SMOKES & DAGGERS

LIFE being what it is, some have noted that the longer our caretaker Government remains in office the fatter the pensions of our ministers and Taoiseach will become. This is the case with those new appointees under Leo way back in June 2017. Sadly, when it comes to the cherished three-year anniversary, constitutional issues and those damn senators may foil that plan.

WHAT a difference a ‘state of the nation’ speech makes – especially to former Fine Gael TDs struggling even to make the Seanad because of their close association with Leo Varadkar.

Insurance Minister Michael D’Arcy was one of the Taoiseach’s most committed supporters.

That close association probably lost ‘Darce’ his perennially unsafe seat in Wexford... and was working against him in his campaign to bag a seat in the Seanad.

Now all has changed, changed utterly for the Seanad hopeful. Churchillian Leo has won so many brownie points that the party senses a comeback. EAMON Ryan’s ‘we will fight them on the beaches with lettuces’ oration is not the first dramatic use of the agricultural metaphor in the Dáil. Back in the 1950s, the equally colourful then-agriculture minister James Dillon made the pledge that when it came to the UK: ‘We’ll drown you with eggs.’ A mischievous mix of (mostly) news NO ONE is immune to the DIY boom brought about by the coronavirus outbreak, it seems. Actress Amy Huberman, pictured, who is, of course, happily married to rugby legend Brian O’Driscoll, has said: ‘My husband just asked me about primer and I thought he was so bored we were going to do a make-up tutorial but it turns out that he’s going to paint the front door.’ EXCITABLE Fine Gael Senator Tim Lombard got himself in quite the flap over claims that the RTÉ unions were about to kick-up over such a minor issue as their pay and conditions, noting that this would be the equivalent to the BBC shutting down during the Second World War. All Smokes will say on the subject is perhaps it is time for Fine Gael to go easy on the Churchill rhetoric fast.