’ll send you the dry cleaning bill” said Frank to Naoise.
“Just make sure the receipt doesn’t turn up in a Freedom of Information request” came the riposte.
A Bill so good they introduced it twice
A busy week for Boyle-baiting.
In the Seanad on Wednesday, Shane Ross and Joe O’Toole were up to no good with the Appointments to Public Bodies Bill. Proposer Ross happily pointed out to the Upper House that “the Bill is identical, bar the date, to the one introduced by the Green Party and supported by all members of that party in the Dáil debate” of March 2007.
He congratulated Senator Boyle and the Greens on the excellence of their Bill, so good that Shane and Joe felt it needed to be introduced twice. Ross, tongue firmly in cheek, expected “a certain consistency” from the Greens. “I am sure it is fair enough that they will go through the lobbies in support of this Bill . . . Senator Boyle is a very inspired and enlightened Member of the Oireachtas. It would be unusual if he were to vote against a Bill in this House which he had proposed in the Dáil. No, he would not do it. Consistency is obviously the hallmark of the Green Party. Whatever else it has not got, it has that, and we can expect principle to prevail over practice.”
And so on. Shane lovingly repeated what was said in the Dáil by Dan and colleagues when they introduced their legislation to reform the process of appointments to plum jobs in the public sector. Joe took up the baton. With the aid of liberal quotes from Dan’s speech in 2007, he lauded his approach to reforming public appointments as “very appropriate and almost visionary given where we are at the moment”. Then O’Toole took the opportunity to mention a rumour around Leinster House: “I would certainly hope that Senator Boyle would come out in support of the Bill tonight, especially given that his name is being mentioned in high places, although that is nothing to do with himself.” (Whatever could you mean, Joe? Has Dan been talking up his chances?) “We have heard it mentioned that the former minister, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, might be appointed commissioner . . . There is also a view that Senator Boyle might be promoted to the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg. No better man. No one here would be opposed to that in any way. However, we would like to have the opportunity to debate it.”
Speaking of big jobs, Pat Cox was seen around the House on Thursday. He’s seen as a front-runner for the commissioner’s position. However, we hear he hasn’t had any contact from the Taoiseach on the matter. Meanwhile, another name being bandied about is that of Noel Dempsey.
But back to Dan, who spoke so passionately about overhauling the appointments system that Senators Ross and O’Toole reintroduced his Bill in the Seanad. When it was time to vote, he did what he had to do, swallowed his pride and rejected the Bill that he built.
Metaphysicians need not apply
Brian Lenihan had better watch himself. He may be a very smart and well-educated man, but he wouldn’t want to get himself a reputation for being one of those “intellectual types”. Pay attention to that master politician and man of the people, Bertie Ahern, who tells readers in his autobiopsy that he has “no time” for them.
Brian played a blinder in his second Dáil all-nighter since becoming Minister for Finance. (On this Halloween, we wonder is he part vampire? Count Lenny? Comes to life at night? Look at those dark shadows under the eyes. That razor-sharpness after midnight.) His handling of the 19-hour Nama debate was impressive. He was knowledgeable, confident and calm, displaying a lightness of touch in his dealings with the Opposition where others might have become cranky and impatient.
However, Brian should watch the brainy stuff to avoid arousing suspicion he might be too intellectual to be a leadership contender.
For example, what are the likes of Mattie McGrath, Bobby Aylward and Bertie to make of the following exchange with Michael D Higgins on Tuesday night? “I concur with Deputy Higgins on one point, namely, that political economy is a much more adequate description of the science than economics. One point that struck me after 16 months in the Department of Finance is that the profession of economics has become somewhat debased through an excessive reliance on econometric, quasi-mathematical and mathematical models which make assumptions about the operation of markets and the conduct of market actors without reference to social or economic realities.” Michael D: “ . . . and without meeting the mathematical assumptions.”
Lenihan: “I agree with the Deputy that the old-fashioned definition of the term ‘political economy’ is much more adequate than the term ‘economics’. We do not need epistemologists, metaphysicians or sociologists on the board of Nama. The first great economist, Adam Smith, was firmly in the empirical tradition and his greatest successor, John Maynard Keynes, stood in a similar tradition. Political economy is a better description for the science.”
Michael D: "Smith's The Theory of the Moral Sentimentsprecedes The Wealth of Nations."
Lenihan: "The Deputy is correct and modern scholarship suggests there is no conflict between The Theory of the Moral Sentiments, as adumbrated by Adam Smith, and his The Wealth of Nations. As Deputy Higgins will be aware, scholars did not agree on that for a long period. However, there is now a view, having examined Smith's lecture notes, that the positions taken in these two works are consistent. I am digressing from the amendments but I am entitled to do so once today." Now that's just showing off.
