Anyone for ‘Provosecco’? Joke’s on Gerry over €30 bottle of wine claim

MINGLING with the normal punters and politicians in the Dáil bar is not the Sinn Féin way.

Except for a couple of ‘brave’ ones, the party’s TDs and senators are never seen in the bar’s vicinity. So perhaps it’s no surprise that Gerry Adams hit a slurred note with a jibe about a €30 bottle of wine.

While debating the impact of pension anomalies yesterday, Mr Adams noted that in many cases, the problem has cost 35,000 pensioners up to €30 a week.

“€30 is a bottle of wine…” he said, before pausing as the Dáil erupted into a chorus of indecipherable jeering.

Mr Adams tried to explain that he meant “to the members of the Cabinet”, but his humour was lost.

Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen roared: “Where does the Deputy buy his wine?”

And Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had no hesitation reminding the gallery that Mr Adams was familiar with first-class flying – referencing a 2013 trip he made to the US for a medical procedure.

“I know Deputy Adams likes to travel first class whenever he can find someone to pay for him, but I am not sure who is buying his bottles of wine for him. It is some bottle of wine that costs €30,” the Taoiseach said.

Backbench TD Noel Rock helpfully tweeted that perhaps Mr Adams was a fan of “Provosecco”.

So it seems Gerry Adams’s “man-of-the-people approach” turned out to the be real joke.