Green shoots, but then wilts as temperature rises in hot house
Saturday July 04 2009
The sun was splitting the stones of Leinster House yesterday, which may account for the fact that the place was more akin to the Marie Celeste than the bridge of the ship of state.
After all the hoohah, commotion and palaver stirred up by the Opposition last week who demanded a debate on the damning economic kicking given to Ireland in the OECD and IMF reports, all the heat of the day was outside the Dail chamber's domed roof, instead of within it.
It seems the shock of being asked to put in an extra day toiling at the parliamentary rock face was too much for some deputies, who have become accustomed to heading for the hills on Thursday night. And since the Government chief whip Pat Carey had kindly ensured that no votes were scheduled for yesterday, there was less than a full house for the debate.
First though the denizens of Leinster House were briefly woken from their noonday nap when Green TD Ciaran Cuffe rose to speak on the morning's business of the final stages of the Criminal Justice Bill.
The Opposition benches went on full alert when the Dun Laoghaire deputy criticised the speed at which this piece of legislation was being whizzed through the legislative process. "For legislation as profound as this to be published on a Tuesday morning and to be passed a mere seven sitting days later does not do the House any service," he declared.
Immediately the siren-song rose from the Opposition rocks. "Maybe Deputy Cuffe should pull out of Government then," cooed Fine Gael's Lucinda Creighton. "You should come over this side of the House," tempted Finian McGrath.
But as usual when a Green shoots from the hip in the direction of Fianna Fail, the bullets are blanks. Ciaran wilted and clung on to the starboard bow of the mother-ship.
Amid absolutely no fanfare at all, the debate on the two reports started promptly at 3.30pm. The Taoiseach opened proceedings, and his speech had a familiar ring to it as he reprised his favourite defence which can be roughly summed up: "The big boy did it and ran away".
There was mention of how our "small open economy" caused much of the problem. And also of how nobody else saw the approaching apocalypse either -- Brian reminded the House when he took over as Taoiseach, the pointy-heads were predicting growth of 9pc for 2009.
"My regret is that I did not manage to predict that such as seismic shock to the world economy was going to happen and neither did anyone else," he declared.
"If my crystal ball had been better than those of the IMF, OECD and EDRI, I would have done more to reduce spending so it would have been easier to deal with this international recession," added Gypsy Rose Cowen.
However, Enda wasn't impressed by the Taoiseach's speech, and tore into him using various quotes from the IMF as ammo.
"Ireland was perhaps the most overheated of all advanced economies," read Enda aloud, before cherry-picking another quote from the report: "Well before the crisis hit, public finances had developed serious structural weaknesses."
The Fine Gael leader also naughtily suggested that the Finance Minister Brian Lenihan wasn't behaving like a devoted consigliere to Cowen's capo.
"No sooner was the report out, but he was popping up on the media like some latter-day Pontius Pilate," accused Enda.
"Yes, he told the media, the economy was overheated -- and then he slyly reminded everyone that he was not a member of the Government at the time. Clearly, the current Minister for Finance doesn't share your view that political loyalty is a virtue," he sniped at a stony-faced Taoiseach.
Then Enda wound himself up for a last kick. "The fact is, Taoiseach, that you and your failing Government have turned economic incompetence into an art form. In the space of five years, we've gone from 'Champagne Charlie' to 'Bankrupt Brian,'" he concluded with a handy soundbite for the media.
A few flurries of digs followed during the five-and-a-half hour debate. John Gormley dismissed the criticism of the Opposition as "the living, breathing, walking example of empty vessels making the most noise."
George Lee got in a bit of retaliation for the other side. "It's like as if the bubble has burst and the mask has slipped," he said, mixing cliches with the ease of a barman mixing a vodka martini, "and what is revealed is that we've been living in a fool's paradise. The Government speaks a lot about this smart economy but I find it impossible to see how you can have a smart economy when it's been run by a Government which is full of economic fools".
But none of the barrage of dog's abuse appeared to knock a feather out of Brian Lenihan, who breezed through his speech despite constant barracking from the Opposition benches. As he robustly defended the setting-up of NAMA, and pronounced he would seek all-party agreement for the scheme, Labour's Joan Burton looked incredulous. "Now you're trying out for the comedy club," she blared. Brian was unruffled.
After all, he had just achieved the rare political feat of submitting himself to an hour-long interview with Vincent Browne on TV3 the previous night and managing to emerge in one unchewed piece. "No deputy, the comedy club was last night. This is serious business," he showboated. And who could blame him. Everyone had their say, but much of the debate was less IMF and more INMF (It's Not My Fault).
There may have been sunshine outside the chamber, but there was a lot of hot air inside.
