The judge who could put an end to Enda’s career

THIS will be the last Fine Gael ard fheis before the general election, though there may be a special conference in October. Both will be corporate events posing as family reunions. But then, any gathering of the Fine Gael faithful is syncopated by mutual backslapping culminating in a Hallelujah chorus of self-congratulation. And, yes, they have survived bloodied by collateral damage but unbowed and defiant.

Yet Fine Gael’s smug self-importance flies in the face of a litany of blunders in government – both of commission and omission.

And if Enda Kenny’s encounter with Miriam O’Callaghan on Thursday had been a job interview, the Taoiseach would need to contemplate a career change.

Four times he was asked if his Government had asked the EU/ ECB for a reduction on our bank debt and each time he refused to answer – so we can assume it didn’t.

But he was just as evasive about the scandals of law and order. The Department of Justice was disfigured and the gardaí dishonoured on FG’s watch – remember the resignations of the justice minister and Garda commissioner Martin Callinan?

The Taoiseach’s stubborn refusal to say anything about his encounters with retired Supreme Court judge Nial Fennelly shows his greatest fear.

WE will all know in weeks, when the Fennelly report details the circumstances of the Garda Commissioner’s resignation. Was Mr Callinan unlawfully sacked? No leader of Fine Gael could survive a stern rebuke on his handling of law and order from a distinguished judge. Kenny has surrounded himself with a team to insulate his office from outside attack, but the biggest danger is from within. Party members are reciting the mantra that the Taoiseach doesn’t own the party and FG is bigger than any group or individual in it. But with opinion polls suggesting a return of the coa- lition will be impossible, many members think an alignment with another party may need a change of leader.