Like we said, he’d want to watch himself. “Adumbrated?” Himself and Pat Rabbitte are getting far too close – they’ll be finishing each others words next.
Guaranteed Irish woodeners
A quick note to David Gunning, CEO of the State forestry board Coillte, who is worried about the source of timber being used in the ongoing renovation of Leinster House.
At a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food during the week, it emerged that the Scottish Parliament may be more Irish than its Kildare Street counterpart. Gunning explained to the committee that the new Holyrood Building in Edinburgh contains a great deal of Irish-produced timber. He said he hoped the same could be said of Dáil Éireann, particularly at a time when so much timber from unsustainable forests was being imported from China and other places.
He challenged the committee to ensure that the home-grown product is being used in Leinster House and suggested it was an issue that the members should consider.
Just to put David’s mind at rest, we can attest that the place is a veritable arboretum, with both the Dáil and Seanad stuffed to the gunnels with a magnificent display of home-grown woodeners.
Parliament of the living dead
There was an interesting protest march organised in London yesterday by the Vote for a Change campaign – a group which wants a more accountable parliament in Britain and a referendum on the voting system.
Their “Halloween Zombie Walk” targeted “Undead and Unaccountable MPs” and promised that demonstrators would be “shambling in protest” towards the Palace of Westminster, home to political zombies.
Willie Sullivan from the Vote for a Change campaign said: “Some people may have noticed the smell around Westminster in the last few months. Instead of men and women with minds of their own we see mindless ghouls shambling through the lobbies. We have elections in hundreds of safe seats where even a corpse could win a ‘job for life’. This is the Parliament of the Living Dead.
“So this Halloween we’re giving MPs a treat – a visit from some rosette-clad cadavers. Our Undead Democracy needs a shot in the arm.”
We hate to rain on Willie’s excellent parade, but it has to be said that Leinster House beat him to the punch yesterday morning. A scary version of the Halloween Zombie Walk took place at around 5.30am, when all good souls were asleep in their beds.
It was then that the doors of the Dáil chamber were flung open and a terrifying collection of ashen-faced, groaning, half-dead wretches stumbled outside following 19 hours spent debating the committee-stage of the Nama Bill.
Send-off for the one who sent them off
A big hooley in the Dáil bar last evening when Ita O’Looney bowed out after 32 years of service in the Houses of the Oireachtas. Ita, who hails from Inagh in county Clare, retired from the staff of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, however she spent most of her career in Leinster House working in the Interparliamentary Unit.
That must make Ita something of a walking Freedom of Information encyclopaedia, because for many years, she was the woman who booked deputies and senators on and off planes and in and out of hotels all over the world. (Not that she would ever tell.) A large gathering of Oireachtas staffers and former colleagues joined Ita’s brother Liam and family in giving the popular public servant a great send-off.
Gormley can put a face to Liu Biwei’s name
Minister for the Environment John Gormley must have been relieved that things went off without a hitch on Wednesday night when he presented the gongs at the annual Chambers Ireland Excellence in Local Government awards at a ceremony in the Burlington Hotel.
This is the sixth year of the awards, which are sponsored by the Department of the Environment and aimed at “promoting good practice among local authorities”. South Dublin County Council was named Local Authority of the Year, and some of the 15 award categories included one for Waste Management (Drogheda), Allotments (South Dublin) and our favourite, the Environmental Initiative Award, which went to Roscommon County Council for “Anglers’ Toilet Facilities for People with Disabilities at Ballinapark, Donamon”. But back to John. Among the distinguished guests at the ceremony was Liu Biwei, Chinese ambassador to Ireland. The last time Gormley spoke in his excellency’s presence, his remarks about Tibet so incensed the ambassador that he stormed out of the room. That was in April of last year, during a Green Party conference in Dundalk.
This time, John stuck to talk of woodchip boilers and the like and the evening remained free of walk-outs. And it was nice that he could put a face to the name, given as all he really saw of Liu Biwei on the last occasion was the back of his head.
A safe place for old sleepers
The “I just couldn’t resist it” award of the week goes to Fergus O’Dowd of Fine Gael, who said what everyone else was thinking during a very serious Oireachtas transport committee meeting.
CIÉ and Iarnród Éireann chairman Dr John Lynch had told committee members that three employees were sacked after sleepers and other disused railway infrastructure were sold illegally.
After a lengthy and heated debate on the issue, the Labour Party’s transport spokesman Tommy Broughan was suddenly struck by a thought. “Eh, what happens to old sleepers, by the way?” And Fergus was in, quick as a shot: “They become Senators.”
