SMOKES & DAGGERS
A mischievous mix of political asides with JOHN DRENNAN
VETERAN Fine Gael TD Frank Feighan, speaking during the motion of no confidence this week, recalled a piece of wisdom from the late Fine Gael TD Louis J Belton. The Longford man, who died last month, once warned the parliamentary party meeting: ‘If you are a law and order party you need to remember you cannot have law without order.’ Belton was a good one for the bon mot. He once flummoxed Bertie Ahern, saying he should be worried about the silence of his TDs: ‘Taoiseach, as you know well from the cowboy movies, when there’s silence in the woods, it’s because the Indians are plotting trouble.’
FIANNA Fáil justice spokesman Jim O’Callaghan was ‘benched’ by the courts last week. This is apparently a pleasant affair, with our source noting: ‘It’s like being a trustee of King’s Inns or the board of the FAI... well, maybe not the FAI, but somewhere respectable like Trinity or the local cricket club. They give it to judges and certain senior counsel. They probably reckon Jim will be Minister for Justice in the Sinn Féin/ Fianna Fáil government. They want to butter him up, so he’ll appoint them all judges.’
DARRAGH O’Brien gave himself a reshuffle this week when, during leaders’ questions, he said: ‘There are now 50% more people working in An Bord Pleanála than there were when I took over as Minister for Justice.’ He corrected himself: ‘Sorry, that is my next job.’
THE most surprising feature of the Fine Gael Christmas media party was the presence of actual ministers. In recent years, apart from Leo, the only politicians in attendance have been a couple of dusty junior ministers on punishment detail and a few lost senators. After Tuesday though, there was quite the bristle of ministers at the Fine Gael drinks. As well as the ever-game Leo there was Helen McEntee and Simon Coveney, and even Paschal Donohoe took a break from not negotiating with the IMF.