SMOKES & DAGGERS

A mischievous mix of political asides

■ ON this week’s 50% pay increase for councillors, one senator whispered in the Dáil corridor how a leak where Fianna Fáil senators were somehow informed of the Cabinet decision ‘was the fastest leak ever. It got out before the Cabinet even made the decision’.

The Local Authority Members Association was nearly as swift as the leaker in expressing their gratitude to Minister Darragh O’Brien for his great work.

■ SMOKES was taken aback by news that former housing minister Eoghan Murphy is an election observer in Armenia, above. To adapt a phrase from A Man For All Seasons, a man might profit nothing to leave Fine Gael for the whole world, but for Armenia? Or as one wag put it less elegantly: ‘Yerevan a laugh.’

■ MUCH interest surrounds the provenance of an anonymous leaflet in Dublin Bay South querying the suitability of FG’s James Geoghegan, inset, for the job. Smokes joked to one hapless FG minister that it had a Sinn Féin look to it. Much to our horror, the minister took it seriously!

■ GOVERNMENT spindoctors are going to extraordinary lengths to keep ministers away from the media. Chief offender is Darragh O’Brien who can, one despairing hack said, ‘be as hard to find as the Last Emperor of China’. The form of others such as our ‘disappeared’ Education Minister are being closely monitored.

■ LEADERS’ Questions presented a rare moment of confusion from Micheál Martin when Socialist Party TD Paul Murphy berated him on his lack of any ideology. Was it an insult or a compliment? To borrow from the Rise And Fall Of Reginald Perrin, Micheál didn’t get where he is today by being ideological.