SMOKES & DAGGERS

A mischievous mix of political asides with JOHN DRENNAN

ONE of the unexpected victims of the contretemps between Robert Watt, pictured, and Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien in Reilly’s bar at Merrion Row has been the pub trade around Government Buildings.

There was ‘a right to-do after the O’Brien and

Watt to-do’, a glum source told us. ‘The higher-ups in the civil service were informed by their higherups that drinking in latenight bars is not the image the Taoiseach wants. Trade has been right down because the civil servants who used to drink with the bosses have stopped going out too. Even the ministers are gone. We see them scurrying past, looking in longingly.’

A BYSTANDER in the Dáil corridors was impressed by the attention Darragh O’Brien bestows on constituents. Our witness noted the minister showing constituents the portraits at the top of the stairs, hovering around the painting of Bertie Ahern. Half an hour later he was still showing them around, though they had at least reached JFK. This is a man, a source noted, ‘intending to top the poll on his own’.

A DOYENNE of the Labour dissidents was unimpressed by Senator Marie Sherlock’s claim that Ivana Bacik on a bicycle, pictured, represents ‘a new generation’, noting: ‘She is seven years older than Alan Kelly, for heaven’s sake.’

ONE casualty of Ms Bacik’s rise may be Fianna Fáil’s Jim O’Callaghan. One FF rival said: ‘There are going to be two national leaders in Dublin Bay South, Ivana and Eamon. I don’t think there’s room for a third.’ Another rumble in Ranelagh?

TAOISEACH Micheál

Martin recently snapped at a FF TD who asked when the Future of Media Commission report, finished five months ago, is coming out. ‘It is quite complex, you know,’ came the rebuke.

‘There must be some right horrors in it if both Micheál and Catherine Martin are not too keen on publishing it,’ the source said. Broadcast charge, anyone?