SMOKES & DAGGERS
A mischievous mix of political asides with JOHN DRENNAN
QUITE the eerie moment occurred last week when, at the front of the Dáil, Smokes observed Noel Rock, the youngest TD of the 2016 Dáil (making him now the youngest ex-TD?) in close conversation with James O’Connor, who often informs us he is the youngest TD in this Dáil. Lightning doesn’t strike twice, surely?
THE political tensions in the wake of the health wars in the budget have spilt over into the senior mandarin class. One senior civil service source told Smokes: ‘Paschal and the Department of Public Expenditure (DPER) are very isolated across the higher levels of Government.’
They said: ‘There is a sense that they have done a lot of damage. There were a lot of bruised secretaries-general after their encounters with DPER. At a recent Wednesday meeting amid the tea and biccies of the secretaries-general, Robert Watt nearly got a standing ovation.’ They added: ‘He’s trying to adapt to his new popularity’.
DURING Dáil questions this week, Labour leader Ivana Bacik took aim at Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien, labelling the Land Development Agency ‘the Lame Duck Agency’. This prompted a fit of uncontrollable laughter from Minister Heather Humphreys, ostensibly on the same side as Mr O’Brien. That’s not the worst of it. She was also sitting right beside her discomfited Coalition colleague.
GREEN TD Neasa Hourigan asked the Health Minister if he had plans to extend the provisions of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 to prohibit the marketing of zero-alcohol products that share the same branding, logos, and colours as their alcohol-containing counterparts. Stephen Donnelly nervously replied that he had no plans. As one admiring source added: ‘Even by Green Party standards, that’s as fine an example of zero tolerance as you will ever see.’