Political standards go down the toilet over Dail vote row

The party war of words over phantom votes and dirty tricks was politics at its least edifying, writes Philip Ryan

ONE of the lowest points for Irish politics last week — and there were many low points last week — came just before 3.45pm last Thursday afternoon.

The debate on the Dail voting scandal was well under way and bitter political vitriol had flooded the corridors of Leinster House.

While sitting in the chamber, Robert Troy, a Fianna Fail TD for Longford/Westmeath, took out his phone and logged on to Twitter. He composed a tweet and pressed send.

It read: “@NoelRock leaves chamber before debate over, must be a camera on the plinth or omnibus recording of @ OireachtasNews”.

Troy was referring to Fine Gael’s TD Noel Rock who left the chamber during the votegate controversy debate.

Five minutes after Troy’s tweet, Rock responded to inform his Dail colleague on why he had left the chamber. “Walked a guest in and used the toilet,” he said. Rock returned to the chamber after his break and smiled across at his colleague who had been concerned about his brief absence. Troy was not impressed.

One Fine Gael TD joked afterwards that TDs may soon have to raise their hands and ask the Ceann Comhairle: “An bhfuil cead agam dul go dti an leithreas?” The Troy versus Rock rest-room row was happening as other stern-faced TDs lectured each other about the importance of Dail votes.

The debate was the result of four Fianna Fail TDs being accused in a voting controversy described as “stark and unpalatable” by Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail. To briefly recap: Niall Collins voted six times for Timmy Dooley while he was not in the chamber. Collins claims he thought Dooley was in the chamber and he was just doing the decent thing and voting for a colleague who stepped away from his seat — for almost an hour.

Then there was Lisa Chambers who mistakenly voted for her Mayo colleague Dara Calleary while he was not in the chamber. She knew she made a mistake but decided not to tell anyone.

She also went on radio and said she had never voted for another TD in their absence — despite having done so two days earlier. It was all very grubby. No one died but it did give the distinct impression that TDs really don’t see their main democratic function as all that important.

Fine Gael TDs were salivating after the Irish Independent revealed how Collins voted for Dooley six times in a row.

Rock, who knows how to flag down a fast approaching bandwagon, was first out of the traps with a press statement calling for an investigation into the matter.

Fine Gael parliamentary party chairman Martin Heydon wasn’t far behind with a list of 14 questions he had for the Fianna Fail TDs. By last Sunday there was an all-out pile-on, Fine Gael TDs were tripping over each other to raise matters of concern about what had become known as ‘‘phantom votes’’. Chambers and Calleary were dragged into the controversy, as was Barry Cowen.

At this point, Fianna Fail decided to hit back. Party hacks were tasked with trawling Dail footage to identify similar indiscretions by Fine Gael ministers. By last Monday a mania had set in. “It was like the entire political system had an epileptic fit,” one Government source said.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail were engaged in a full-scale political war. But instead of guns, they planned to fight to the death by sending journalists time stamps from Dail videos which would be published to embarrass whatever politician who may or not have been in the chamber for a vote. Fianna Fail was desperate to widen the net so it would look like TDs from both parties had contempt for the nation’s parliament. By last Tuesday midday, ministers Eoghan Murphy, Regina Doherty, Michael Ring, Damien English and others had been dragged into the mess.

Twitter was a battleground in the race to the very bottom of political decorum. TDs goaded and jeered each other across the internet as their assistants continued to trawl the archives.

In Leinster House, the mood was particularly grim. Most in Fianna Fail were furious with Niall Collins and Timmy Dooley who continued to maintain innocence even after Micheal Martin sacked them.

“We’ve been doing really well and they’ve set us back at least two years,” one Fianna Fail frontbencher said.

The Fianna Failers were also seething with their confidence and supply partners in Fine Gael who were lording it over them at any opportunity. Fine Gael’s chief Twitter trolls Noel Rock and Neale Richmond especially got under their skin.

One Fianna Fail TD suggested there should be “some honour among thieves” and accused Fine Gael of “overstepping the mark” in some of their comments about the controversy.

It may be naive for Fianna Failers to believe Fine Gael would not capitalise on the voting debacle. But even some Fine

Gael ministers thought the party should tread more carefully, given the continuing need for political stability.

There is always a certain amount of dirty tricks in any election campaign and the forthcoming vote will be no different. But this episode will certainly give both sides more of an impetus to dig dirt on their opponents. Meanwhile, voters will hope political standards have not gone completely down the toilet.

‘We’ve been doing really well and they’ve set us back two years’