No Dáil harassment for Harris

THERE was one high-profile Fine Gael Cabinet minister who brought in a running mate in 2016. Belated reward came to Minister for Health Simon Harris for assisting Andrew Doyle’s election in Wicklow. On Thursday, the breach with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar appeared to be finally closed when young Harris was given the prestigious job of taking Leaders’ Questions in the absence of both Varadkar and the Tánaiste.

Young he may be, but Harris is no pushover. The precedent of Opposition TDs going wild on the occasion of a Leaders’ Questions debutant (Mary Coughlan springs to mind) was not repeated. There was calm in the chamber as questions about the Permanent TSB loan sell-off were soberly handled. However, the calm craved by the RTÉ Leaders’ Questions audience in prisons and old folks homes nationwide was shattered by the TV show’s Dáil guest. Independent TD Mattie McGrath fulminated about hired ‘mercenaries’ evicting families in the dead of night. The classic Mattie rant is well worth watching on the RTÉ Player.